Popocatepetl Volcano in Mexico
Earth Changes
Popocatepetl Volcano in Mexico
© Dan Barker / Sugarloaf
BEFORE and AFTER
BEFORE and AFTER
The radio and communications tower on top of Sugarloaf Mountain bent like a pretzel Monday in extremely high winds.
"Initial thought was down due to power or some other issue," Communications Director C.L. Folsom said. "And then it got explained to me 'No. It's down on the ground.'"
Witnesses say ice had formed on the tower from a Sunday snowstorm.
Then came the strong winds.
"The tower was pretty heavy with rime ice," Sugarloaf Marketing Director Ethan Austin said. "And then all this wind right after it. Sustained winds all day. Probably the combination did it in."
Tuesday, winds were still racing across Sugarloaf Mountain, closing ski lifts and most ski slopes for a second straight day.
© USGS
The epicentre, with a depth of 10km, was initially determined to be at a 41.9336 degrees north latitude and 146.9481 degrees east longitude.
The epicentre, with a depth of 10km, was initially determined to be at a 41.9336 degrees north latitude and 146.9481 degrees east longitude.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, and no tsunami warning was issued.
The quake, which struck at 12:23 p.m., registered a 4 on the 7-point Japanese seismic intensity scale in the northern Nemuro district and the town of Shibetsu, eastern Hokkaido, and a 3 in extensive areas of the Tokachi, Nemuro and Kushiro districts, according to the JMA.
The focus of the temblor was about 10 kilometers below the seabed off the Nemuro Peninsula.
© WHNT/Screenshot
Mass bird deaths in Huntsville, AL
Mass bird deaths in Huntsville, AL
But that's exactly what a Huntsville man found Tuesday. He counted more than 60 dead birds on Moores Mill Road near the Ware intersection. He is very concerned, since he believes they died in the same spot at the same time.
It seems like a plotline straight out of a Hitchcock movie ... dozens of birds falling from the sky.
"I noticed something that was standing out in the middle of the road when I was driving here yesterday," said Richard Ellis, a concerned Huntsville resident.
Comment: Why do incidences of this mysterious phenomenon seem to be increasing? Several mechanisms have been proposed, including methane gas releases, magnetic pole reversals, and concussive injury from micro-meteorite explosions high up in the atmosphere. All three possibilities are cause for worry.
- 'Crazy': Dozens of dead birds fall from the sky in New Jersey
- Mass bird die-off in St. Pete Beach, Florida
- Dozens of birds fell to the ground in Boston
- Over 30 birds fall dead from the sky in Norman, Oklahoma
- Birds fall dead from sky in Bapunagar, India
- Dead birds fall out of the sky near Fort Worth, Texas - Second time in 5 months
- Dead birds fall 'like raindrops' In Winnipeg's North End
- Meteoric Deja-vu: Exactly one year later, dead blackbirds fall again in Beebe, Arkansas
- Dead Birds in China: Birds continue to fall around the world - may be a precursor to reversal of poles
© Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade / AFP
Australian officials have warned that an environmental disaster is unfolding and said little progress has been made since the MV Solomon Trader ship ran aground after a cyclone on February 5.
More than 80 tons have spilled into the clear waters and the shoreline as the boat continues to leak. Over 660 tons of oil are still onboard the vessel, waiting to be released. The spill is close to the World Heritage-listed waters of East Rennell, which is home to the biggest coral atoll in the world and is a key area for scientific study.
It hit in the Andes region in a sparsely populated area.
The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was at a depth of 257 kilometres (160 miles). The agency said most big quakes in South America occur at a maximum depth of 70 kilometres.
The quake hit at 0850 GMT about 27 kilometres northeast of the town of Azangaro, near the border with Bolivia.
The earthquake was recorded at a magnitude of 3.0, the British Geological Survey said
The quake occurred about 2km below the surface near Newdigate, the British Geological Survey (BGS) said.
The tremor was felt at 03:42 GMT and measured 3.1, making it the biggest earthquake of the current "swarm".
One resident of Redhill said his house was shaking for between four and five seconds.
Gatwick Airport confirmed tremors had been felt overnight in the terminals, but a spokesman said operations had not been affected.
Comment: A resident in Surrey comments that she has lived in the area for 47 years and that she had never experienced an earthquake before fracking exploration began:
And Surrey isn't the only area of the UK where fracking induced earthquakes are causing serious concern, in Blackpool the obvious correlation between fracking and earthquakes has resulted in the operations being shutdown, albeit temporarily: Fracking causes strongest quake yet at new site in UK
See also:
- Geologists discover London sitting on two serious fault lines, capital at risk of dangerous earthquake
- M4.5 earthquake and aftershock in B.C., Canada, "very likely" caused by fracking
- 3rd earthquake in less than 14 days hits Surrey, UK - Same area as April's quakes
© Thomas Turner
The animal, identified as a hoodwinker sunfish, washed up on a shore last week at UC Santa Barbara's Coal Oil Point Reserve.
The animal, identified as a hoodwinker sunfish, washed up on a shore last week at UC Santa Barbara's Coal Oil Point Reserve.
But what researchers initially thought was a common type of sunfish turned out to be much rarer - a newly discovered species thought to make its home almost entirely in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere. This was in Santa Barbara, California — much further north than anyone expected to find it.
"I literally, nearly fell off my chair," Marianne Nyegaard of Murdoch University in Australia said in a statement. Nyegaard, a sunfish expert, discovered and described the Mola tecta sunfish — commonly known as the hoodwinker sunfish — in 2017.
The more common Mola mola ocean sunfish is known to swim in the Santa Barbara Channel. The hoodwinker has only been found in the Southern Hemisphere, aside from just one known example that washed up in The Netherlands in 1889.
Cars were washed away and people rescued after a deluge filled the Jordanian capital's roads with water.
Several vehicles broke down in the streets, causing traffic to stop, Ammon News reported.
© Kent Porter / The Press Democrat
Jonathan Von Renner checks on his son Jonathan Jr., and friend Emilio Ontivares in lower Guerneville, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019.
Jonathan Von Renner checks on his son Jonathan Jr., and friend Emilio Ontivares in lower Guerneville, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019.
Tom Orr began moving lyrics and scripts, clothes and photo albums from his apartment as authorities ordered evacuations along a rising Northern California river threatening to hit a historic crest.
But the actor and writer couldn't move costumes, computers and performance videos. So he shifted those to his loft bed about 10 feet up and prayed they would survive. On Wednesday, television news footage showed muddy brown water nearly swallowing his ground-level unit and much of the tiny town of Guerneville, part of Sonoma County's famed wine country and a popular tourist destination.
Residents awoke Thursday to sunshine and began assessing the damage while the water started receding. Orr, 48, was among those still unable to get into his house after the rain-swollen Russian River reached nearly 46 feet (14 meters) Wednesday night, its highest level in more than 20 years.
"I feel so helpless just sitting here and waiting before I can go back and start salvaging whatever I can," Orr said in text messages to The Associated Press before preparing for a friend to take him by canoe to work at the Main Street Bistro, one of the few places in town that did not flood.
Sonoma County officials said they expected the communities of Guerneville and Monte Rio to be accessible by car Friday. The two-day storm rendered the towns reachable only by boat on Wednesday.
One National Weather Service station measured 20 inches of rain in 48 hours.
Comment: Over 520mm (20 inches) of rain in 48 hours, evacuations as rivers rise in Northern California
Comment: Incredible wind gusts have been recorded from all over the world recently. These articles are from the past two weeks alone: