Earth ChangesS


Attention

Dead gray whale found off San Diego, California

A dead whale was found off the coast of Black's Beach Monday morning.
© San Diego Fire-Rescue DepartmentA dead whale was found off the coast of Black's Beach Monday morning.
A dead gray whale found in the water west of Black's Beach on Monday morning will be hauled to a landfill, officials said.

Lifeguards spotted the lifeless mammal around 11 a.m., San Diego Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz said.

National Marine Fisheries decided that lifeguards could tow the carcass to Fiesta Island, she said. It will be anchored there for the night, then a city crew will haul it to a landfill in the morning.

Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: Tricoloured heron and great white egret turn up in Nova Scotia, Canada

The tricoloured heron, sighted this weekend in Sambro Head, N.S., is more commonly found in the southeast United States.
© Jason DainThe tricoloured heron, sighted this weekend in Sambro Head, N.S., is more commonly found in the southeast United States.
Birders in Nova Scotia are flocking to Sambro Head, N.S., after a sighting of two rare birds in a single marsh.

On Saturday, Diane LeBlanc left her home in Portuguese Cove to make her usual rounds of looking for birds. Once she was five minutes from home, she spotted an unusual bird in a marsh in Sambro Head.

"I immediately noticed this very large white bird in the middle of the marsh. Of course, my heart started racing, I got excited. I pulled the car over and saw this beautiful great egret, which is a bird that shouldn't be in Nova Scotia, so it was an exciting bird to see," she said.

The bird is common in the southern United States, according to the National Audubon Society website .


Ice Cube

Where's Spring? Below freezing temps and snow as Arctic blast set to return to UK - cold expected to last till MAY

The south coastal resort of Dartmouth, known usually for its above average climate, pictured covered in snow on Monday
The south coastal resort of Dartmouth, known usually for its above average climate, pictured covered in snow on Monday
Britain is set for more bad weather with heavy rain and snow expected to arrive in time for the Easter holidays.

Downpours are expected to batter the UK with up to 40mm of rain due to fall over parts of the North, followed by more snow with bitterly cold northerly winds sending temperatures plummeting to -4C.

A Met Office spokesperson said that the mild temperatures would drop in the coming days with areas of low pressure bringing on heavy showers into the new week.

Families hoping for sunnier Spring-time weather over the Easter holidays could be left bitterly disappointed as more frost and snow is expected over parts of the North East and into the North.

Comment: While unseasonably cold weather, erratic seasons and extreme weather events don't always effect the average person, for a farmer it can mean delayed planting and therefore a shorter growing season, and worse, their entire crop destroyed by an unexpected frost. Increasingly this has been leading to food shortages which will very soon become a serious problem for the average person. This and much worse is to be expected as we enter an ice age:


Snowflake

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Orange snow covers European peaks, cyclone Hugo hammers France

Orange snow in europe
© Instagram/IGTourist destinations, including ski resorts, have been blanketed by the orange snow
When Saharan dust storms of near record density meet late season blizzards across Eastern and Southern Europe, orange snows blanket ranges and visible dust layers mark the hourly feet of snow dumping on the continent. From Sochi to Crete, eerie orange snows cover peaks and deep snows in Greece add to the strangeness of it all. More snows in Algeria and another more dense dust storm is on the way.


Comment: See also:


Bizarro Earth

Chain reaction of fast-draining lakes poses new risk for Greenland ice sheet

Melting Greenland ice sheet
© Timo LieberMelting of Greenland ice sheet forms lakes that drain in summer.
A growing network of lakes on the Greenland ice sheet has been found to drain in a chain reaction that speeds up the flow of the ice sheet, threatening its stability.

Researchers from the UK, Norway, US and Sweden have used a combination of 3D computer modelling and real-world observations to show the previously unknown, yet profound dynamic consequences tied to a growing number of lakes forming on the Greenland ice sheet.

Lakes form on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet each summer as the weather warms. Many exist for weeks or months, but drain in just a few hours through more than a kilometre of ice, transferring huge quantities of water and heat to the base of the ice sheet. The affected areas include sensitive regions of the ice sheet interior where the impact on ice flow is potentially large.

Previously, it had been thought that these 'drainage events' were isolated incidents, but the new research, led by the University of Cambridge, shows that the lakes form a massive network and become increasingly interconnected as the weather warms. When one lake drains, the water quickly spreads under the ice sheet, which responds by flowing faster. The faster flow opens new fractures on the surface and these fractures act as conduits for the drainage of other lakes. This starts a chain reaction that can drain many other lakes, some as far as 80 kilometres away.

