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New England digs out after record snowfall Reuters (December 14, 2007) - New England dug out on Friday from a record-setting storm that dumped 10 inches of snow on Boston, more than the city typically sees in the entire month of December. Thursday's storm hit hours before the afternoon commute, snarling roadways and leaving some travelers -- many of whom left their offices early only to face the storm's full force on the road -- stranded for hours during their trips home. Others had to abandon their cars or sleep in them after running out of fuel, local media reported. More than 400 flights were canceled at Boston Logan International Airport. The National Weather Service said the region could expect another blast over the weekend, when a second storm is expected to drop 6 inches of snow and sleet starting on Saturday evening. "It is a powerful Northeaster," said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts. "The difference in this storm is that it is going to occur during the overnight hours and on the weekend, so we wouldn't expect it to have the impact that this thing yesterday did. Thursday's snowfall set a new one-day record for December 13, and was more than the 7.8 inches that typically falls during the entire month of December. Foley said temperatures were expected to reach 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 C) on Friday, warm enough to melt some of the snow. Logan Airport had returned to normal operations by Friday, with about 41 outbound flights canceled, said spokesman Phil Orlandella. "The airlines will have to play catch up for a couple of days," Orlandella said. "It's not a madhouse here, things are moving pretty well." He said airport management did not yet know how their operations would be affected by the coming weekend storm.
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Gore: US blocking climate talks progress Associated Press (December 13, 2007) - Nobel laureate Al Gore accused the United States on Thursday of blocking progress at the U.N. climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions. The former vice president urged delegates to take urgent action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, and told them that the next U.S. president will likely be more supportive of international caps on polluting gases. "My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who flew to Bali from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change. Asked about Gore's charge, Kristen Hellmer, a member of the American delegation in Bali, said: "The U.S. is being open and working very constructively with the other countries that are here. We are rolling our sleeves up and really working to come up with a global post-2012 framework." Earlier, the United Nations warned that time was running out for an agreement aimed at launching negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012 and the talks in Bali were in danger of "falling to pieces." The United States, Japan and several other governments are refusing to accept language in a draft document suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020, saying specific targets would limit the scope of future talks. European nations said they may boycott a U.S.-led climate meeting next month unless Washington compromises. "No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting," said Sigmar Gabriel, top EU environment official from Germany, referring to a series of separate climate talks initiated by President Bush in September. "This is the clear position of the EU. I do not know what we should talk about if there is no target." The European Union and others say the proposed emissions caps reflect the measures scientists say are needed to rein in global warming and head off predictions of rising sea levels, worsening floods and droughts, and the extinction of plant and animal species. The U.S. invited 16 other major economies, including European countries, Japan, China and India, to discuss a program of what are expected to be nationally determined, voluntary cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions. more...
| America | Apostasy | Earth Changes |

Tropical Storm Olga kills at least eight in Caribbean Breitbart (December 12, 2007) - In the Dominican Republic, rescuers found numerous people clinging to trees or perched on their rooftops as floodwaters rose, according to the governor of Santiago province, Jose Izquierdo. The northern city of Santiago, the country's second largest, was the worst hit as waters gushing from a dam further swelled an already overflowing river. "Officially there are seven people dead in this city and 24,500 people displaced by evacuations across the country, because of rivers bursting their banks and landslides, said Juan Manuel Mendez, who heads the Emergency Operations Center. In addition, dozens of communities were cut off from the rest of the country, he said. An estimated 5,000 homes were affected, many of them completely destroyed, officials said. "We are facing a very difficult situation," said provincial senator Francisco Dominguez Brito. In Puerto Rico, one man was killed Wednesday when his car was buried under a landslide near San Juan, police said. In Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, officials said the storm left serious damage, though there were no immediate reports of fatalities. Olga slammed the Caribbean country on Tuesday, almost two weeks after the Atlantic hurricane season officially ended. The storm weakened on Wednesday as it swirled over open water, but it continued to dump rain that could cause more "life-threatening flash floods and mud slides in Hispaniola," the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. At 1500 GMT Wednesday, maximum sustained winds were recorded at 64 kilometers (40 miles) and the center of the storm was 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Guantanamo, Cuba. The six-month Atlantic hurricane season officially ended on November 30, and it is rare for tropical storms to form after that. The Dominican Republic already had been hit hard by Tropical Storm Noel, which slammed the country in late October, killing at least 85 people. Olga is the 15th named storm to form in the Atlantic this year. In all six of the storms became hurricanes, including two that hit land with rare fury, reaching the topmost intensity five with maximum sustained winds of more than 249 kilometers (155 miles) per hour. In August, Hurricane Dean killed at least 29 people in a rampage through the Caribbean and Mexico. The following month, Hurricane Felix killed about 150 people and wrought a trail of devastation along Nicaragua's impoverished Caribbean coast.
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Nobel laureates propose global CO2 tax EU Observer (December 12, 2007) - While the international community struggles to reach agreement on how to further tackle climate change at a meeting in Bali, former US vice president Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to increase knowledge about the effects of human activities on global warming. "We have a window of nearly seven years, said IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the prize on behalf of the panel in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. "The time to doubt science is over", he said, adding that by 2015 at the latest green house gasses must start declining if the world is to escape a climate catastrophe. Thousands of scientific experts have worked on the panel since 1988 and brought forward more and more evidence of human activities causing climate change. Experts estimate that 20 percent of greenhouse gases alone comes from raising animals for human consumption. When asked what he does on a personal level to fight climate change, Mr Pachauri said he wears warm clothing, is a vegetarian and takes care to limit his use of electricity. Meanwhile, Mr Gore said that "the threat of climate crises is real, rising, imminent and universal" in his acceptance speech before over 400 prominent Norwegians and leading members of the climate panel. Mr Gore and Mr Pachauri, an Indian scientist, are going directly from the celebrations in Oslo to join the Bali conference. "We need to complete a bold mandate there next Friday [14 December] that calls for a visionary treaty to be completed, ratified and brought into effect everywhere in the world by the beginning of 2010 – more than two years sooner than presently contemplated" Mr Gore said. He said that world leaders must meet every three months until such a new treaty is completed. The 2007 Nobel laureates also suggested a price on CO2 pollution "so that the markets can help us make rational decisions about how to sharply reduce it". "The problem with CO2 is it is completely invisible to the economy", Mr Gore said. "I'm strong in favour of a CO2 tax - a large one, with the money raised given back in a progressive repay. If you want to cut your tax, you cut your pollution," he said. But he said he did not think the UN would be "capable" of managing such a tax. more...
| America | Apostasy | Earth Changes |

So I would like to know how taxing the population is going to cool the sun down and increase the magnetic field of the earth, which has been steadily degrading since first measured. If Mars is also heating up, do our emissions really cause that too? How is taking money from the population going to fix or change anything outside of our control? The facts are too obvious to be missed by those pushing the blame humanity agenda and so I smell a conspiracy. What can be accomplished in the long run is that by uniting the world to save the earth with the idea that we are the cause of global warming, a uniting consciousness can be developed based on fear and lack of understanding so that as the global "all worship the same God" plans progress, the combination of it all will lead to the acceptance of the antichrist as a god to be worshipped when he is revealed with lying signs and wonders. In the meantime, the wealth can be redistributed to whatever methods those controlling taxes decide. The facts of what is causing global warming on Earth, Mars and throughout the solar system cannot be fixed by more money because these factors are completely out of the control of humanity, even the self-glorifying scientific humanists can't fix what is about to happen. See History Repeating: Mankind's Fall of Pride There is another side to this as well from those who see the futility, but these scientists probably aren't in on the agenda. While I don't believe global warming is a "non-problem," I do believe there is nothing that can be done to change it. The globe IS warming, but the cause may not be our physical pollution - rather our spiritual pollution. Global Warming and the Day of the Lord: Skeptical Scientists Urge World To ‘Have the Courage to Do Nothing' At UN Conference excerpt:

"The UN conference is a complete waste of our time and your money and we should no longer pay the slightest attention to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,)" Monckton added. (LINK) Monckton also noted that the UN has not been overly welcoming to the group of skeptical scientists. "UN organizers refused my credentials and appeared desperate that I should not come to this conference. They have also made several attempts to interfere with our public meetings," Monckton explained. "It is a circus here," agreed Australian scientist Dr. David Evans. Evans is making scientific presentations to delegates and journalists at the conference revealing the latest peer-reviewed studies that refute the UN's climate claims. "This is the most lavish conference I have ever been to, but I am only a scientist and I actually only go to the science conferences," Evans said, noting the luxury of the tropical resort. (Note: An analysis by  Bloomberg News on December 6 found:  "Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year." - LINK) Evans, a mathematician who did carbon accounting for the Australian government, recently converted to a skeptical scientist about man-made global warming after reviewing the new scientific studies. (LINK) "We now have quite a lot of evidence that carbon emissions definitely don't cause global warming.  We have the missing [human] signature [in the atmosphere], we have the IPCC models being wrong and we have the lack of a temperature going up the last 5 years," Evans said in an interview with the Inhofe EPW Press Blog.  Evans authored a November 28 2007 paper "Carbon Emissions Don't Cause Global Warming." (LINK) more...

