Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Film of flooded street in Reims, France

floods
An amateur video shows a flooded street in Reims after heavy storms. Vehicles are blocked as a torrent pours down the Avenue Jean Jaurès.


Question

Wild elephant herd in China making a mysterious, cross-country march

elephants
Not all who wander are lost, J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote. A herd of wild Asian elephants in China might agree with that sentiment. The 15 elephants have been slowly making their way across China for over a year, delighting social media, eating and trampling crops, and causing more than a million dollars worth of damage.

It's not unusual for elephants to ramble outside their habitats, but this wandering herd stands out. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, a principal investigator at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, who specializes in elephants, told The New York Times he has "no idea" why these elephants won't settle in one spot.

The elephants started off last March, leaving a nature reserve in Xishuangbanna, and have traveled more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) so far. There were 16 in the group then, but some have turned around, and others have given birth, making the group now down to 15, the Times reports.


Arrow Down

Large sinkhole reported on west side of Nuevo Laredo (Mexico)

hole
If you have any plans of driving in Nuevo Laredo, there's a huge sinkhole on the city's west side.

As of now, its about 33 feet wide and almost 10 feet deep.

You can see a business still standing but so close to the sinkhole.

Several different city and county entities have come together to access the damage and put together a plan to repair it.

No word yet on what caused the sinkhole or how much it'll cost to fix it.

Officials say it could take up 45 days to fix once they get started.


Seismograph

No tsunami warnings after two 5.9 magnitude earthquakes hit off Oregon coast

A cluster of earthquakes were reported in the same area at the end of April.
A cluster of earthquakes were reported in the same area at the end of April.
Two 5.9 magnitude earthquakes struck the Pacific Ocean off Oregon's coast early Friday morning, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

The tremors occurred about 89 miles and 98 miles west of the coastal town of Gold Beach, Oregon, after 1 a.m. (PT) Friday morning, according to USGS.

A few people reported light shaking on the coast, the USGS report showed.

At least five earthquakes ranging in magnitudes from 3.2 to 5.9 have occurred in the area in the last few hours, according to USGS.

Attention

Dead whale shark found on Great Barrier Island - first stranding recorded in New Zealand

A whale shark found at Great Barrier Island.
© Zane BroadbeltA whale shark found at Great Barrier Island.
A morning stroll on the beach turned into a bit of a spectacle when Zane Broadbelt suddenly spotted what looked to be a stranded whale.

He and his partner, Laura, were walking along the beach at Harataonga, on Great Barrier Island, when they made the discovery on Sunday.

"I just saw a lump in the sand," he told the Herald.

On closer inspection, they realised it was a dead whale shark.

"It was about 6m long and looked like it had been there for about a week.

"I've never seen a whale shark before. It's not something you expect to see around here, especially at this time."

The Department of Conservation confirmed their staff responded to a public sighting of the dead whale shark last Thursday.

It was a significant find as although whale sharks migrate annually to New Zealand waters, this was the first recorded stranding in New Zealand, a DoC spokeswoman said.

Road Cone

Families evacuated after mud volcano eruption in Necoclí, Colombia

Colombia mud volcano
© SEMANAEmergency in Antioquia due to the eruption of the mud volcano in Necoclí.
More than 20 families were evacuated after the eruption of the mud volcano in the municipality of Necoclí, which belongs to the Urabá subregion, confirmed municipal risk management authorities.

The entity pointed out that due to this situation it was necessary to transfer around 100 people from the Palmares de Ceniza village to a rural school in the Piedrecita village, where humanitarian care is provided.

The Voluntary Fire Department and the Civil Defense responded to the emergency, after the volcano expelled ash and boiling mud, as seen in some videos shared by the inhabitants of the area on social networks.

The aid organizations indicated that the 23 families were evacuated from the early morning when the high volcanic activity of that natural formation was identified until it erupted in the last hours.


Camera

Amazing photos of rare sunset 'quadruple' microburst in Texas

Quadruple microburst
Mike Olbinski and his crew were about to call the day a bust, he shared on YouTube, when '"magic unfolded right before our eyes."

On the way to Lubbock, Texas, from New Mexico, the storm chasers caught a quadruple microburst as it came down with large hail in a "spectacular" storm. A microburst is a localized column of sinking air, usually about 2.5 miles or less in diameter, according to the National Weather Service, but at sunset Tuesday, Olbinski captured four massive downdraft plumes fanning outwards from a central point, painted in the pink, purple and blue of the sky.


Sun

Drought ravages California's reservoirs ahead of hot summer

Enterprise Bridge over Lake Oroville's dry banks
© AP Photo/Noah BergerA car crosses Enterprise Bridge over Lake Oroville's dry banks Sunday, May 23, 2021, in Oroville, Calif. At the time of this photo, the reservoir was at 39% of capacity and 46% of its historical average.
Each year Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation's crops, sustain endangered salmon beneath its massive earthen dam and anchor the tourism economy of a Northern California county that must rebuild seemingly every year after unrelenting wildfires.

But now the mighty lake — a linchpin in a system of aqueducts and reservoirs in the arid U.S. West that makes California possible — is shrinking with surprising speed amid a severe drought, with state officials predicting it will reach a record low later this summer.

While droughts are common in California, this year's is much hotter and drier than others, evaporating water more quickly from the reservoirs and the sparse Sierra Nevada snowpack that feeds them. The state's more than 1,500 reservoirs are 50% lower than they should be this time of year, according to Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California-Davis.

Bizarro Earth

Mexico sinkhole continues to expand, threatens to swallow farm house

sinkhole Santa Maria Zacatepec mexico
© AFP via Getty ImagesAerial view of a sinkhole nearing a house in a farmland in Santa Maria Zacatepec, state of Puebla, Mexico
A deep and massive sinkhole has opened up in Mexico, measuring 300ft in diameter and expanding rapidly to threaten a large farmhouse.

The gaping sinkhole is more than 60ft deep and located in Santa María Zacatepec, Puebla state. It has also filled up with water, said state governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta at a press conference on Monday.

Dramatic images showing the scale of the hole have been widely shared online - but when it was first spotted on Saturday it measured just 15ft across. The family living nearby say it grew suddenly in the space of just 24 hours after a loud thud was heard, reported Newsweek.

Comment: There has been an uptick in sinkholes and other land deformations world wide. Not all of them can be attributed to underlying conditions such as limestone erosion. One might wonder if they are perhaps related to the Earth's slowing rotation, which would cause the lithosphere to slip as the rotational speed of Earth's different geological layers become mismatched.


Seismograph

6.1 magnitude earthquake hits eastern Indonesia

graph
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's remote Maluku islands Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The strong quake hit at a relatively shallow depth of 31 kilometres (20 miles), about 127 kilometres southwest of the city of Ternate.

Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

"It was a decent shake, but people weren't panicking," said Ternate resident Nasarudin Amin.

"There are warnings about potential aftershocks."