Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

U.S.: Forecasters warn of flash floods in Midwest

'Widespread rains' expected to sweep across parts of the Midwest and South

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© Al Behrman/APA high water barricade blocks a public landing along the Ohio River, Thursday in Cincinnati. The parking lot for the landing normally extends past the trees surrounded by water. The Ohio River is not expected to reach flood stage.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms were hitting parts of the Midwest Friday, with meteorologists warning flooding was likely in parts of several states.

The complex storm system means severe storms in parts of eastern Oklahoma, and heavy rainfall from the Lower Mississippi Valley on east, The Weather Channel reported, with the possibility of some snow following on its heels over the weekend and into next week.

Central and northern New York would likely see a mix of rain and snow because of the system, The Weather Channel said, before rain would hit northern New England.

A series of systems bearing rain and snow was expected to start moving across the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, the forecasters said.

'Widespread rains'

The National Weather Service issued flash flood watches for parts several states.

Bizarro Earth

Compass Direction, True North Parting Ways

Compass
© CorbisEvery 100,000 years or so, the field flips, meaning that compasses would point south, rather than north. It's been about 780,000 years since the last reversal.

Follow the direction of a compass needle and you'll end up at the North Pole, right? Not these days.

The planet's magnetic field is on the move, a normal enough phenomenon, but one that has some rather bizarre implications, such as the need to renumber airport runways.

Tampa International Airport on Florida's west coast just finished renaming its three runways, a laborious project that interrupted airport traffic for a month while runways were shut down for repainting.

"Everything had to be changed," airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan told Discovery News. "It was a huge project."

Tampa's busiest runway was called 18R/36L, a designation indicating the runway is -- or was -- lined up 180 degrees from north when approached from the north and 360 degrees from north when approached from the south. (The letters "R" and "L" differentiate between the airport's two parallel runways.)

Cow Skull

Hanoi's legendary giant turtle, last of its species, dying from city pollution

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© APThe giant soft-shelled turtle in Hoan Kiem lake, showing an open wound on its neck.
Revered by the Vietnamese, the creature has been made ill by pollution, but Hanoians are now struggling to clean its lake

Hundreds of people are working round the clock to clean up a lake in the heart of Vietnam's capital in hopes of saving a rare, ailing giant turtle that is considered sacred.

Experts say pollution in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem lake is killing the giant freshwater turtle, which has a soft shell the size of a desk. It is one of the world's most endangered species: it is believed that there are only four in the world.

Teams of people are cleaning debris, pumping fresh water into the lake and building an artificial island to serve as a "turtle hospital". The rescuers may try to net it for the first time as part of the effort.

The Hoan Kiem turtle is rooted in Vietnamese folklore, and some believe the creature that lives in the lake today is the same mythical turtle that helped a Vietnamese king fend off the Chinese nearly six centuries ago.

Whistle

Beware the global warming fascists: Johnny Ball on how he has been vilified for daring to question green orthodoxy

At London's Royal Court Theatre last week, a new play opened to rave reviews. It's about an environmental scientist who - horror of horrors - doesn't believe in global warming.

The play is called The Heretic and, though I haven't seen it yet, I could already sink to my knees in gratitude. Because in my own quiet and reasonable way, I am that global warming heretic.

In the past decade or so I've been mocked, vilified, besmirched - I've even been booed off a theatre stage - simply for expressing the view that the case for global warming and climate change, and in particular the emphasis on the damage caused by carbon dioxide, the so-called greenhouse gas that is going to do for us all, has been massively over-stated.
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© XposureDemonised: Johnny Ball, pictured with DJ daughter Zoe, has faced a vicious campaign because of his views on climate change and greenhouse gases

Info

UK: It's a 'hole' big mystery

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© UnknownHole in Eton Close, Burton
A mysterious hole has caused 'anger and confusion' among residents after being left unfilled and unattended for almost a year.

The hole, which is the size of a small car, appeared in Eton Close, Burton, in April last year and despite repeated attempts by homeowners no-one will lay claim to the 'disaster'.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "No-one has any idea why the hole was dug in the first place - it just popped up all of a sudden.

"The situation just continues to go from the sublime to the ridiculous and it has now been left for more than 11 months - nearly a whole year. It has obviously caused problems for all of the people in the road as it is not a small hole - it is as big as a small car.

"Some residents received anonymous notes at the end of last year telling them to sort out the problem.

"The borough council has been involved and could not come out last year due to the bad weather.