Study says humans not heating up the planet One News Now (December 11, 2007) - A new peer-reviewed study disputes the claim of former Vice President Al Gore and other green activists that global warming is caused by human activity and constitutes a "planetary emergency." The study -- conducted by climate scientists at the University of Rochester, the University of Alabama, and the University of Virginia -- finds that atmospheric warming patterns, or "fingerprints," over the last 30 years are not caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The report is published in the December issue of the International Journal of Climatology. Results from the study greatly contradict the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dr. S. Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia -- and president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project -- says he is "fairly" sure that the current warming trend is due to changes in the activities of the sun. "The sun is constantly active, emitting particle streams that carry magnetic fields; and they in turn have an influence on the climate of the earth," he says. Singer says he and other global warming skeptics have grown accustomed to claims that they are beholden to the oil and gas industry. "Of course that's not only untrue, but it's completely immaterial," says Singer. "In other words, we are using the data that is furnished by the IPCC. They are published, we use only published work. What we are basically doing is to make a comparison of model results and observations." The report concludes that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant and therefore "attempts to control CO2 emissions are ineffective and pointless -- but very costly."
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7.6 quake hits South Pacific Disaster News Network (December 9, 2007) - A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Sunday deep in the South Pacific, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The Japan Meteorological Agency measured the quake at 7.9. Both agencies said no tsunami warning was issued. "This earthquake is too deep inside the earth to generate a significant tsunami," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. The USGS noted that the temblor occurred in a remote area and that no damage or casualties were expected. The quake was felt across a wide area of New Zealand's North Island. The quake struck at 7:28 p.m. Sunday local time (2:28 a.m. Sunday EST). It was centered about 215 miles north of Raoul Island, the largest island in the Kermadec Islands. The location was also 370 miles from Tonga and 870 miles northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. It occurred at a depth of 116 miles, the USGS said. The location of the quake was in a highly active seismic area where large temblors occur on a regular basis. Other than a few conservation officials on Raoul Island, the Kermadec Islands are uninhabited. A 7.4 quake in May 2006 in the same region was also widely felt throughout New Zealand.
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Strong quake jolts Indonesia Associated Press (December 7, 2007) - An earthquake on Friday rattled Indonesia's resort island of Bali, where thousands of people were gathering for a U.N. climate change conference. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The 5.4-magnitude tremor was centered 150 miles southwest of Bali, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. It struck around 6 miles beneath the ocean floor. The quake could be felt in Bali, where more than 10,000 people were attending a two-week conference about rising global temperatures, which scientists say could lead to severe droughts and flooding, melting ice caps and rising seas, and the extinction of animals. The walls and floors of massive tents set up in a sprawling complex of five-star hotels shook for around 10 seconds, but officials said they did not have any reports of injuries or damage. The quake was not strong enough to trigger a tsunami warning. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheavals due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
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Report: World food prices to rise Associated Press (December 4, 2007) - Food prices are set to rise around the globe after years of decline, with climate change making it harder for the world's poorest to get adequate food, according to a report released Tuesday. Rising global temperatures as well as growing food consumption in rapidly developing countries such as China and India are pressuring the world food system, meaning that food prices will rise for the foreseeable future, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. Joachim von Braun, the director of the Washington-based research group, said food prices have been in a declining trend since scientists began developing high-yield plant varieties decades ago, "but the days of falling food prices may be over." "The last time the world experienced such food price increases was in 1973 to 1974 ... but today the situation is completely different. For one, the climate risk and climate change situation has increased, the climate vulnerability has increased," von Braun told reporters in Beijing. The institute said in a report that hunger and malnutrition could rise as poor agricultural communities most sensitive to the environment, such as in Africa, are hurt. Dependency on food imports will also increase as cereal yields decline in those countries. The world's agricultural production is projected to decrease by 16 percent by 2020 due to global warming, the report said, with land used for certain crops shrinking. For example, it said land to grow wheat could almost disappear in Africa. It said growing demand in rapidly developing countries such as China and India for processed food and expensive meat and dairy products is driving up prices for those goods, as well as for staple grains used to feed cattle. In addition, switching to crops used for biofuels will also reduce the amount of available food and increase prices, it said. Trade barriers for food should be eliminated, especially in developed nations, the report recommended, so small farmers can earn more money. "A world facing increased food scarcity needs to trade more, not less," the report said. The European Union and the United States have been reluctant to cut support for their own farmers and reduce trade barriers in world trade talks. more...
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UN kicks off Bali climate conference Associated Press (December 3, 2007) - Faced with melting polar ice caps and worsening droughts, climate experts at a massive U.N. conference Monday urged quick action toward a new international pact stemming an increasingly destructive rise in world temperatures. A key goal of the two-week conference, which opened with delegates from nearly 190 countries in attendance, will be to draw a skeptical United States into an agreement to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases. While the U.S. delegation declared it would not be a "roadblock" to a new agreement, Washington remains opposed to steps many other countries support, such as mandatory emissions cuts by rich nations and a target for limiting the rise in global temperatures. The American position suffered a blow Monday when the new Australian prime minister signed papers to ratify the Kyoto Protocol climate pact. The move leaves the U.S. — the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases — as the sole industrial power not to have joined. Conference leaders urged delegates to move quickly to combat climate change. "The eyes of the world are upon you. There is a huge responsibility for Bali to deliver," said Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the conference. "The world now expects a quantum leap forward." The conference kicked off amid growing global momentum for dramatic action to stop rising temperatures that scientists say could lead to swamping of coastal areas and islands by higher oceans, the wiping out of species, economic havoc and a spike in natural disasters such as storms, fires and droughts. The Bali meeting will be the first major conference of its kind since former Vice President Al Gore — due to arrive next week — and a U.N. scientific council won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for their environmental work. The immediate aim will be to launch negotiations toward a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012, and set an agenda for the talks and a deadline. The U.N. says such an agreement should be concluded by 2009 in order to have a system in place in time. more...
| EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | Earth Changes |

Yet another earthquake shakes Israel Israel Today (December 2, 2007) - A mild earthquake was felt throughout central Israel on Sunday morning, the fourth tremor to hit the region in the last two weeks. The Geophysical Institute of Israel reported that the latest earthquake had registered at 4.0 on the Richter scale, and that its epicenter was the Dead Sea. Last Saturday, a 4.1 earthquake originating in Israel's central coastal plain strongly shook the country. Earlier that week, two mild earthquakes again centered on the Dead Sea struck the region. Israeli experts have been warning of a large-scale earthquake for years, and of the widespread damage it is expected to cause due to a general failure to comply with safety building regulations.
| Israel | Earth Changes |

According to Bible prophecy, there is some serious earthquakes coming both to Israel and the whole earth. One time is regarding the two witnesses:

Revelation 11:9-13
And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Earth's tropics belt expands Associated Press (December 2, 2007) - Earth's tropical belt seems to have expanded a couple hundred miles over the past quarter century, which could mean more arid weather for some already dry subtropical regions, new climate research shows. Geographically, the tropical region is a wide swath around Earth's middle stretching from the Tropic of Cancer, just south of Miami, to the Tropic of Capricorn, which cuts Australia almost in half. It's about one-quarter of the globe and generally thought of as hot, steamy and damp, but it also has areas of brutal desert. To meteorologists, however, the tropics region is defined by long-term climate and what's happening in the atmosphere. Recent studies show changes that indicate an expansion of the tropical atmosphere. The newest study, published Sunday in the new scientific journal Nature Geoscience, shows that by using the weather definition, the tropics are expanding toward Earth's poles more than predicted. And that means more dry weather is moving to the edges of the tropics in places like the U.S. Southwest. Independent teams using four different meteorological measurements found that the tropical atmospheric belt has grown by anywhere between 2 and 4.8 degrees latitude since 1979. That translates to a total north and south expansion of 140 to 330 miles. One key determination of the tropical belt is called the Hadley circulation, which is essentially prevailing rivers of wind that move vertically as well as horizontally, carrying lots of moisture to rainy areas while drying out arid regions on the edges of the tropics. That wind is circulating over a larger area than a couple decades ago. more...
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This is a sign that the earth is heating up. Just remember so are the other planets because there's been increased sun activity over the last 100 years. The most logical and scriptural reason I came to is presented in Global Warming and the Day of the Lord.

Powerful quake shakes Caribbean, one dead Breitbart.com (November 30, 2007) - A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook several Caribbean holiday islands, destroying buildings and killing at least one person and causing widespread panic. Thousands of residents fled their homes on the French island of Martinique and in Barbados after the earthquake struck late Thursday. The quake, which was felt as far as Venezuela and the US territory of Puerto Rico, left at least two people injured in Martinique, while Barbados' emergency services chief was hurt while helping the population, police said. One third of Martinique and thousands in Guadeloupe lost electricity. One elderly woman died after suffering a heart attack in the panic of the moment in Martinique, security officials said. The US Geological Survey said the quake's epicenter was about 23 kilometers (14 miles) northwest of Martinique, causing buildings to collapse on the French island and Barbados. Police helicopters flew over Martinique to search for casualties. "For the moment, a building and a bank have collapsed," a Martinique police official told AFP. While no casualties were reported in the French territory of Guadeloupe, police said fires were reported in the main city of Pointe-a-Pitre. Hospitals were functioning normally except Hospital de Trinite, where an eight-storey tower developed large cracks after the quake. "We have rarely seen anything like this. This lasted for more than 30 seconds. The last time round was in 1970 and it was less powerful," a local resident said. In Paris, French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie summoned an emergency meeting to consider relief measures. The earthquake was 143 kilometers (89 miles) deep, causing no threat of a destructive tsunami, according to the US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. more...
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Strong Earthquake Shakes Japan Mail & Guardian (November 26, 2007) - A 6,2-magnitude earthquake hit near the city of Iwaki in Japan on Monday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, revising it to a slightly stronger quake than it initially reported. Strong earthquakes have also hit Indonesia and India since Sunday, killing at least three people in central Indonesia. The quake in Japan was centred 68km north-east of Iwaki, Honshu, and struck at 1.51pm GMT at a depth of 27km, the USGS said. The agency earlier said the quake was a magnitude six, and was centred 72km north-east of Iwaki, striking at a depth of 39km. 

Earthquake felt across Israel YNet News (November 20, 2007) - Two earthquakes, measuring 3 and 4.2 on the Richter scale, were felt across Israel on Tuesday morning. The Geophysical Institute of Israel (GII) reported that the quakes shook the entire country and originated in the northern Dead Sea. According to the Magen David Adom rescue services, there were no reports of injuries or damage. The first quake was felt at around 11:19 am and the second one at 11:30 am. Ynet received reports from readers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and southern Israel, who said that they had felt their houses shake for several seconds. Rami Hopshteter, manager of the GII, explained that "this was a moderate earthquake, but was strong enough to be felt in many areas across the country. We received reports that the quake was felt in Haifa, Ashkelon, and of course Jerusalem, which is close to the quake's origin. We are certain that our Jordanian neighbors also felt it. "The quake is not surprising," he added, "As there is a lot of activity in the Dead Sea area… However, it is impossible to draw any clear conclusions about the future. The State of Israel has been preparing for an earthquake since 1999, but more can be done to improve out preparedness." Sidra Muoio from Ma'aleh Adumin, near Jerusalem, reported that the quake "lasted for about 10 seconds and the whole house shook". Dina Dagan, manager of the Bainkini beach in the northern Dead Sea, also felt the quake. "It was really scary. Everything started shaking and I suddenly saw a huge wave ascend from the Dead Sea and it looked like it was headed toward me. "It only lasted several seconds, but it was terrifying, like something you see in the movies. I experienced a few minutes of real anxiety. The quake today was not as strong as last time, but it was nonetheless scary." "Everyone felt it, but we remained calm," said Eilon from his workplace in Herzliya. "It lasted between five to 10 seconds." more...
| Israel | Earth Changes |

