Earth Changes
A mysterious and ugly carcass, washed up on a beach in Texas after Hurricane Harvey, has people baffled.
The fanged beast was discovered by Preeti Desai from the National Audobon Society, who took to Twitter to see if the mystery of the unattractive creature could be solved.
"Okay biology Twitter, what the heck is this?" Desai asked, posting a number of photos of the decaying corpse.
Sources
Christopher Timbuka, Ruaha Chief Park Warden said earlier investigation show the wild animals were killed by anthrax, an infection caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthraces.
According to the official, a survey carried between August and early September, this year, shows that death cases were found in three key areas, which are popular for hosting hippos in the sanctuary.
"This is the largest number of hippos to have been killed in the park by the disease," Timbuka said, adding: "We've already sent samples of the dead hippos to the Chief Government Chemist Laboratory Agency for more investigation."
He cited an acute water shortage in Great Ruaha River as one of the factors for an outbreak of the disease in the sanctuary.
About 30 centimetres of snow was predicted across Thursday, Friday and into Saturday at Falls Creek.
The resort received eight centimetres in 24 hours before Thursday, with average snow depths of 190cm.
Mount Hotham received 15 cm in the 24 hours before Thursday morning with natural snow depths of 175 cm.
The finding left Robert Bingham, one of the study's authors, with an urgent question.
"The big question is: how active are these volcanoes? That is something we need to determine as quickly as possible," he told The Guardian.
"If one of these volcanoes were to erupt it could further destabilise west Antarctica's ice sheets. Anything that causes the melting of ice - which an eruption certainly would - is likely to speed up the flow of ice into the sea."
Luckily, Bingham didn't need to wait long for an answer. A team of scientists from New Mexico Tech, Dartmouth College, and Vermont Technical College has uncovered evidence of volcanic eruptions in ice cores taken from the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS). A paper describing their findings has just been published in Scientific Reports.

Typhoon Talim brought sporadic wind and showers to Taipei on Wednesday (Sept 13). It has now shifted north and will not make landfall in Taiwan, although the capital and other cities can expect heavy rain from the storm.
Authorities warned of landslides and high waves as Typhoon Talim battered the southern Okinawan island chain, dumping the most rain seen over a 24-hour period in 50 years on the city of Miyako.
According to Okinawa Electric Power, more than 18,000 homes were without power in Miyako, a city of around 54,000 people some 1,840 km southwest of Tokyo.
Japan's Meteorological Agency said the typhoon was expected to approach the Kyushu island by early Sunday.
Local media said it was poised to cross Japan's mainland - which includes Tokyo - on Monday. Big storms regularly strike Japan, with 22 people killed when Typhoon Lionrock pounded the country last September.
Last month, Typhoon Noru killed two and injured 51.
Ruth Geck took these photos and shared them on Facebook, prompting excited reactions from others who had seen the phenomenon.
Some blamed it on "geo-engineering" - but meteorologist Annabelle Ford, from the Bureau of Meteorology's Brisbane office, confirmed it was an entirely natural effect.
"This is a good example of a 'halo'," Ms Ford told The Observer after seeing the pictures.
"You can see both," says Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Monterey. "Both are just as dangerous."
It started with strong wind gusts between 35 and 50 mph that roared through Monterey County and parts of the South Bay in the early morning hours. Later in the day, temperatures climbed to the 90s in San Jose and the high 80s in San Francisco.
Then came the rain, thunder, and lightning. The National Weather Service tweeted out that the Bay Area saw more than 800 lightning strikes and cloud flashes between noon and 5 p.m.
The Molltal (pictured top at 8.30am this morning) is one of seven glacier ski areas currently open in the Alps and Scandinavia, most of which have received good snowfalls over the first two weekends of September, with more forecast for the coming few days.
It's very good news after the long hot summer in the Alps when most of the old snow cover on Europe's glaciers was melted away and the Molltal was one of two centres that had to temporarily close in late August due to lack of snow.
The most recent snow has been falling down to lower elevations (2000m)
Three more glacier ski areas - the Stubai and Pitztal glaciers in Austria and Val Senales in Italy - are due to open for their 2017-18 ski seasons later this week. Solden opened last weekend.














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