Earth ChangesS


Blackbox

Western Australia: Fish kills reported on coast

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© Unknown
Washington's extended spell of hot, still weather and warm ocean temperatures is believed to be the cause of fish kills along the Mid West coast and out at the Abrolhos Islands.

Department of Fisheries Senior Fish Pathologist Dr Brian Jones said he expected the natural phenomena would continue while coastal water temperatures remained high. "Fish are cold-blooded, so when the water gets either too hot, or too cold, they suffer," Dr Jones said.

"We have had reports of fish dying recently in the Moore River, along various sections of the coast up to the Mid West and the still, hot conditions have played a significant role in the mortalities.

Jones said there had also been reports of abalone losses on reefs near Greenough and fish and lobster deaths at the Abrolhos Islands. He said the advent of some coral spawning at the Abrolhos Islands had also sapped oxygen from the water.

Magnify

Flamingos Drop From Siberian Sky: Locals Mystified

We're in Siberia, shivering. It's November, November 11, 2003, and two boys, Kolya and Maksim Muravyev, are ice fishing along the Lena River, where it's 13 below zero. All of a sudden, up in the sky, they see what looks like a flamingo. "We thought it was a swan or a stork," Kolya says, a flamingo being so preposterously improbable.
russian flamingos
© Illustration by Maggie Starbard/NPR

It was large, and made ever lower circles in the sky. It seemed to be losing energy until finally it fell and lay quietly on the snow. The two boys ran over, called their father, Vasily, who picked up the bird and took it home. It was still alive. "[This is the] first time I see a bird like this," he told a TV reporter.

They fed the flamingo fish and buckwheat saturated in water (not normally flamingo food) and pretty soon it was up, active and knocking around the Muravyev's apartment. Here it is, head in a feeding bucket.

Hourglass

Catastrophic Weather Events Are Becoming the New Normal -- Are You Ready for Life on Our Planet Circa 2011?

Bad weather america
© Unknown
If you were in the space shuttle looking down yesterday, you would have seen a pair of truly awesome, even fearful, sights.

Much of North America was obscured by a 2,000-mile storm dumping vast quantities of snow from Texas to Maine--between the wind and snow, forecasters described it as "probably the worst snowstorm ever to affect" Chicago, and said waves as high as 25 feet were rocking buoys on Lake Michigan.

Meanwhile, along the shore of Queensland in Australia, the vast cyclone Yasi was sweeping ashore; though the storm hit at low tide, the country's weather service warned that "the impact is likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations," especially since its torrential rains are now falling on ground already flooded from earlier storms. Here's how Queensland premier Anna Bligh addressed her people before the storm hit: "We know that the long hours ahead of you are going to be the hardest that you face. We will be thinking of you every minute of every hour between now and daylight and we hope that you can feel our thoughts, that you will take strength from the fact that we are keeping you close and in our hearts."

Comment: Indeed, catastrophic weather is now becoming the norm rather than the exception. What the author fails to mention however is the growing scientific evidence that the planet is beginning to cool down, leading to a very possible ice age... please consider the following (which is really a small cross-section from our archives):

Global Warming? It's the coldest winter in decades

Global Warming Fanatics Becoming Desperate

Greenhouse gases could have caused an ice age, claim scientists

Enjoy the warmth while it lasts

The Coming Ice Age

Global Warming Is a Fraud

Reflections on the Coming Ice Age

'Forget global warming, prepare for Ice Age'

Scientist predicts 'mini Ice Age'

What's Happening to the Sun? Could its unusual behavior herald a new ice age?

Croat scientist warns ice age is overdue, could start in five years

New Ice Age 'to begin in 2014'

Global warning: We are actually heading towards a new Ice Age, claim scientists

Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age

Public not being told the whole truth about global warming

What the Science Really Says About Global Warming

Over 500 scientists published studies countering global warming fears

Global Warming? Global Cooling Forecast Backed By Real Science


Bizarro Earth

Vanishing Lakes: New Zealand Reservoir Mysteriously Disappears During Quake



Huntsbury, New Zealand - 36 million liters of water mysteriously disappeared from a reservoir in Huntsbury New Zealand following the February 22nd 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch.

These events have occurred in the past and are now happening with greater frequency as geological forces under the ground continue to erode substrata. Our planet is undergoing massive change beneath our feet. This geological deformation will only accelerate and become more widespread with time as the pace of earthchanges intensify.

Arrow Up

7.2 earthquake hits northeast Japan; no damage

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© AFP/Sam YehPhoto illustration of a seismic chart. Japan issued a tsunami warning Wednesday after a major 7.2-magnitude quake struck 160 kilometres (100 miles) east off the main Honshu island at 0245 GMT, swaying buildings in the capital Tokyo.
Tokyo - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit off Japan's northeastern coast Wednesday, shaking buildings hundreds of miles away in Tokyo and triggering a small tsunami. There were no immediate reports of significant damage or injuries.