More quakes rock northern Chile Breitbart.com (November 18, 2007) - More heavy aftershocks shook northern Chile Sunday following last week's deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake, as the government said it was working to restore water supplies and to prevent disease outbreaks. Two moderate shocks registering 5.5-5.6 on the moment magnitude scale hit early Sunday, one east of Arica close to the border of Peru, and a second offshore 60 kilometers (40 miles) north-northwest of the coastal city of Antofagasta, the US Geological Survey, which monitors events worldwide, reported. To the north in Peru, a temblor hit the southern province of Pisco, near Ica, which was already hard hit by an August 15 quake, the Geophysical Institute of Peru said. The temblor in Peru hit at 1234 GMT and there were no immediate reports of injuries. The city of Tacna near the Chilean border meanwhile was rocked by a 5.4 quake on the Richter scale. Saturday, eight quakes were registered between 4.6 and 6.0 magnitude in the Antofagasta area, according to the USGS. Two people were killed and some 15,000 injured and 4,000 structures damaged in Wednesday's major quake. On Sunday Chile's National Emergencies Office said it was restoring water services in the affected region, but that supplies would be rationed to prevent heavily damaged pipes from collapsing, especially in Tocopilla, a port town of 24,000 inhabitants, one of the worst hit by the quake. Water was being trucked in and health officials were arranging vaccinations for Hepatitis A for children in the area. Meanwhile, up the Pacific coast in Ecuador, just the rumor that an earthquake had hit there Sunday prompted locals in the town of Esmeraldas to panic, many of them taking to the streets. Local media reported that one person died of a heart attack there after someone drove by on a motorbike inaccurately warning townspeople a tsunami was coming. more...
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Luke 21:25,26
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Bangladeshi cyclone kills at least 1,723 Associated Press (November 18, 2007) - The death toll from Bangladesh's most devastating storm in a decade climbed to at least 2,300 on Sunday and relief officials warned the figure could jump sharply as rescuers reach more isolated areas. Teams from international aid organizations worked with army troops in a massive rescue effort that drew help from around the world. Rescue workers cleared roads of fallen trees and twisted roofs to reach remote villages, but tents, rice, water and other relief items were slow to arrive. Hungry survivors, thousands of whom were left homeless, scrambled for food. The death toll rose as officials made contact with coastal regions cut off by the storm, said Selina Shahid of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management. District officials compile the figures, which are far from precise, based on reports from police, public hospitals, military officials, relief workers and aid agencies, said Mohammad Golam Mostafa of the Disaster Management Ministry. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, said that it believed the toll could hit 10,000 once rescuers reach islands off the coast of the low-lying river delta nation. Mohammad Abdur Rob, chairman of the society, said the estimate came from the assessments of thousands of volunteers taking part in the rescue operations across the battered region. "We have seen more bodies floating in the sea," Zakir Hossain, a fisherman from the country's southwest said, after reaching shore with two decomposing bodies he and other fishermen had found. Squatting in a muddy field with his wife, 45-year-old farmer Asad Ali said their their 5-year-old daughter, the couple's only child, had been fatally crushed beneath their toppled thatched hut in Barguna, one of the hardest-hit districts. He said a helicopter had dropped packages of food but he had received little assistance. Mobs swarm below the helicopters every time one is spotted. "I've been here waiting for hours for something to eat," he said. "What I've got so far are a few cookies. Not enough." Government officials defended the relief efforts and expressed confidence that authorities are up to the task. "We have enough food and water," said Shahidul Islam, the top official in Bagerhat, a battered district close to Barguna. "We are going to overcome the problem." more...
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Magnitude 7.7 quake hits northern Chile Reuters (November 14, 2007) - A powerful magnitude 7.7 quake hit mineral-rich northern Chile on Wednesday, injuring at least 20 people, damaging buildings and halting operations at some of the world's biggest copper mines. Copper prices jumped by as much as 6.29 percent to $3.3040 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division as huge copper mines reported they were without power. The quake made buildings sway hundreds of miles away in neighboring countries and the Chilean capital Santiago. Officials said there were no reports of deaths, but at least 20 people were injured when roofs caved in and balconies crumbled on weaker, older buildings, mostly in Tocopilla, 75 miles north of coastal mining city Antofagasta. "One of the most affected zones could be Tocopilla where some houses in the western part of town, which are made of lighter materials, have been affected and we have some injured people," Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said on television. Television images showed cars crushed under the concrete awning of a hotel in Antofagasta, where power and phone services were knocked out by the quake. Frightened residents stood in the streets. "People ran out into the streets because of how prolonged the quake was. There was a lot of alarm but no material or human damage," said Police Chief Hernan Tamayo in Arequipa, a town farther north near the Peruvian border. The United States Geological Service, or USGS, said the quake, 36.7 miles deep, was centered 66 miles west of the town of Calama and struck at 12:40 p.m. local time. The quake was initially reported at 7.8 magnitude by the U.S. agency and later verified at 7.7. Just two hours later, a second quake of 5.7 magnitude struck. The USGS said this quake, 25.5 miles deep, was centered 36 miles northwest of Antofagasta and struck at 1744 GMT. The second quake was initially reported at 6.0 magnitude by the agency and later verified at 5.7. more...
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Remnant of Yellowstone volcano rising: study Reuters (November 9, 2007) - A big blob of molten rock appears to be pushing up remnants of an ancient volcano in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, scientists reported on Friday. They say no volcanic explosion is imminent -- that already happened 642,000 years ago, creating the volcanic crater known as a caldera where part of Yellowstone Lake sits. But satellite readings show just how volcanically active the area remains, the researchers reported in the journal Science. From the middle of 2004 through 2006, the floor of the caldera rose 7 inches at a rate of 2.8 inches a year -- the biggest rise ever measured, they reported. "There is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion. That's the bottom line," University of Utah seismologist Robert Smith said in a statement. "A lot of calderas worldwide go up and down over decades without erupting." Yellowstone is North America's largest volcanic field, produced by what is known as a hotspot, a plume of hot and molten rock squirting up from 400 miles beneath the planet's surface. Monstrous eruptions took place there starting 2 million years ago but activity bubbles along much more calmly now -- akin to similar volcanic fields such as the Campi Flegrei just outside Naples in Italy. Beneath the field lies what is known as a magma chamber, which is actually similar to a wet sponge in structure. "Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock," Smith said. "But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again." Heat from the chamber warms the park's hundreds of hot springs and geysers, including "Old Faithful," perhaps the world's best-known geyser. Established in 1872 as the first U.S. national park, Yellowstone also stretches to parts of Montana and Idaho.
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U. scientists say Yellowstone caldera may be filling with magma The Salt Lake Tribune (November 8, 2007) - The floor of the Yellowstone caldera has risen at a rate faster than has ever been observed before, according to a new study that gives further proof that "ground deformation" at the park resembles the gently heaving chest of a slumbering giant. The likely cause of the uplift is a volcanic intrusion of molten rock that has moved upward 50 to 60 miles and flattened into a pancake the size of Los Angeles a few miles below the surface, according to a study to be published Friday by University of Utah scientists. Meanwhile, further research is needed to investigate the role hot water and gases play in the mysterious rise and subsidence of Yellowstone, the marquee national park famous for its geothermal features. The new findings in no way should be construed as a harbinger of a natural disaster. "There is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion. That's the bottom line," said seismologist Robert B. Smith, the study's lead author and a U. professor of geophysics. "A lot of calderas worldwide go up and down over decades without erupting." Still, the floor of the Yellowstone caldera rose 7 inches during the 30-month study period that concluded at the end of 2006. The 2.8-inch-per-year rate of uplift was much more rapid than had ever been observed since scientists began recording Yellowstone's ground movement in 1923. Previously, the most rapid uplift occurred from 1976 to 1985, when the bulge grew less than an inch a year, according to the article titled, "Accelerated Uplift and Magmatic Intrusion of the Yellowstone Caldera, 2004 to 2006," in the Nov. 9 edition of Science. "Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock," Smith said. "But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again." Yellowstone overlies a "hotspot" in the earth's crust that has produced massive eruptions, at least 140 over the past 16 million years. Hundreds of miles below, scientists believe, is a massive plume of magma that occasionally releases blobs of molten rock that rise and fill the chamber under the Yellowstone caldera. more...
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Thank you Debbie for the story! She also shared a personal story that I think is also showing increased activity:

I thought that you might be interested in these two articles that was in the Salt Lake Tribune the past few days. While my parents were recently in Yellowstone, a geyser they were standing by shot up about 120 feet into the air. Park rangers came running from every direction and said to my mom and dad, "you just witnessed history in the making, this thing hasn't gone off in over 80 years". When we took our granddaughters a few months later, we were told that their has been "very unusual activity this season" and that they aren't quite sure what to make of it.