Bizarro Earth

Far North Pole Shaken by Moderate Quake

Far North Earthquake
© The Extinction Protocol
North Pole - A 4.8 earthquake rattles the far North Pole at a depth of 10 km at NORTH OF SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA (number 5 grid in Yellow) on the map of the Arctic Pole. The peculiar nature of the location of this quake leads us to conclude that since the magnetic north pole is now racing towards Russia and the Earth has been under constant bombardment from the rabid sheer of the solar winds over the last 48 hours, that this is a trembling effect in magnetic field generation- perhaps one more tangible sign that planet's magnetic field dexterity is insidiously eroding. We've been watching seismic anomalies under Greenland and strain starting to show across Antarctica from the recent bout of planetary tremors that have occurred over the last 4 months. Below are the latest telemetry seismic data readings from (top) Antarctica and Greenland (bottom).



Antartica Tremors
© The Extinction ProtocolAntarctica telemetry data.
Greenland Tremors
© The Extinction ProtocolGreenland telemetry data.


Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Earthquake Magnitude 5.0 - Auckland Islands

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© USGS
Date-Time:
Friday, March 04, 2011 at 15:46:12 UTC

Saturday, March 05, 2011 at 02:46:12 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
49.828°S, 164.042°E

Depth:
20.4 km (12.7 miles)

Region:
AUCKLAND ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND REGION

Distances:
178 km (110 miles) WNW of Auckland Island, New Zealand

498 km (309 miles) SW of Invercargill, New Zealand

637 km (395 miles) SSW of Queenstown, New Zealand

1263 km (784 miles) SW of WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Sun

Aurora Borealis: Greatest Lights Show on Earth Snapped in Northern Ireland

Aurora Borealis
© Conor McDonaldThe aurora borealis dancing in the skies above Dunluce Castle.

Bathed in an eerie light, this strange image of Dunluce Castle hasn't been digitally enhanced - whatever you may think. The windswept fortification perched on the cliffs of the north Antrim coast isn't catching the dawn light nor the last of the evening sunshine.

The reason for its peculiar appearance is that the landmark site is drenched in the rarely sighted illumination of the aurora borealis - or the northern lights.

Indeed, this particular snap is the handiwork of Maghera photographer Conor McDonald, who waited patiently for hours to capture perfection.

"I was following the path of the aurora so I headed up to Dunluce Castle and waited for it to get dark," said the 21-year-old.

There have been sightings of the startling natural phenomenon in recent weeks as the Earth sweeps through clouds of electrically charged particles blasted out from the sun, just as we emerge from the slowest point of an 11-year Sun cycle.

Meanwhile, 25-year-old Reed Ingram Weir, a professional photographer from Ballycastle, also took some impressive pictures.

"I go around the world trying to shoot the northern lights, but these are the best shots I've ever taken in the UK because they don't normally come this far south," he said.

Bizarro Earth

Florida, US: Dead Dolphins Hit Panhandle Shores

A premature bottlenose dolphin was found dead on the beach at Perdido Key State Park this week, the third young dolphin found on local beaches since Jan. 1.

dead dolphin
© Pensacola News JournalStephanie Kadletz, animal care specialist with Bayside Hospital for Animals in Fort Walton Beach, examines a baby bottlenose dolphin that was found on Perdido Key earlier this week.
Scientists are trying to figure out what killed 83 bottlenose dolphins - 44 of them babies - found so far this year from the Panhandle to Louisiana, said Kim Amendola, a spokeswomen for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in St. Petersburg.

The number of deaths has peaked three times in the past 13 months for all dolphins and whales along the northern Gulf Coast. Normally, one to two dolphins wash up in each state in January and February.

"We don't know what the cause is," Amendola said. "Everything has an equal playing field, from a virus, weather to the oil spill."

Steve Shippee, Marine Mammal Stranding team coordinator, offered another possibility. He said the increase could be because more people have been monitoring beaches since April 20 spill.

Radar

Rare earthquake hits Arkansas

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© Unknown
A rare earthquake measuring 4.7 hit the southern US state of Arkansas late Sunday, the US government reported.

The epicenter of the tremor, which occurred at 11:00 pm local time (0500 GMT Monday), was located six kilometers (four miles) northeast from the town of Greenbrier, according to the US Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. But KARK 4 TV said that callers to its newsroom from the Greenbrier area reported pictures and decorations being shaken off the walls.

The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.