These cascading events - including one case where 124 lakes drained in just five days - can temporarily accelerate ice flow by as much as 400%, which makes the ice sheet less stable, and increases the rate of associated sea level rise. The results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

The study demonstrates how forces within the ice sheet can change abruptly from one day to the next, causing solid ice to fracture suddenly. The model developed by the international team shows that lakes forming in stable areas of the ice sheet drain when fractures open in response to a high tensile shock force acting along drainage paths of water flowing beneath the ice sheet when other lakes drain far away.

Comment: Earth's hot core, not global warming, responsible for Greenland's melting ice sheet
Its record levels of melting are expected to contribute to sea level rises and could potentially change patterns in ocean circulation in the future. Global warming alarmists have long pointed to this melting as being caused by human activity, but this study shows quite clearly that nature itself is responsible for the melting ice sheets in Greenland
Warming from below is also occurring in the Antarctic: Global warming... in the deeps: Tremendous geothermal heat source is melting Antarctic ice sheet from below


Attention

Mass stranding of 61 dolphins in Argentina, 49 die

According to local authorities, 49 of them died on the coast of the El Doradillo Protected Natural Area while 12 were returned to the sea alive
According to local authorities, 49 of them died on the coast of the El Doradillo Protected Natural Area while 12 were returned to the sea alive
More than 60 dolphins have been found stranded on a popular beach resort - and experts have said killer whales could be responsible.

Sixty-one short-beaked common dolphins were found washed up in Puerto Madryn, an Argentinian city in northern Patagonia.

According to local authorities, 49 of them died on the coast of the El Doradillo Protected Natural Area while 12 were returned to the sea alive.


Comment: This latest event comes just days after a mass stranding of over 150 pilot whales hit Hamelin Bay in Western Australia.


Wolf

Boy killed by family pit bull terrier in Converse, Texas

PIT BULL ATTACK
A 4-year-old boy in Converse was killed following an attack by his family's pet dog Sunday afternoon, officials said.

A Bexar County Sheriff's Office statement said the boy, identified later as Noah Trevino by the Bexar County Medical Examiner, was airlifted to an area hospital in serious life-threatening condition after being found with his neck in the jaws of the large, mixed-breed dog. The incident occurred in the backyard of Trevino's home on the 8900 block of Twincreek Farm.

Sheriff's Sgt. Elizabeth Gonzalez said the family freed Trevino from the dog's hold and began performing CPR until deputies arrived and took over.

Trevino was later pronounced dead at the hospital.


Comment: See also this other report of a similar recent attack: Woman mauled to death by at least one of her pit bull terriers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


Seismograph

Powerful shallow earthquake of magnitude 6.6 hits off Papua New Guinea

The earthquake struck 180 km west of the town of Rabaul, on New Britain island, at a shallow depth of 10 km, the USGS said.
© USGSThe earthquake struck 180 km west of the town of Rabaul, on New Britain island, at a shallow depth of 10 km, the USGS said.
A shallow 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea on Monday (March 26), the US Geological Survey said, the latest in a series to hit the region in recent days, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake struck 180km west of the town of Rabaul, on New Britain island, at a depth of 10 km, the USGS said. The quake was initially recorded with a magnitude of 7.0 but was later downgraded. There was no immediate tsunami warning.

"We are okay. No one is injured," said Sylvia Ombul, night desk supervisor at the Kimbe Bay Hotel in the port town of Kimbe, about 140 km to the west of the quake.

Comment: Just 2 days ago: 6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes Papua New Guinea region


Seismograph

Powerful 6.5 earthquake in the Banda Sea

LOCATION
Date & time: Sun, 25 Mar 20:14:48 UTC

Magnitude: 6.5

Depth: 181.0 km

Epicenter latitude / longitude: 6.7°S / 129.72°E [Map]

Nearest volcano: Nila (31 km)

Primary data source: GFZ

Attention

The heaving and sinking oil wells of Wink, Texas

Wink sinkhole
© J. AndrewsWink Sink 2
It began with sinkholes. Two of them, gaping mouths to nowhere opening up as if to swallow the town of Wink, Texas. As they expanded, there were fears they might collide, morphing into one giant void.

They first emerged in 1980, and things haven't gotten better since. Now, an unprecedented study reveals Wink and its vast sinkholes are just a tiny part of a much bigger problem - a vast stretch of historical oil fields that are heaving and sinking, covering an area almost the size of Connecticut.

"The ground movement we're seeing is not normal," explains geophysicist Zhong Lu from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"The ground doesn't typically do this without some cause."

Lu was part of a team who in 2016 used satellite data to reveal that the two Wink sinkholes weren't frozen in place, but could be about to expand in response to subsidence detected in and around the town.