Villagers flee slopes as sensors show one of Indonesia's deadliest volcanos has begun erupting Santa Barbara News-Press (November 3, 2007) - Villagers fled the slopes of one of Indonesia's deadliest volcanos Saturday after seismic readings indicated that an eruption had started after weeks of heightened activity. The volcano in the heart of densely populated Java island was shrouded in fog and no visual confirmation of the apparent eruption was possible before night fell, government seismologist Umar Rosadi said. By early Saturday evening, detecting instruments close to the crater were still operating, indicating any eruption had not been large enough to damage them, he said. There were no reports of injuries or damage. Scientists said it was impossible to predict whether larger eruptions were on the way. Scores of people, including women hauling babies in slings, descended from the mountain in police trucks and on bicycles and motorcycles. Some were in tears, and many wore masks to protect against volcanic ash. ''I am afraid because the authorities say this eruption will be worse than the ones that have come before,'' said Marsini, resident of a village three miles from the crater. ''They say there may be poisonous gas. I am leaving now.'' Rosadi and another government scientist said official monitors had left their posts after detecting continuous tremors, indicating an eruption had begun. For weeks, authorities have warned of an impending eruption and pleaded with villagers to move to tent camps or government buildings. Thousands have evacuated villages closest to the crater but many people have insisted on staying behind to tend to crops or look after their houses. Some apparently believe a local myth stating if they stayed at home without switching indoor lights on or speaking in a loud voice then the mountain would not erupt. In 1990, Mount Kelud killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds. In 1919, a powerful explosion that could be heard hundreds of miles away destroyed dozens of villages and killed at least 5,160. Scientists fear a buildup of magma under Kelud's crater lake could trigger a violent blast, sending a torrent of mud, ash and rock careering down the side of the 5,679-foot mountain. The mountain has been on its highest alert status for more than two weeks, but in the last 48 hours the intensity of the quakes and the temperature of its lake have exceeding those in the days preceding the 1990 blast, scientists say. Indonesia has about 100 active volcanos, more than any nation. The country is spread across 17,500 islands and is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location on the so-called ''Ring of Fire'' - a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia. At least three are currently erupting elsewhere in the country, including Mount Anak Krakatau, which lies of the northern tip of Java island. The mountain was formed after the famous Krakatau volcano erupted in 1883 killing thousands, but it is not seen as at risk of a major blast. more...
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5.6-strong quake shakes San Francisco Bay area; none hurt The Jerusalem Post (October 31, 2007) - A magnitude-5.6 earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area Tuesday night, rattling homes and nerves, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries. The moderate temblor struck shortly after 8 p.m., about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, according to the US Geological Survey. Residents reported feeling the quake as far east as Sacramento and as far north as Sonoma. The California Highway Patrol has received no reports of damage or injuries, spokesman Tom Marshall said. It was the strongest tremor in the Bay Area since 1989, when a magnitude-7.1 quake killed 62 people. The epicenter of the quake was near Alum Rock, in the Diablo Range foothills east of San Jose - not far from the home of San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. Pictures fell off the walls of Reed's house, but the mayor said there was no major damage there. "It was a pretty strong ride here, a lot of shaking but nothing broken," Reed told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home. "I've talked to a few people and we have no reports of injuries or damage. There was a lot of shaking, but it wasn't the big one." Amrit Shergill, a night cashier at Alum Rock Shell gasoline station in San Jose, said there was no damage other than some small items that toppled off a shelf - but the intensity of the shaking sent her outside and crouching on the sidewalk. "My God, I felt like running because the roof might come down on my head," said Shergill, who was born in India. "I've never felt anything like this in 16 years in the United States." Rod Foo, a resident of south San Jose, about 10 miles from the epicenter, said everything in his house shook for several seconds, but the electricity never went out and his telephone was still working. "I could hear it coming up the street before it hit the house," said Foo, a former reporter with the San Jose Mercury News. "I thought it was the kids messing around at first, then I felt the house shaking and I knew it was an earthquake. ... It was rattling for a long time and really loud." The USGS reported 10 aftershocks, the biggest with a preliminary magnitude of 2.1. more...
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Mini-Earthquake Sets Off Predictions of a Larger One Israel National News (October 18, 2007) - The Patzael region in the central Jordan Valley, just 20 kilometers north of Jericho, was touched by a small earthquake on Saturday night, registering 3.0 on the Richter scale. A similar quake occurred in the same area two months ago. On Sunday morning, researchers at Tel Aviv University presented a new study on the timeline of earthquakes throughout history. No precise future earthquake dates can be extrapolated from the data, but the researchers say one is on the way - as no major quake has hit the danger area between the Dead Sea and the Kinneret in centuries. "It's like the first winter rain," said Dr. Shmuel Marko, who took part in the study. "The longer the dry summer lasts, the closer the first rain is. Here, as well: The quiet is worrisome. The longer we go without a large quake, the more we can expect one." On the other hand, experts have said that Israel's earthquakes are in general less frequent than those in other quake-prone regions such as California, Japan and Turkey. Israel is located along the Syria-Africa rift, a friction point between two subterranean plates and is therefore considered earthquake-prone. In 1927, some 250 people were killed in an earthquake that hit Jericho and central Israel. In November 1995, a 6.2 quake caused injuries to several people in Eilat. A minor quake, 5.0 on the Richter scale, hit Israel in February 2004, shaking buildings in many cities and even causing damage to the Knesset building. No one was reported hurt. The northern city of Tzfat was hit by two earthquakes in recent centuries, in 1759 and in 1837. The latter one killed at least 2,000 people, when residents were buried under the ruins of their homes and help did not arrive for days.
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Possibility of volcanic activity near Quesnel excites scientists Vancouver Sun (October 15, 2007) - Scientists are headed tomorrow to an area 75 kilometres west of Quesnel to install seismological equipment aimed at determining whether a "swarm" of small earthquakes are evidence of a forthcoming burst of molten lava -- potentially the first volcanic activity in the province in two centuries. "It's pretty exciting to see this," John Cassidy, earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, confirmed in an interview. "The earthquakes are continuing, even today. We should have some answers soon." The story began last Wednesday when existing seismological equipment located, appropriately enough, at Thunder Mountain began recording earthquake activity. Since then, there have been more than 100 small earthquakes -- most of them magnitude 1.0 or less on the Richter scale, but as big as 3.1 -- including an average of one per hour over the past 24 hours. The activity is located 20 kilometers west of Nazko Cone, which last erupted 7,200 years ago and is currently being mined for scoria, used for light-weight aggregate, landscaping and ground cover, and in agricultural and horticultural applications as a soil additive. The new seismic equipment is expected to be installed as early as Tuesday right on top of the earthquake activity, allowing scientists to better determine the depth and direction of the activity. Upward movement could be evidence the lava is working its way to the surface, causing small earthquakes as it muscles its way through the earth's rocks. "That's one option," Cassidy said. "We don't know if it's caused by magma at depth or if it's tectonic -- just an earthquake in an unusual area, because we haven't seen earthquakes here before. "It may turn out to be a little swarm of earthquakes in an unusual spot, but it may turn out to the be reawakening of a volcano, which is really exciting." Even if lava is on its way, it could be take weeks or months to reach the surface, Cassidy said, noting it took Mount St. Helens in Washington about two months to finally blow its top in 1980.
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Foreshadowing of Wormwood - Meteorite crash leaves 66ft-wide crater, toxic fumes, water contamination Daily Mail (September 19, 2007) - It has all the hallmarks of a 1950s B-movie - a remote location, mysterious lights in the sky, a crater that appeared from nowhere, and a disease that spread like the plague through locals. But this is no science fiction film. Officials in Peru yesterday revealed that 200 people had fallen sick after an object from space crashed into the south of the country over the weekend. The incident has echoes of The Andromeda Strain - the Michael Crichton thriller in which a crashed satellite brings an extra-terrestrial plague to the Earth. While no scientists are seriously suggesting that aliens are to blame, the incident has left many baffled. On Saturday morning locals saw a fireball plummeting from the sky and heard it smash into the desolate Andean plain close to Carancas, near the Bolivian border. Believing a plane had crashed, they raced to the site to discover a crater around 66ft wide and 16ft deep. Soon after, many began to complain of headaches, vomiting and sore throats. Farm animals were also affected - left staggering, gasping and with eyes watering. By Tuesday, 200 people were ill, said Jorge Lopez, the director of the local health department, who blamed a meteorite. "This is caused by the gas they have inhaled after the crash," he said. The mystery deepened when local news reports said two "calcium life-forms" were found in the crater. One excited radio reporter said: "They think they've found spacemen." The bodies turned out to be the remains of dead animals buried before the object hit. "We are all very worried," said villager Jorge Ballestas. "People wonder if it is safe to drink the water, or eat the food." An engineer from the Peruvian Nuclear Energy Institute said no radiation had been detected. Scientists from San Andres University in La Paz said analysis of sand samples from the crater showed it could be a meteorite which was blasted to dust by the impact. However, other meteor experts are unconvinced. Dr Caroline Smith of the Natural History Museum in London, said: "It's the third incident like this in Peru in the last few years - and none have turned out to be meteorites. "It's far more likely to have a been caused by the explosion of gases that build up naturally under the ground. "In that part of Peru, you might get a build up of methane or hydrogen sulphide, both of which have an eggy smell and which could cause health problems." She suspects the light in the sky seen around the time of the crash was unrelated and was probably caused by a fireball - a large meteor that produces a spectacular display as it burns up in the sky.
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Magnitude 8.0 quake hits Indonesia's Sumatra Reuters (September 12, 2007) - An earthquake measuring 8.O struck Indonesia's Sumatra region on Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey said. The quake had the potential to cause a tsunami, an Indonesian meteorological agency official said, putting the magnitude at 7.9. Some offices in Jakarta were evacuated after the tremors were felt. Witnesses in Singapore and Thailand said they also felt the quake.
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Tornado strikes New York borough of Brooklyn International Herald Tribune (August 9, 2007) - It took experts a while to confirm what many in southwestern Brooklyn knew had descended on their neighborhoods as a new workday dawned. It was a tornado - the first to hit the New York borough since modern record-keeping began - and it turned whole sections of Brooklyn upside down. Roofs were torn off houses. More than 30 families were forced from their homes. Tall trees as thick as men were yanked out by the roots. No one was seriously injured, but cars were turned sideways, awnings and aluminum siding shredded, and countless windows and windshields shattered, in a destructive rain of bricks and branches and water Wednesday. Lanie Mastellone was drinking her coffee about 7 a.m. in her apartment on the top floor of her two-story house when she sensed that her windows were going to blow in. She went toward the front of the house, and as she passed from one room to another the ceilings collapsed. "I passed my living room, I passed my dining room, I go to the bedroom," Mastellone said. "They were going one at a time. It was coming from the back forward." Mastellone, a widow who lives alone, was more puzzled than terrified. "It was almost unemotional," she said. "I was still thinking, 'Maybe my roof is leaking?' I think denial is a wonderful thing sometimes." Still, she knew she had to get out. "I grabbed my wedding ring and my cellphone," she said. She opened her apartment door, stepped out into the hallway and looked up. "That's when I realized I had no roof," she said. She was not the only one. Two houses away, the roof looked as if it had exploded. Most of it was lying in the street.
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Indonesia's West Java hit by strong earthquake Reuters (August 8, 2007) - A powerful earthquake struck a coastal area in Indonesia's West Java on Thursday, sparking panic in many parts of the densely inhabited island, although there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake was too deep to prompt a tsunami warning, said Robert Cessaro at the United States National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. An official at Indonesia's Meteorological agency said by telephone that it struck an area on the northern coast of West Java. "There has been no damage or casualties reported so far," the official said by telephone, adding that the quake could be felt as far away as Padang in Sumatra and the resort island of Bali. The quake with a magnitude of 7.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, struck just after midnight and could be felt by residents in the capital Jakarta, as well as in the nearby city of Bandung and in the town Yogyakarta in central Java. The ancient royal city of Yogykarta was devastated by an earthquake that killed more than 5,700 people just over a year ago. The U.S. agency said on its Web site the quake struck at 1704 GMT and said its epicenter was 110 km (68.4 miles) from Jakarta at a depth of 282.1 km. Residents in an apartment block in central Jakarta described feeling the tower shake three to four times and then said people rushed out of the building. The Indonesian Meteorological agency put the quake at 7.0 on the Richter scale and said it struck 75 km northwest of the coastal city of Indramayu at a depth of 286 km. Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes, lying on an active seismic belt on part of the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire."
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U.N.: 2007 seeing record extreme weather MSNBC (August 7, 2007) - The world experienced a series of record-breaking weather events in early 2007, from flooding in Asia to heat waves in Europe and snowfall in South Africa, the United Nations weather agency said Tuesday. The World Meteorological Organization said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at about 3 degrees Fahrenheit higher than average for those months. There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, extreme heat waves in southeastern Europe and Russia, and unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO said. “The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of extreme weather events,” Omar Baddour of the agency’s World Climate Program told journalists in Geneva. While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring. “It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year,” he said. more...
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Powerful 7.3 Earthquake Rattles Vauatu Reuters India (August 2, 2007) - A powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake rattled the Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Thursday, cracking roads and disrupting power supplies, but did not cause major damage, local authorities said. The quake occurred at 0409 locally on Thursday about 45 km southeast of the central island of Santo at a depth of around 150 km below the Pacific Ocean surface. "It's a pretty good size, but it's deep and there is no tsunami threat. It's aways out to sea," Geophysicist Robert Cessaro at the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center told Reuters. Jesse Benjamin, a spokesman for the Vanuatu government meteorological office, said the quake was felt strongly on Santo. "There are cracks in the roads, cracks in the offices, the power went down and computers, but we do not expect major damage," he said from the capital Port Vila. | Earth Changes |

Bulusan volcano spews ash anew, causing panic in the Philippines International Herald Tribune (July 30, 2007) - The Bulusan volcano in the central Philippines spewed ash early Tuesday, blanketing fields and villages as far as five kilometers (three miles) away, but there was no immediate sign of a major eruption, scientists said. The 1,560-meter (5,150-foot) Mount Bulusan has been showing signs of unrest with on-and-off ash and steam explosions since March 2006. "We are keeping an eye on some villages in Juban and Irosin town. An ash explosion can occur there anytime," said Bella Tubianosa from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. She said the latest burst sent ash falling five kilometers (three miles) west of the volcano, which is in Sorsogon province about 390 kilometers (240 miles) southeast of Manila. Television reports said the ash column caused panic in the surrounding area, with residents running out of their homes. Villagers have been warned not to venture into a four-kilometer (2.5-mile) "permanent danger zone" around the volcano. Broadcaster ABS-CBN said the military was expected to enforce an evacuation of people from Bulusan's immediate vicinity. Since it last ejected ash on May 12, the mountain's northeastern slope has swelled slightly and abnormally high numbers of earthquakes have been recorded, according to the Philippine volcanology institute. The Philippine archipelago lies on the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire," where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common. In December, typhoon-triggered mudslides along the slopes of nearby Mayon volcano buried entire villages, killing more than 1,000 people. | Earth Changes |

500 dead in China's worst flooding ever Breitbart.com (July 30, 2007) - China is facing its worst flooding ever with more than 500 people killed among 200 million affected, the Red Cross said Monday. Nearly five million residents have been evacuated from their homes because water levels have risen dangerously high along China's main rivers, while more flash floods, downpours and landslides are expected in the coming days, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. "Over the past two months, more than 200 million people have been affected and over 500 have been killed nationwide by the worst flooding ever to hit the country," it said. | Earth Changes | China summer storm deaths approach 700

