Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Sinkhole Forms Under Pool With Family Inside

Sinkhole in Pool
© Terra USA
A Cheektowaga, New York family was surprised to see their pool water completely drained when a sinkhole formed just below them as they were swimming. Watch the interview with the family and see footage of the sinkhole.
As the family swam, the water in their family pool rushed out filling the yard and into a sinkhole right beneath their pool.

The family managed to get out safely, but now misses their pool. The town where the family resides has sent out an engineer, a pool code enforcer and a sewer inspector. The sinkhole is believed to be an abandoned well or septic tank.

Bizarro Earth

The Fish are Dying in Large Numbers, and Scientists are Struggling for Answers

Puffer Fish_1
© DAVID ITANOScientists are trying to determine why puffer fish are dying around the Hawaiian Islands.
Wildlife scientists have been scrambling for months to determine why puffer fish are dying around the Hawaiian Islands, and still do not know whether they will identify the killer.

Thierry Work, a wildlife disease specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said Wednesday that scientists had conducted 72 necropsies on diseased puffer fish that have been found on all the islands except Kauai.

Finding the cause is critical because it could affect the ecosystem or human health, said Work, who is with the USGS's National Wildlife Health Center.

"It's part of understanding the health of the marine ecosystem," Work said. "There's something awry in the marine environment."

Scientists learned about the deaths in June but realized the fish have been dying in large numbers since March. Work suspects fish collected so far are just a small number of those that have died.

According to longtime ocean users who have reported seeing dead puffer fish, the die-off surpasses any recent mass death of puffer fish, he said.

Bizarro Earth

Terrified trekkers recount flood 'hell' in Indian Himalayas

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© AFPThe flooded Indus river passes through Leh. Hundreds of people were still missing in the Indian Himalayas on Tuesday four days after flash floods hit the remote region of Ladakh, killing at least 165.
Traumatised foreign trekkers caught in flash floods that killed 185 people in the Indian Himalayas recounted Thursday a week of "hell" battling rockfalls, raging mudslides and constant fear.

Exhausted and still clearly in shock, a group of mainly French tourists flew into New Delhi from Ladakh region, where a sudden, intense cloudburst one week ago turned their mountain trekking holiday into a battle for survival.

"There were mudslides and rocks tumbling down the mountains," said David Bressac, a mountaineering guide with a Franco-Indian tour agency.

"It was horrific. The mudslides were moving at an incredible speed," said Bressac, his eyes red from lack of sleep and a large rucksack flung over his shoulder.

Bizarro Earth

Deadly Typhoon Dianmu cuts across Japan

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© AFPGraphic showing the path of Typhoon Dianmu, packing winds of more than 80 kilometres per hour
Typhoon Dianmu cut across northern Japan into the Pacific Thursday after leaving five dead in its wake in South Korea, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

With winds of up to 72 kilometres (45 miles) an hour, it moved across the northern tip of Honshu island for some three hours until around 8:00 pm (1100 GMT), after travelling northeast over the Sea of Japan, the agency said.

The storm's arrival on Honshu coincided with Japan's mid-August holiday break, when many people were visiting their hometowns and offering prayers to their ancestors.

The weather agency warned heavy rain could trigger floods and mudslides, and waves as tall as five metres (16 feet).

Rainfall could reach 20 centimetres (eight inches) in northeastern Japan in the 24 hours to midday Friday, according to the agency.

Bizarro Earth

US: Oil blowout in Louisiana causes evacuations

Oil spews
© Assumption Parish SheriffOil spews out of a well Wednesday in Assumption Parish near Paincourtville.

Paincourtville - A blown-out well in Assumption Parish was spewing oil and gas nearly 200 feet into the air Wednesday, and it could be 10 days before crews can cap it, officials said.

Assumption Parish sheriff's deputies responded to a 3:30 a.m. complaint Wednesday of oil and gas spewing onto the road, said Assumption Sheriff Mike Waguespack.

Waguespack said no one was injured in the blowout, and State Police are investigating.

Bizarro Earth

More Rains Threaten China Mudslide Disaster Zone

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© AFPMilitary personnel on clean-up operations work beside a demolished building amid the rubble of landslide devastation in Zhouqu on August 11, 2010 in northwest China's Gansu province.
Zhouqu - Rescuers racing against a potential new deluge on Wednesday hurried to drain an unstable lake formed by China's worst mudslides in decades, as the death toll surged past 1,100.

More than 10,000 soldiers and rescuers combed through the mountains of mud that buried a remote area of the northwest province of Gansu at the weekend, killing 1,117 people by the latest count and leaving more than 600 others missing.

But the window of survival was fast closing, with only two survivors found on Wednesday, so authorities have focused on averting further devastation in the form of new floods and possible disease outbreaks.

With days of heavy rains forecast from Wednesday -- sparked in part by Typhoon Dianmu, which ravaged South Korea -- troops were using excavators and explosives to clear debris blocking the Bailong river that runs through Zhouqu.

Bizarro Earth

Ecuador: Earthquake Magnitude 7.1

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© USGS
Date-Time:
Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 11:54:16 UTC

Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 06:54:16 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
1.260°S, 77.312°W

Depth:
211 km (131.1 miles) set by location program

Region:
ECUADOR

Distances:
145 km (90 miles) E of Ambato, Ecuador

155 km (95 miles) ENE of Riobamba, Ecuador

155 km (95 miles) SSW of Nueva Loja, Ecuador

175 km (110 miles) SE of QUITO, Ecuador

Igloo

Cold Wave Kills 6 Million Fish in Eastern Bolivia

La Paz - Authorities in the eastern Bolivian province of Santa Cruz declared an alert following the death of 6 million fish from the unusually cold weather gripping the country in recent weeks.

The provincial government said the fish died in the Grande, Pirai and Ichilo rivers that run through the tropical region.

This is an "environmental catastrophe" brought on by the lowest temperatures registered in Santa Cruz in nearly half a century, Gov. Ruben Costas told reporters.

He said that environmental personnel who visited the disaster areas found that the three rivers are highly polluted by dead fish, and he warned locals not to use those waters.

Alarm Clock

US: Fish Kill Mystery On New Jersey's Delaware Bay Beaches

fish

Middle Township - Tens of thousands of dead fish have washed ashore along the Delaware Bay in southern New Jersey.

State environmental and wildlife officials say it's not yet clear what killed the fish, which appear to exclusively small menhaden, also known as peanut bunker.

The wash-up, discovered Wednesday morning, encompassed a large stretch of the shoreline just north of Cape May. The heaviest amounts were in an area of Middle Township known as Pierce's Point.

Bizarro Earth

Deadly Russian heat wave gravest over millennium

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© © AFP/ Martin Bernetti
Russia has recently seen the longest unprecedented heat wave for at least one thousand years, the head of the Russian Meteorological Center said on Monday.

Wildfires continue to rage across much of the central part of European Russia as the country experiences a heat wave, with temperatures of up to and above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

"We have an 'archive' of abnormal weather situations stretching over a thousand years. It is possible to say there was nothing similar to this on the territory of Russia during the last one thousand years in regard to the heat," Alexander Frolov said.

He said scientists received information on ancient weather conditions by exploring lake deposits.