Heavy rain in China's Sichuan province disrupted efforts to drain lakes that are threatening survivors of the country's deadliest earthquake in 32 years.
The weather is preventing helicopters carrying earthmoving equipment from flying through the mountainous region, where a lake in Tangjiashan is putting 33 townships at risk, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The China Meteorological Administration today issued a heavy rain warning for northeast Sichuan, including the disaster zone.
Earth Changes
A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 has hit southern Iceland, 50km (30 miles) from the capital, Reykjavik.
In the town of Selfoss, near the epicentre, buildings were damaged and up to 20 people needed treatment for minor injuries, reports say.
Residents in the capital felt buildings shake and aftershocks were felt in the south-west of the country.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 1546 GMT at a shallow 6.2 miles (10 km).
Paul Enarson, Professor of Geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Iceland, told the BBC that the earthquake happened in an area popular with tourists:
In the town of Selfoss, near the epicentre, buildings were damaged and up to 20 people needed treatment for minor injuries, reports say.
Residents in the capital felt buildings shake and aftershocks were felt in the south-west of the country.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 1546 GMT at a shallow 6.2 miles (10 km).
Paul Enarson, Professor of Geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Iceland, told the BBC that the earthquake happened in an area popular with tourists:
Santiago - Ash from the Chaiten volcano that has been erupting in Chile for nearly a month led the country's flagship airline LAN to cancel flights to a string of small airports on Wednesday.
Winds initially carried most of the ash from the volcano east into Argentina, but it is now being carried north within Chile. Ash clogs jet engines.
Winds initially carried most of the ash from the volcano east into Argentina, but it is now being carried north within Chile. Ash clogs jet engines.
Some 400 years after they were hunted to extinction in Britain for their fur and medicinal oils, beavers are to live in the wild again. Up to 20 will be set free in a secluded forest in south-west Scotland, ministers in Edinburgh said yesterday. The initiative is expected to be the first in a series of projects to reintroduce the beaver throughout Britain over the next few years.
Conservationists in Wales will unveil plans this week to find up to five locations where the beaver, Europe's largest rodent, could eventually be released.
Next month, Natural England, the government conservation agency, will publish a study on the feasibility of reintroducing beavers in areas such as Devon, Dorset, the Thames valley, East Anglia or the Lake District.
In the first of these projects, between 15 and 20 beavers will be set free beside five small lochs in Knapdale, south of the Crinan canal near Lochgilphead in Argyll.
Up to four families of wild beavers are being flown in from Norway this autumn, and will be released next spring by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland after they are quarantined and acclimatised.
Conservationists in Wales will unveil plans this week to find up to five locations where the beaver, Europe's largest rodent, could eventually be released.
Next month, Natural England, the government conservation agency, will publish a study on the feasibility of reintroducing beavers in areas such as Devon, Dorset, the Thames valley, East Anglia or the Lake District.
In the first of these projects, between 15 and 20 beavers will be set free beside five small lochs in Knapdale, south of the Crinan canal near Lochgilphead in Argyll.
Up to four families of wild beavers are being flown in from Norway this autumn, and will be released next spring by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland after they are quarantined and acclimatised.
|
| ©Barry Batchelor/PA |
| Up to four families of beavers are to be released in a secluded forest in south-west Scotland. |
The death toll from torrential rain rose to 23 yesterday as three more fatalities were confirmed in central China's Hubei Province.
The latest three were killed by lightning as a thunderstorm ripped through some areas in Hubei.
The latest three were killed by lightning as a thunderstorm ripped through some areas in Hubei.
Al Gore's cinematic sermons on inconvenient truths to the contrary notwithstanding, it is becoming clearer by the day that major cracks are appearing in the supposed consensus among scientists that global warming caused by carbon emissions is an urgent problem that government must address with drastic measures. Among the most significant cracks are these:
This article expands and updates my previous articles and should be read with them. Failure of IPCC to properly consider Solar Influence which is about the failure of the IPCC to properly consider solar influences and The link between solar cycle length and decadal global temperature which explains that according to real world observations the matter of solar cycle length is very significant.
Variations in solar energy as a driver for global climate change have been wholly discounted by the IPCC and climate modelers on the basis that something they call Total Solar Irradiance has not changed enough between 1975 and 1998 to make a significant contribution to the climate warming observed during that period.
Variations in solar energy as a driver for global climate change have been wholly discounted by the IPCC and climate modelers on the basis that something they call Total Solar Irradiance has not changed enough between 1975 and 1998 to make a significant contribution to the climate warming observed during that period.
Can clouds predict earthquakes? YouTube has footage of strange multicoloured clouds seen just before the recent earthquake struck Sichuan province in China.
Ships are inadvertently carrying trillions of stowaways in the water held in their ballast tanks. When the water is pumped out, invasive species could be released into new environments. Disease-causing microbes could also be released, posing a risk to public health, according to an article in the May issue of Microbiology Today.
"There is no romantic adventure or skullduggery at work here," said Professor Fred Dobbs from Old Dominion University, Virginia. Ships pump water in and out of ballast tanks to adjust the waterline and compensate for cargo loading, making the ship run as efficiently as possible. These tanks can hold thousands of tonnes of water. "Any organisms in the water are likely to be released when it is next pumped out."
|
| ©iStockphoto/Brian Raisbeck |
| When water held in the ballast tanks of ships is pumped out, disease-causing microbes could be released into new environments, researchers warn. |
"There is no romantic adventure or skullduggery at work here," said Professor Fred Dobbs from Old Dominion University, Virginia. Ships pump water in and out of ballast tanks to adjust the waterline and compensate for cargo loading, making the ship run as efficiently as possible. These tanks can hold thousands of tonnes of water. "Any organisms in the water are likely to be released when it is next pumped out."
Comment: Alec has a lot of good information. Up until his last paragraph where his own religious centrism skews his view of the world.
"The environmentalists think they are beyond Christianity. Fools."
Christianity has nothing to do with the 'Truth". Truth stands on its own.