LEAD: M7.0 quake hits off Indonesia's eastern Malukus+ Breitbart.com (July 26, 2007) - Indonesia issued a tsunami warning, lifted later, after a 7.0 earthquake hit off the Maluku Islands at about 2:40 p.m. Thursday. There have been no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake's epicenter in the Molucca Sea about 223 kilometers north of the North Maluku provincial capital Ternate, about 950 km west southwest of Davao on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and 44.6 km under the seabed. The quake was also felt in the North Sulawesi provincial capital Manado, about 240 km east of Ternate. "I am outside my office now, because everything -- glasses, helmets -- were shaking," a man in Manado told the Jakarta-based private radio station Elshinta. An hour after the quake, no tsunami was reported and the Jakarta-based Meteorological and Geophysics Agency lifted the tsunami warning. Indonesia, with more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes. In December 2004, a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed about 200,000 people in Aceh Province and tens of thousands of others in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other areas around the perimeter of the Indian Ocean. A magnitude 8.7 earthquake jolted Nias Island, off Sumatra to the south of Aceh, in March 2005 killing more than 800 people. And a strong earthquake also rocked Yogyakarta and surrounding Central Java cities on May 27 last year, killing about 5,800 people. more... | Earth Changes |

China quake prompts evacuation of 8,250 Reuters (July 22, 2007) - An earthquake in a remote region of northwest China brought down more than 2,100 houses and prompted the evacuation of 8,250 people, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. The 5.7-magnitude quake jolted a county in the north of the vast Xinjiang region, bordering Kazakhstan, on Friday. Xinhua quoted an official as saying no one had died. The quake hit Tekes county, with its epicentre in a mountainous region 430 km (270 miles) from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. "Rescuers have displaced 8,250 residents as their houses, most of which are mud-brick, either collapsed or became dangerous," the official was quoted as saying. China is struck by frequent earthquakes, most hitting remote rural areas. | Earth Changes |

Floods kill at least 100 across China Reuters (July 22, 2007) - More than 100 people have died in floods and landslides in China, and tens of thousands have fled their homes in the east, where dykes are in danger of being breached by a swollen river. Severe flooding has hit about half of China since the start of the summer, killing hundreds in what has become the deadliest rainy season in years. Natural disasters, mostly floods, have killed more than 800 people so far this year. Television pictures for days have shown villagers wading chest high through muddy water and old people being carried from their inundated homes. Fifty-nine people have died after rainstorms in mountainous Yunnan province in the southwest, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. Rain has destroyed more than 4,000 houses and damaged thousands of hectares of crops. A 176-km (110-mile) highway linking Tengchong county in Yunnan and Myanmar has been severed by flows of mud and rock. At least 40 people have died in storms in Shandong province on the east coast. Dozens have died in the central Chongqing region which President Hu Jintao visited at the weekend, urging the local government to ensure victims had clothing, food, shelter, power and drinking water. The already swollen middle and lower reaches of the Huai river, China's third longest, face a severe test in the east with the water level expected to stay dangerously high for at least a further 10 days, Xinhua said. more... | Earth Changes |

Floods Cause More Misery Across Britain Sky News (July 21, 2007) - The emergency services are taking the strain tonight as many parts of Britain remain under water. It is more than 24 hours since storms swept across the country, dumping huge amounts of rain on already saturated ground, leading to widespread flooding in dozens of towns. Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire have been worst hit counties. But other areas have also suffered. The Prime Minister has praised the emergency services, and insisted no one could have predicted the extent of the deluge. Gordon Brown said the emergency services and armed forces were doing all they could to help the victims and are doing a "superb" job. The Environment Agency has issued five flood warnings for the River Avon - people stranded in Stratford-upon-Avon have had to be evacuated by helicopter. Around 200 people are still in emergency accommodation in Gloucester after being stranded by the flood waters. That figure is down from 2,000. Worcestershire and Herefordshire have been badly hit, with the fire service receiving more than 1,000 calls in the past 24 hours. Lifeboat crews were called in to help with the rescue operation. Local officials in Evesham have appealed for volunteers to help fill sandbags to hold back floodwater that forced 800 people from their homes. Hundreds of families who spent the night in their cars on the M5 should soon be on the move after the motorway finally reopened. Train passengers were stranded in Oxford and Banbury and flooded residents were moved into council offices. Seventy homes and offices have been evacuated in Buckingham because of rising waters. Emergency services in Gloucestershire have confirmed that one month's rain fell in just two hours. They received 1,600 emergency calls in nine hours - five times the normal amount - and a "major incident" was declared. Baroness Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency, told Sky News: "These are the sorts of rain falls we experience in the past every 100 years, every 150 years, sometimes every 200 years - they're very extreme." more... | Earth Changes |

Quake jolts San Francisco Bay area Associated Press (July 20, 2007) - An earthquake jolted San Francisco Bay area residents awake early Friday, breaking glass and rattling nerves, although there were no immediate reports of injuries. The earthquake was recorded about 2 miles east of Oakland and had a preliminary magnitude of 4.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It could be felt for up to 10 seconds on both sides of the San Francisco Bay after striking shortly after 4:40 a.m. More than 1,000 customers in the Oakland area lost power, a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman said. Crews were investigating the outages. A dispatcher at the Oakland Police Department said police were getting calls about alarms going off. In Berkeley, an employee at a Safeway grocery store said two large windows broke but there were no injuries. | Earth Changes |

Pacific Quake Series Intrigues Scientists The Honolulu Advertiser (July 17, 2007) - Scientists are intrigued by a cluster of earthquakes that circled the Pacific during the past two days, but seismologists don't believe most of them are related. From late Saturday night, the edges of the Pacific Ocean felt tremors of magnitude 5.0 or greater in the area of Japan and the Philippines to the west, the Aleutians to the north, the Galapagos to the east, and Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to the south. "It's been pretty exciting," said Charles "Chip" McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in 'Ewa Beach. Only a quake Sunday afternoon, Hawai'i time, off Japan caused local damage. At least nine people were reported killed. None of the recent shakers generated Pacificwide tsunami likely to affect Hawai'i. Most of the earthquakes were comparatively weak, but it is unusual to see so many in the 5 and 6 range clustered together. McCreery said it is unlikely that quakes in, say, Japan and in the Aleutian chain thousands of miles away are related. "We think these are random clusters" and that it was just happenstance that a dozen of them occurred within two days, he said. For some in the quake-watching community, what's more interesting is what hasn't been happening. It's been an unusually long time — nearly four months — since there has been a big earthquake of magnitude 7 or more anywhere in the world. The last one was a 7.1 quake March 25 in Vanuatu. Again, that doesn't necessarily mean a bigger one is coming, or that one isn't. There was a four-month lag last year, which ended with a 7.1 quake that killed two people in Taiwan on Dec. 26, 2006. more... | Earth Changes |

Japan Hit By Second Quake in a Day, Reactor Damaged (Update1) Bloomberg.com (July 16, 2007) - Two earthquakes struck Japan today, damaging a nuclear reactor, toppling houses and causing a fire. Seven people were killed and more than 800 were injured by the first quake, NHK television reported on its Web site. A second magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck in the Sea of Japan 457 kilometers (284 miles) northwest of Tokyo at 11:17 p.m. local time, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site. The earlier quake, around 250 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, had triggered tsunami warnings and caused buildings to sway for several minutes around 10:15 a.m. No tsunamis are expected from the second earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that a nuclear reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant in Niigata was damaged by the first quake. Two cracks opened in its reactor No. 6, causing radioactive water to leak into the ocean, the company said on its Web site. The leaked water had no effect on the environment, according to the power company. NHK showed images of houses with collapsed roofs, cracked highways and a train carriage derailed at a station in the coastal city of Kashiwazaki. Other nuclear reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant were automatically shut down when the tremors began, Tokyo Electric said. Japan yesterday began cleaning up after being battered for three days by Typhoon Man-Yi, which caused three deaths, injured scores of people and disrupted air and rail transport. Many offices are shut today for Marine Day, a national holiday. As of noon local time, 21,541 households in Niigata prefecture were without power, the Trade Ministry said in an e- mailed statement. Supply of natural gas, a typical cooking fuel in Japan, was cut to 34,000 houses, the statement said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut short an election campaign stop in the southern city of Nagasaki to fly to Kashiwazaki, the area hardest hit by the quake, Kyodo News reported. The government earlier set up an emergency task force and sent Kensei Mizote, minister in charge of disaster management, to inspect quake-hit areas, it said. East Japan Railway Co., the country's largest train operator, halted part of its Shinkansen bullet train services, said Takahiro Kikuchi, a company spokesman. Services on the Joetsu line between the Echigo Yuzawa resort area and Niigata on the Japan Sea coast remained suspended as of 3 p.m., while trains resumed service between Tokyo and Echigo Yuzawa. Service was also restored on the Tohoku and Nagano bullet train lines, which connect Tokyo with northern Japan and the central prefecture of Nagano. Local trains operated by JR East, as the company is known, derailed at Kashiwazaki station and in the Yoneyama Tunnel in Niigata, Kikuchi said. No one was injured, he said. The Niigata area was hit by a quake in October 2004 that killed at least 33 people and injured 2,900. It forced East Japan Railway to shut a section of the Joetsu bullet train line for two months and damaged a semiconductor plant in the area operated by Sanyo Electric Co. Sanyo, which halted the plant today, will resume production tomorrow, Sanyo spokesman Akihiko Oiwa said via phone. ``There is no damage to the building and no workers were injured,'' he said. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's largest consumer-electronics maker, had no serious damage at its plants, spokesman Akira Kadota said. Its Niigata factory makes facsimile and copying machines, according to the company's Web site. Japan, one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, is located in a zone where the Eurasian, Pacific, Philippine and North American tectonic plates meet and occasionally shift, causing earthquakes. Quakes of magnitude 5 and more can cause considerable damage. | Earth Changes |

Powerful typhoon causes mass blackout, injuries in Japan Breitbart.com (July 13, 2007) - A powerful typhoon hit Japan's southern Okinawa island Friday, cutting power to nearly 100,000 homes and grounding hundreds of flights. Man-Yi, the fourth typhoon of the season, lashed the subtropical island, whipping up waves of 12 metres (40 feet) off the Okinawa coasts and turning over trucks in roads. Seven people have been injured in Okinawa from the typhoon since the storm approached Thursday, although none of them were in serious condition, according to police and the crisis management office. Men trying to clear the damage clung to trees to withstand the violent wind and rain, which was so forceful it uprooted trees and knocked over large fences, television footage showed. The storm cut off electricity supply to 99,400 households in the Okinawa archipelago. "The winds are so strong. Our staff are on standby at branch offices, waiting for the winds to calm down," a spokeswoman at Okinawa Electric Power said. The injured people included a 48-year-old man who fell six metres when he was fixing a television antenna on his roof, officials said. Heavy rain was also reported in parts of the Japanese mainland, with 79 millimetres (3.16 inches) drenching the city of Hyuga on the southern island of Kyushu in one hour alone, raising fears of landslides. Man-yi, described as "extremely strong" by the meteorological agency, is packing wind gusts of up to 252 kilometres an hour (156 miles an hour). The storm remained over the island 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the Okinawan capital of Naha at midday and was moving north at 20 kilometres (12 miles) an hour. The typhoon may cross the Tokyo region early Sunday after lashing western Japan, the meteorological agency said, warning of torrential rain, flooding and landslides. more... | Earth Changes |

China faces record flooding Macedonian Radio & Television (July 12, 2007) - At least 131 people have been killed and another 31 are missing after floods and landslides caused by two weeks of torrential rain in China. The floods had forced the evacuation of 1.2 million people and affected some 36 million in seven provinces since June 28, the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported on its website. More than 99,000 houses were destroyed and 407,000 were damaged in the seven provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing and Shaanxi, the ministry said. Damage to buildings, crops and infrastructure caused direct economic losses estimated at 9.9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), it said. | Earth Changes |