The quake struck at 11:45 a.m. local time and was centered about 90 miles (150 kilometers) off the northeastern coast - about 270 miles (440 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo - at a depth of about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), Japan's meteorological agency said.

A 24-inch (60-centimeter) tsunami reached the coastal town of Ofunato, in Iwate prefecture, with other towns reporting smaller waves reaching shore about 30 minutes after the quake.

"We have confirmed that small tsunami have come up on the shores, but we have no reports of damage at this point," said Shinobu Nagano, an emergency and disaster response official in Iwate. "We are still trying to determine the impact of the quake."

Some train lines in the area were temporarily stopped after the quake, but they were restarted shortly after noon. Tohoku Electric Power said there was no damage at its nuclear power facility in the region.

Blackbox

US: Millions of fish found dead in California marina

Redondo Beach - Millions of dead fish were found Tuesday floating in a Southern California marina.

Boaters awakened to find a carpet of small silvery fish surrounding their vessels, said Staci Gabrielli, marine coordinator for King Harbor Marina on the Los Angeles County coast.

California Fish and Game officials believe the fish are anchovies and sardines.

Experts had yet to determine what happened, but Gabrielli said the fish appeared to have moved into the harbor to escape a red tide, a naturally occurring bloom of toxic algae that can poison fish or starve them of oxygen.

High winds overnight might then have trapped the fish in the harbor, crushing them against a wall where they used up the oxygen and suffocated, she said.

The dead fish were so thick in some places that Garbrielli said boats can't get out of the harbor.

Fish and Game authorities arrived and began taking samples of the fish.

"We have no idea how they got here," said spokesman Andrew Hughan. "There are thousands and thousands and thousands of fish."

Additional pictures here.

Comment: Update: Fox News footage of the fish floating in King Harbor:




Sun

Ghana: Halo Appears Around Sun


Ghanaians were held spellbound when the halo phenomenon emerged in the skies late Wednesday morning. Hundreds of people stepped out of their offices to take pictures of the celestial wonders. Onlookers believed it was signs of the last days. "Jesus is coming today," fascinated Victoria Mintah told AfricaNews.

However, meteorologists said the phenomenon known as halo phenomenon is natural around the world.

Bizarro Earth

Pakistan: Giant Fissure / Crack Opens in the Ground in Seagi Gulistan


Snowman

US: 2 Feet of Snow, Flooding Deluge New England, New York

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© The Associated Press / Toby TalbotDave Jacobs tries to shovel out his car so he could head to Mad River ski area on Monday, March 7, 2011 in Montpelier, Vt. The National Weather Service says the winter storm that's whacking northern Vermont is going to be one for the record books. Meteorologist Bruce Taber says 20.6 inches of snow has fallen at the Burlington International Airport and it's supposed to keep snowing through the early afternoon. He says some parts of northern Vermont could get up to 30 inches of snow.
A fierce winter storm was blanketing northern New England and upstate New York with up to 30 inches of snow Monday, while western Connecticut was deluged with so much rain that parts of homes and cars floated down a swollen river.

As of 1 p.m., 23.3 inches of snow had fallen at Burlington International Airport - the biggest March snowfall there on record_ and it wasn't finished yet.

At Aubuchon Hardware in downtown Montpelier, the most popular types of snow shovels were sold out, the grass seed was on display and store were readying shelves for more springtime wares.

"Smile, folks - it's coming," Tom Walbridge said of the spring season scheduled to start in just two weeks. Outside told a different story.

The storm helped push the winter of 2010-11 up the record list. Even before the snow stopped, it became the fourth-snowiest winter on record in Burlington, at 121.4 inches, and the storm appeared potent enough to challenge the famous Valentine's Day blitz in 2007 that dumped 25.7 inches on Burlington, Taber said.

Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Mt Ruapehu Heating Up - GeoNet

Mount Ruapehu
© Ma5912 / WikipediaMt.Ruapehu from the Desert Road, 2005.

Mount Ruapehu is heating up -- but there's no need to panic, a volcanologist says.

Ruapehu's Crater Lake has reached 40degC, the third-highest temperature recorded at the lake since 2002.

Other signs, including gas output, minor seismic activity and changes in lake chemistry were also typical of a volcano in a heating cycle, GeoNet vulcanologist Tony Hurst said.

Ruapehu entered its current heating cycle last October, the eighth since the lake was re-established in 2002 after the 1995-1996 eruptions.

Ruapehu is on volcanic alert level one, which indicates signs of volcano unrest, but Mr Hurst told NZPA that was normal for an active volcano such as Ruapehu.