Thousands flee Indonesian volcano as top alert declared Breitbart.com (July 10, 2007) - Some 8,500 people have fled the slopes of an Indonesian volcano after it spewed ash, smoke and debris, as the volcanology office raised its warning to the highest level. The office said volcanic activity at Mount Gamkonora, about 2,700 kilometres (1,600 miles) northeast of Jakarta, prompted it to raise its warning level to "alert" which means an eruption is imminent. Spot fires were visible and the crater spewed burning material up to 15 metres (yards) from the crater, the office said. People nearby heard two thunderous booms and the column of smoke rising from the crater reached up to 2,500 metres, the office said on its website. It said that as of early Monday, 8,439 people had moved off the slopes of the 1,635-metre (5,461-foot) volcano, which last erupted in 1987. It was unclear how many remained on the slopes and were at risk. Local official Penta Libela said authorities were helping with the evacuation of villagers and had prepared four safe shelters. "It is not an official evacuation program. The population panicked because of the eruption and fled on their own and as the local government, we are merely helping by providing more vehicles and assigning temporary shelters," Libela said early Monday. Indonesia sits on the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire," where continental plates meet, causing frequent volcanic and seismic activity. The archipelago nation has the world's highest number of active volcanoes. Gamkonora has erupted 12 times since records have been kept. The volcano typically spews heat clouds, or pyroclastic flows, along with lava streams toward villages in the west and northwest of Halmahera island, rather than exploding, the volcanology website said. | Earth Changes |

Thousand of new volcanoes revealed beneath the waves New Scientist (July 9, 2007) - The true extent to which the ocean bed is dotted with volcanoes has been revealed by researchers who have counted 201,055 underwater cones. This is over 10 times more than have been found before. The team estimates that in total there could be about 3 million submarine volcanoes, 39,000 of which rise more than 1000 metres over the sea bed. "The distribution of underwater volcanoes tells us something about what is happening in the centre of the Earth," says John Hillier of the University of Cambridge in the UK. That is because they give information about the flows of hot rock in the mantle beneath. "But the problem is that we cannot see through the water to count them," he says. Satellites can detect volcanoes that are more than 1500 m high because the mass of the submerged mountains causes gravity to pull the water in around them. This creates domes on the ocean's surface that can be several metres high and can be detected from space. But there is a multitude of small volcanoes that have gone undetected. The only way of identifying them is to manually find their outline on sonar measurements taken from ships. Since the late 1960s, research vessels have been criss-crossing the oceans using sonar instruments to measure the depth of the ocean floor. They have generated 40 million kilometres of linear profiles showing the topography of the ocean bed between 60° North – the latitude of southern Alaska – and 60° South – corresponding to the tip of Patagonia. But until now, no one had been able to sift through them all. So, Hillier and a colleague designed a computer programme that was able to analyse the huge amount of data and identify volcano-like shapes in the sonar lines. The programme found 201,055 volcanoes over 100m tall. Previously, satellite data had identified 14,164 volcanoes over 1500 m high. Hillier then extrapolated the data to estimate how many volcanoes exist beyond the areas the research vessels sounded out. He estimates there are about 39,000 volcanoes that are higher than 1000 m, leaving nearly 25,000 yet to be directly discovered. more... | Earth Changes |

Strong quake hits Southern Mexico Breitbart.com (July 6, 2007) - A strong earthquake shook southernmost Mexico late Thursday, knocking out power to large parts of Chiapas state and causing panic among residents, according to seismologists. People rushed from their homes in fear in several areas of southern Mexico, but no injuries were reported and Chiapas public security secretary Daniel Rogue told AFP that there was only "light damage to some buildings" in the state. In Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital, power went off, ceilings fell and windows broke in the commercial district, where dozens of people fled terrified into the street in search of safety. Electricity services also shut down in Oaxaca, according to reports. Seismologists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico said it was a 6.2 quake and the US Geological Survey measured the quake at 6.1 in magnitude, indicating a strong earthquake apt to cause damage and injuries. The magnitude reading was based on the Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released. The quake hit at 8:09 pm Thursday (0109 GMT Friday), at a depth of 125 kilometers (78 miles) 40 kilometers (25 miles) west and southwest of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico and 390 kilometers (240 miles) northwest of Guatemala City. Jesus Duran, a spokesman for the state oil company Pemex, told Reforma newspaper there was no damage reported at the company's refinery in Salina Cruz. "All of the plants are normal .... there are no problems," he said. Authorities in three states ordered evacuations of buildings and businesses. On April 13, a quake of 6.2 magnitude hit Mexico without causing major damage. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the southern state of Guerrero near the Pacific coast. | Earth Changes |

Tornado kills 14, injures 146 in eastern China Reuters (July 4, 2007) - A tornado swept across eastern China, killing 14 people and injuring 146, state media reported on Wednesday, the latest casualties from bad weather that has devastated parts of the country this summer. The tornado hit three villages around Tianchang in Anhui province on Tuesday, destroying more than 100 houses, the official Xinhua news agency said. The bodies of seven people had been recovered from the rubble. State television showed footage of uprooted trees, toppled electric poles and a truck blown into a river. Of the 93 injured, 35 were in serious condition, Xinhua said. A further 200 people had been evacuated. Seven people were killed in Gaoyou city in neighboring Jiangsu province, the agency said, adding that 53 were injured. "Winds and heavy rain cut off power and telecommunications, ripped off rooftops and uprooted thousands of trees," a Gaoyou government official was quoted as saying. more... | Earth Changes |

Drought Is Sapping the Southeast, and Its Farmers The New York Times (July 4, 2007) - Northern Alabama has become acre after acre of shriveled cornstalks, cracked red dirt for miles and days of unrelenting white heat. The region’s most severe drought in over a century has farmers here averting their gaze from a future that looks as bleak as their fields. The drought is worst here, but it is wilting much of the Southeast, causing watering restrictions and curtailed crops in Georgia, premature cattle sales in Mississippi and Tennessee, and rivers so low that power companies in the region are scrambling and barges are unable to navigate. Fourth of July fireworks are out of the question in many tinderbox areas. Hay to feed livestock is in increasingly short supply, watermelons are coming in small and some places have not had good rain since the start of the year. On Monday, Dennis Bragg, the biggest farmer in Madison County, the drought’s center, clutched a scrawny, leathery cornstalk half as high as it should be, barely reaching his waist. A healthy one should now be towering over him, according to the calendar. “This right here is going to be a zero,” Mr. Bragg said, pushing the puny thing away. “This is what we call a weed.” The field of muted green will be a loss. Down the road, he stopped his truck at a barren hillside that should be carpeted with green soy plants. “I tend not come over here and look at it,” he said, bending his head. “This whole hill never came up because of the drought.” In the browning corn fields here, the light breeze makes a tindery noise as it rustles the dry stalks. Struggling to pay their bills, farmers here in the Tennessee Valley say they are burning through cash reserves and staring at bankruptcy, as last year’s dry weather turned into a singeing drought this year. Gleaming steel grain bins that should be full of corn ready to become ethanol are virtually empty. Cattle sales are several times normal; the farmers have nothing to feed them. Harvest day’s expected small returns will be make-or-break time, farmers here say. more...
| Earth Changes | America |

The third seal is the black horse and speaks of famine. With all the weather changes due to global warming, the slightest changes in ocean currents and wind currents can affect crops like this. I think it is these kinds of events due to increased solar activity that will help bring about famine in the near future. Of course I hope I'm wrong, but the timing would seem to fit in the next couple years.

Summer under a cloud as weather turns angry in London This is London (July 4, 2007) - Looming angrily over London, this is the massive cloud that brought weather havoc to the capital. Within an hour, its devastating work was done. Hailstones the size of marbles had battered Battersea and flashfloods caused chaos in Clapham. Lightning lit up the blackened sky. Taken from the 17th floor of the London Television Centre on the South Bank, this stunning picture shows the enormity of the cloud that heralded Tuesday's storms - the latest in this summer of dramatic contrasts. Only four miles away the tennis at Wimbledon was rained off yet again as the weather was blamed for a big fall in this year's attendance. Two girls aged 13 and 15 were treated for serious burns after being struck by lightning at the end of the school day at Ipswich High School. The East of England Ambulance Service said the strike had blown the girls' shoes apart. 'They were struck simultaneously,' said a spokesman. 'They both had entry and exit wounds on their arms and feet.' He said the girls, who remained conscious throughout their ordeal, had not suffered life-threatening injuries. The stormy start to July follows the third wettest June on record. According to Met Office statistics, 105.3mm or 41ins of rain fell last month. Only 1912 and 1982 were wetter. Moments after its passing, the sunshine-was out again. Commuters battling-their way home in the evening rush hour shook out soaking umbrellas and shrugged off steaming raincoats. Nick Ricketts of the Met officesaid: 'There had been an extended period of cold wet weather. When the sun finally arrived, it warmed the surface temperature and that mix caused the storms to begin.' Don't put away your umbrella (or sunscreen) just yet. According to the weathermen, our mixed-up summer hasn't finished with us. more with pictures... | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | Earth Changes |

NASA Satellite Captures First View of 'Night-Shining Clouds' NASA (June 28, 2007) - A NASA satellite has captured the first occurrence this summer of mysterious shiny polar clouds that form 50 miles above Earth’s surface. The first observations of these "night-shining" clouds by a satellite named "AIM" which means Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, occurred above 70 degrees north latitude on May 25. People on the ground began seeing the clouds on June 6 over Northern Europe. AIM is the first satellite mission dedicated to the study of these unusual clouds. These mystifying clouds are called Polar Mesospheric Clouds, or PMCs, when they are viewed from space and referred to as "night-shining" clouds or Noctilucent Clouds, when viewed by observers on Earth. The clouds form in an upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the mesosphere during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season which began in mid-May and extends through the end of August and are being seen by AIM’s instruments more frequently as the season progresses. They are also seen in the high latitudes during the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere. Very little is known about how these clouds form over the poles, why they are being seen more frequently and at lower latitudes than ever before, or why they have been growing brighter. AIM will observe two complete cloud seasons over both poles, documenting an entire life cycle of the shiny clouds for the first time. "It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. "These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed." AIM is providing scientists with information about how many of these clouds there are around the world and how different they are including the sizes and shapes of the tiny particles that make them up. Scientists believe that the shining clouds form at high latitudes early in the season and then move to lower latitudes as time progresses. The AIM science team is studying this new data to understand why these clouds form and vary, and if they may be related to global change. Once the summer season ends in the Northern Hemisphere around mid- to late August, the Southern Hemisphere spring season starts about three months later in the period around mid- to late November. AIM will then be watching for shining clouds in the Southern Hemisphere from November through mid-March when that season ends. AIM and is managed at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD and the AIM Project Data Center is located at Hampton University.
| Earth Changes |

Could these odd recent developments that are getting brighter have to do with the increased solar activity that is heating up earth and the other planets?

Worldwide flooding Google News Search (June 29, 2007) - This is actually a bunch of stories found by typing "floods" into Google news. This highlights just how much flooding is going on around the world. Pakistan, Australia, Brittain, Victoria, and Texas are all dealing with flooding issues currently. | Earth Changes |

The wrath of 2007: America's great drought The Independent (June 11, 2007) - America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still. From the mountains and desert of the West, now into an eighth consecutive dry year, to the wheat farms of Alabama, where crops are failing because of rainfall levels 12 inches lower than usual, to the vast soupy expanse of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, which has become so dry it actually caught fire a couple of weeks ago, a continent is crying out for water. In the south-east, usually a lush, humid region, it is the driest few months since records began in 1895. California and Nevada, where burgeoning population centres co-exist with an often harsh, barren landscape, have seen less rain over the past year than at any time since 1924. The Sierra Nevada range, which straddles the two states, received only 27 per cent of its usual snowfall in winter, with immediate knock-on effects on water supplies for the populations of Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The human impact, for the moment, has been limited, certainly nothing compared to the great westward migration of Okies in the 1930 - the desperate march described by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath. Big farmers are now well protected by government subsidies and emergency funds, and small farmers, some of whom are indeed struggling, have been slowly moving off the land for decades anyway. The most common inconvenience, for the moment, are restrictions on hosepipes and garden sprinklers in eastern cities. But the long-term implications are escaping nobody. Climatologists see a growing volatility in the south-east's weather - today's drought coming close on the heels of devastating hurricanes two to three years ago. In the West, meanwhile, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests a movement towards a state of perpetual drought by the middle of this century. "The 1930s drought lasted less than a decade. This is something that could remain for 100 years," said Richard Seager a climatologist at Columbia University and lead researcher of a report published recently by the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While some of this year's dry weather is cyclical - California actually had an unusually wet year last year, so many of the state's farmers still have plenty of water for their crops - some of it portends more permanent changes. In Arizona, the tall mountains in the southern Sonoran desert known as "sky islands" because they have been welcome refuges from the desert heat for millennia, have already shown unmistakable signs of change. more...
| Earth Changes | America |

The third seal is famine. With the bee disappearances and the weather changes, if this drought is truly as bad as they believe it will become, along with the financial issues of America, the power of this nation could be very much diminished. Additionally there is the possibility of terrorism as well. The terrorists have a definite desire to see America's influence disappear. Outside of America, here's a story about Yemen's recent locust outbreak putting their crops at risk.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 jolted Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture Kyodo News (June 11, 2007) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 jolted Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, early Monday, the Japa Meteorological Agency reported. No tsunami warning was issued. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the 3:45 a.m. quake. The quake measured 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in the city of Wajima and the town of Wajimamonzen in Ishikawa Prefecture and 3 in the city of Himi, Toyama Prefecture. | Earth Changes |

Earthquake rattles portions of Indonesia The Honolulu Advertiser (June 10, 2007) - The timing of Gov. Linda Lingle's visit to Indonesia for meetings with tsunami experts and government officials on emergency preparedness seems eerily coincidental. An earthquake assigned a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 jolted portions of Indonesia about 950 miles northwest of Jakarta about 5 a.m. Hawaii time Saturday morning. The were no reports of injuries, damage or a tsunami resulting from the temblor, which was centered in Indonesia's Simeulue Region. | Earth Changes |

Cyclone lashes Oman as Iran battens down AFP (June 6, 2007) - Cyclone Gonu lashed Oman on Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the Gulf state and neighbouring Iran for the strongest tropical storm to hit the region in 30 years. As Gonu -- the Maldives word for a bag made of palm fronds -- hit the Omani capital strong winds snapped tree branches and blew over street signs. Roads were flooded and thick fog blanketed out the mountains encircling the city. Heavy rain and wind led to flights being suspended at Muscat airport, but the cyclone has so far not affected shipping in the Strait of Hormuz through which at least a quarter of world oil supplies passes, officials said. Oil experts said any impact on world oil prices would be temporary provided facilities in the area stayed intact. "If shipping is halted through Hormuz, I think there is going to be a panic in world oil markets and prices could shoot to as high as 80 dollars, but of course for a very short period," Kuwaiti oil expert Kamel al-Harami said. The streets of Muscat were almost deserted save for all-terrain vehicles after police asked people to stay indoors and thousands of residents were evacuated, but the storm weakened steadily after making landfall. Omani television showed rising seawater advancing some 500 metres (yards) inland, flooding coastal roads in the Sohar region 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Muscat. The ministry of transport said the ports of Sohar and Qabus in Muscat were closed. Cyclone Gonu initially packed winds of 260 kilometres (160 miles) an hour but they have now dropped dramatically to some 90 kilometres (50 miles), weather officials said. They said the cyclone was expected to be the strongest to hit the Arabian peninsula since 1977. more... | Iran | Earth Changes |

Gonu--Iran, Not Arabia? Accuweather.com (June 5, 2007) - The latest infrared satellite imagery (from the NRLMRY) shows Gonu to be a weakening (from 260-kph, Category 5 status, the only way would seem to be down!) tropical cyclone. Location is southeast of Ra's al Hadd, Oman, towards which it is headed. As of 0600 hours GMT, the JTWC reckoned Gonu to be a Category 4 storm packing highest sustained winds of 230-kph, or 125 knots. Movement was toward the northwest at 7 knots, or 13 kph. Since 0600 GMT, satellite imagery seems to show further weakening, maybe to Category 3 status as of this writing. Meantime, westernmost squalls have reached easternmost Oman with rain being observed as of 0600 GMT at Sur. There will be a lot more in this part of Oman before Gonu has run its course. Since leaving work Monday, some of the `fog` shrouding the future path of Gonu seems to have settled. Numerical forecasts are pointing towards a northward veering of Gonu AWAY from northeast Oman and TOWARDS southeastern Iran. And this is the latest take by forecasters at the JWC. Landfall, based upon their latest thinking, would happen Wednesday night, local time, in an area lacking any bigger cities. One town on the map in the suggested area of landfall is Humedan. As for me, I am leaning towards the northward turn, but I am nowhere near `in touch` enough to have a firm stand of my own. In the shorter term, the big question is impact upon Oman. The area of Sur is going to get a battering with severe winds and torrential rains. Elsewhere, impact is clearly dependent upon the exact path of Gonu's eye, with a few tens of kms north or south being the difference between a stormy day and a severe, destructive pounding. The farther northwest along the Oman coast (toward Masqat and beyond), the less the impact of Gonu is likely to be, even if it hugs the coast. In following the JTWC path, Masqat would certainly be spared the worst of Gonu's winds, although torrential rain and flooding could still prove serious. My thanks to Abdullatif for his emails. First, he told me of two May cyclones that struck Arabia from the southeast--in 1992 and 2002. These must have been significant storms at landfall, but they were never as strong as Gonu. Indeed, Abdullatif has stated that Gonu is, indeed, the first known Category-5 storm over the Arabian Sea. He is even watching carefully enough to detect wobbling in the eye path; he attributes this to thunderstorm pulsing over India and East Africa. more... | Earth Changes |

Exposing the secret agenda behind today's obsession with global warming" WorldNetDaily (March, 2007) - The U.N. recently announced global warming is leading inexorably to global catastrophe. Al Gore won the "best documentary" Oscar for his disaster film "An Inconvenient Truth." The news media beat the drum of "climate catastrophe" daily, all but ignoring scientists who say the threat is overblown or nonexistent. And across America, school children are frightened to death with tales of rising oceans, monster tornadoes, droughts and millions dying – all because of man-made global warming. However, hidden just beneath the surface of the world's latest environmental craze is a stunningly different reality, as the March edition of WND's acclaimed Whistleblower magazine documents. Titled "HYSTERIA: Exposing the secret agenda behind today's obsession with global warming," Whistleblower tells the rest of the story the "mainstream press" will never reveal. To begin with, those who believe the dire warnings of today's establishment press should know, as U.S. Sen. James Inhofe has pointed out, that "for more than 100 years, journalists have quoted scientists predicting the destruction of civilization by, in alternation, either runaway heat or a new Ice Age." Believe it or not, over the last century America's major media have predicted an impending global climate crisis four different times – each prediction warning that entire countries would be wiped out or that lower crop yields would mean "billions will die." In 1895, the panic was over an imminent ice age. Later, in the late 1920s, when the earth’s surface warmed less than half a degree, the media jumped on a new threat – global warming, which continued into the late 1950s. Then in 1975, the New York Times' headline blared, "A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable." Then in 1981 it was back to global warming, with the Times quoting seven government atmospheric scientists who predicted global warming of an "almost unprecedented magnitude." Today, to cover all their bases, much of the press is changing its terminology from "global warming" to "climate change" or "climate catastrophe." That way they're covered either way: If the world gets colder, global warming is still at fault. But hot-and-cold press coverage is just the beginning. Whistleblower's "HYSTERIA" issue reveals exactly why so many scientists, journalists and others (even the president's speechwriters now have him pay lip service to "climate change") are so gripped by global warming fever. Here's a hint: As "Deep Throat" famously told Washington Post "Watergate" reporter Bob Woodward, "Follow the money." more... | Earth Changes |

Storms Cause Chaos Across Europe Herald Sun (May 29, 2007) - HEAVY storms, landslides, flash floods and lightning killed at least 23 people in Europe and Turkey, officials said. Nine people died in eastern Turkey, including six killed in severe flooding in mountainous Agri province near the Iranian border, where river waters were swollen by melting snows. Two more people were missing. In nearby Van province, a two-year-old child died when landslides triggered by heavy rain demolished a house. Two other girls also died and another person was injured after being struck by lightning. Six hikers died in Greece while trying to cross a river in the south. They were in a group of 18 people swept away by a flood wave in the rain-swollen Lousios river. Prosecutors charged the hike's organizers with involuntary manslaughter. In France, two divers and a yachtsman drowned yesterday off the western coast of Brittany in extreme weather. The yachtsman fell into the sea from his 21-metre boat in heavy seas. The two divers were part of a group of six who were caught up in strong waves. The others made it safely to shore. In northern Bosnia, two 11-year-old children, a boy and a girl, died after being struck by lightning on Saturday, local media reported. In Germany, three construction workers building a windmill in the eastern state of Brandenburg were killed yesterday when lightning hit a tractor they were sheltering under, police said. In Russia, by contrast, meteorologists said today was the hottest May day in Moscow since records began with temperatures hitting 32.7 degrees Celsius. The city's electricity system shifted into emergency mode to cope with demand, largely from people using air conditioners. Extreme weather - including drought, heavy storms, flooding and flash frost - have wreaked havoc across Europe this spring. Aside from the human toll, it has also destroyed crops and damaged infrastructure in France, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey and other countries. | Earth Changes |

South Africa: Weather breaks records Cape Times (May 23, 2007) - THE icy weather of snow, hail and heavy rain that has swept across South Africa over the past few days has set 54 weather records. The South African Weather Service said 34 new records were set on Monday and another 20 yesterday. Almost all records were for the lowest maximum and minimum daily temperatures in towns across the country. Plettenberg Bay and Tsitsikamma both recorded their highest daily rainfall, at 68mm and 71.2mm respectively, on Monday. Plettenberg Bay recorded its lowest minimum temperature, 5.6°C, yesterday. Tsitsikamma had its lowest maximum temperature on Monday, 12.1°C, and its lowest minimum yesterday, 6.3°C. The lowest minimum temperature recorded was -6°C in Welkom, while the lowest maximum temperature was a mere 1.7°C in Barkly East. Both were recorded on Monday night. None of this week's records reached the lowest temperature yet recorded in South Africa - -18.6°C recorded at Buffelsfontein in the Eastern Cape in 1996. more... | Earth Changes |

4.6-magnitude earthquake causes damage in Montana (May 9, 2007) - An earthquake damaged an apartment building and knocked bricks off the facades of Main Street buildings in southwestern Montana on Tuesday, authorities said. The 4.6 magnitude quake, reported at 9:46 a.m., was centered about nine miles northeast of Sheridan. It was felt in Helena and as far away as Idaho, according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. Students at Sheridan Elementary School were under their desks Tuesday morning, in some cases before teachers realized an earthquake was shaking the area, the school secretary said. "It was a hard jar, and really loud," said secretary Jenny Burke. "It was like somebody just shook the heck out of us for two seconds." The school was not damaged. One Sheridan family was evacuated from their damaged downtown apartment until it can be proven safe, said Frank Ford, Madison County's former emergency management director. Madison County Commissioner Jim Hart was on the third floor of the courthouse when the earthquake hit. "We all just kind of held onto the table for a second or two, and then went, 'We need to get out of here,"' Hart said. | Earth Changes |

Moderate earthquake hits northern Philippines (May 7, 2007) - An earthquake measuring 5.4 Richter scale rocked the northern Philippine city of Baguio and nearby areas on May 7, local TV reported. The quake was felt at Baguio and Ilocos Norte province before dawn Monday, the GMA TV reported. Quoting a report by the United States Geological Service (USGS), the TV said that the quake was recorded at about 2:27 a.m. Manila time. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property in the quake, the TV reported. Epicenter of the quake was traced by the USGS to 105 km north- northwest of Baguio City, and 105 km south-southwest of Laoag City in Ilocos Norte, it added. | Earth Changes |

Fresh tornadoes pound central US (May 6, 2007) - A new wave of tornadoes has hit at least six counties in the central US, a day after a massive tornado devastated a small town in southern Kansas. One man was killed in the latest storms and 11 people injured in another Kansas town. More severe weather is expected. Rescuers are searching for survivors of the Greensburg tornado, which killed nine people and injured dozens more. US President George W Bush has declared parts of Kansas a disaster area and has pledged federal aid for reconstruction. "I'm confident this community will be rebuilt, to the extent we can help, we will. "The most important thing now is for our citizens to ask for the good Lord to comfort those who were hurt," the president said after attending church in Washington on Sunday. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, who toured the devastated region, said: "It is no understatement or overstatement to say this town has been wiped off the face of the Earth." more... | Earth Changes |

Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists (April 22, 2007) - Go to work, come home. Go to work, come home. Go to work -- and vanish without a trace. Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why. The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees also have been reported in Europe and Brazil. Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks. If the bees were dying of pesticide poisoning or freezing, their bodies would be expected to lie around the hive. And if they were absconding because of some threat -- which they have been known to do -- they wouldn't leave without the queen. Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, according to Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service. "They're the heavy lifters of agriculture," Pettis said of honeybees. "And the reason they are is they're so mobile and we can rear them in large numbers and move them to a crop when it's blooming." Honeybees are used to pollinate some of the tastiest parts of the American diet, Pettis said, including cherries, blueberries, apples, almonds, asparagus and macadamia nuts. "It's not the staples," he said. "If you can imagine eating a bowl of oatmeal every day with no fruit on it, that's what it would be like" without honeybee pollination. Pettis and other experts are gathering outside Washington for a two-day workshop starting on Monday to pool their knowledge and come up with a plan of action to combat what they call colony collapse disorder. "What we're describing as colony collapse disorder is the rapid loss of adult worker bees from the colony over a very short period of time, at a time in the season when we wouldn't expect a rapid die-off of workers: late fall and early spring," Pettis said. The problem has prompted a congressional hearing, a report by the National Research Council and a National Pollinator Week set for June 24-30 in Washington, but so far no clear idea of what is causing it. "The main hypotheses are based on the interpretation that the disappearances represent disruptions in orientation behavior and navigation," said May Berenbaum, an insect ecologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. There have been other fluctuations in the number of honeybees, going back to the 1880s, where there were "mysterious disappearances without bodies just as we're seeing now, but never at this magnitude," Berenbaum said in a telephone interview. In some cases, beekeepers are losing 50 percent of their bees to the disorder, with some suffering even higher losses. One beekeeper alone lost 40,000 bees, Pettis said. Nationally, some 27 states have reported the disorder, with billions of bees simply gone. more...
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Colombia Volcano Erupts, Thousands Flee (April 19, 2007) - Thousands of people were evacuated after a long-dormant volcano erupted late Tuesday and again early Wednesday, provoking avalanches and floods that swept away houses and bridges. The Nevado del Huila volcano's eruptions were its first on record since Colombia was colonized by the Spanish 500 years ago. There are about 10,000 people living in the area around the volcano, and about 3,500 had been evacuated, Luz Amanda Pulido, director of the national disaster office, told The Associated Press after flying over the volcano in southwest Colombia. There were no reports of deaths or injuries. The eruption sent an avalanche of rocks down the volcano's sides and into the Paez and Simbola rivers, causing them to flood. "The bridges were swept away, the highway used by the indigenous in the zone was destroyed for various kilometers (miles) and the problem we have now is the lack of a route to deliver goods and medicines to the population," Police Gen. Orlando Paez said. Experts were not ruling out more eruptions. more... | Earth Changes |

Moderate quake jolts Japan's southern island (April 16, 2007) - A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.2 shook a small island south of Tokyo, but there was no danger of a tsunami, the Meteorological Agency said Monday. The quake struck at 9:59 a.m. (0059 GMT) and was centered near Chichijima, about 960 kilometers (600 miles) south of Tokyo, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) underground, according to the agency. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages, said Kenichi Mochida of the local town office. On Sunday, a magnitude 5.4 quake jolted Mie, in central Japan, injuring several people and damaging houses and a 400-year-old castle. Mie is about 320 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Tokyo. In March, a magnitude 6.9 quake in northwestern Japan killed one and injured more than 200 people. Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. | Earth Changes |

Strong Earthquake Rocks Mexico (April 13, 2007) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 rocked Mexico early Friday, striking 60 miles north of Acapulco on the country's Pacific coast, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake - which hit about 1 a.m. local time - was strongly felt by residents in Acapulco - where tourists in hotels rushed out of their rooms and huddled together, fearing aftershocks. The quake was also felt in parts of Mexico City, where power was knocked out. There has been no word on injuries or damage. In Mexico City, the quake sent people out into the streets. It lasted less than a minute but was strongly felt by residents. Police patrolled streets while families waited out on the streets in their pajamas, fearing aftershocks. | Earth Changes |

Quake lifts Solomons island out of the sea (April 7, 2007) - The seismic jolt that unleashed the deadly Solomons tsunami this week lifted an entire island metres out of the sea, destroying some of the world's most pristine coral reefs. In an instant, the grinding of the Earth's tectonic plates in the 8.0 magnitude earthquake Monday forced the island of Ranongga up three metres (10 foot). Submerged reefs that once attracted scuba divers from around the globe lie exposed and dying after the quake raised the mountainous landmass, which is 32-kilometres (20-miles) long and 8-kilometres (5-miles) wide. Corals that used to form an underwater wonderland of iridescent blues, greens and reds now bleach under the sun, transforming into a barren moonscape surrounding the island. The stench of rotting fish and other marine life stranded on the reefs when the seas receded is overwhelming and the once vibrant coral is dry and crunches underfoot. Dazed villagers stand on the shoreline, still coming to terms with the cataclysmic shift that changed the geography of their island forever, pushing the shoreline out to sea by up to 70 metres. Aid agencies have yet to reach Ranongga after the quake and tsunami that killed at least 34 people in the Pacific archipelago but an AFP reporter and photographer on a chartered boat witnessed the destruction first hand. At Pienuna, on Ranongga's east coast, locals said much of their harbour had disappeared, leaving only a narrow inlet lined by jagged exposed coral reefs either side. Villager Harison Gago said there were huge earthquake fissures which had almost split the island in half, gesturing with his hands that some of the cracks were 50 centimetres (20 inches) wide. Further north at Niu Barae, fisherman Hendrik Kegala had just finished exploring the new underwater landscape of the island with a snorkel when contacted by the AFP team. He said a huge submerged chasm had opened up, running at least 500 metres (550 yards) parallel to the coast. On the beach at Niu Barae, the earthquake has revealed a sunken vessel that locals believe is a Japanese patrol boat, a remnant of the fierce fighting between Allied forces and the Japanese in WWII. more... | Earth Changes |

Dang! Now our vehicle emissions are warming Mars too! Quick, give the government more money to throw at global warming! I think it's clear that more than just the earth is heating up now-a-days. Scientists don't understand everything, but I've been hearing some interesting theories about an electrical universe explaining the cooler internal temperature on the sun and how that electrical charge is present in all celestial bodies that interact with each other. Our solar system is connected to the galaxy and as we move around the galactic center of the Milky Way, that energy can change and shift causing the sun to get hotter and affecting all the planets in orbit. It also fits in with Bible prophecy and is only going to get stronger. For instance, I believe the fourth bowl could be a solar flare striking the earth with a weakened magnetic field around the earth. Electricity would effect that field and if that field were gone, most of our protection from the plasma from the sun would be gone. A solar flare timed just right could fulfill this prophecy. Revelation 16:8,9 "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."

6.2-magnitude earthquake hits northeast Afghanistan (April 3, 2007) - A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a remote and mountainous area of northeast Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, shaking buildings in the capital and as far away as Pakistan, Tajikistan and India. The earthquake in Badakhshan province was about 300 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of the capital, Kabul, where residents felt shaking buildings and ran outside their homes, and some windows were shattered. There were no immediate casualty reports. The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.2-quake was centered 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the provincial capital Faizabad and hit at 8:05 a.m. (0335 GMT). The quake was felt across northern Pakistan, including in the capital Islamabad, 450 kilometers (280 miles) away. It was also felt in Tajikistan and in the Indian and Pakistan-administered portions of Kashmir, where a severe earthquake in October 2005 left tens of thousands dead and caused widespread destruction. In Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, residents dashed out of shops and homes when the temblor struck Tuesday, and at least one boy was injured as he fell while running out of his school in the town of Dherkot. | Earth Changes |

Tsunami hits South Pacific's Solomons (March 31, 2007) - A bone-rattling undersea earthquake sparked a tsunami that sent 10-foot-high waves crashing into parts of the Solomon Islands on Monday, wiping out one village and killing at least 13 people. The death toll was expected to rise. Large waves struck the western town of Gizo, inundating buildings and causing widespread destruction within five minutes of the earthquake. "There wasn't any warning — the warning was the earth tremors," Alex Lokopio, the premier of the Solomon's Western Province, told New Zealand's National Radio. "It shook us very, very strongly and we were frightened, and all of a sudden the sea was rising up." Despite initial regionwide warnings, there was no repeat of the massive 2004 tsunami, when a magnitude 9 quake sent massive waves slamming into the coastlines of a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean's rim, killing or leaving missing about 230,000 people. Julian Makaa, spokesman for the Solomons National Disaster Management Office, said numerous villages in the country's remote west were reporting people being swept away as waves plowed through their communities. Reports remained sketchy because communications were reduced in many cases to scratchy two-way radio lines. Emergency officials have yet to be able to reach the area hit by the tsunami and communications with the area is limited. Alfred Maesulia, the information director in Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's office, said late Monday that 13 people had been killed and an unknown number were still missing. "Some people were seen floating on the sea during the big waves but it was very difficult to go near them," Maesulia told The Associated Press. "The number at the moment is 13. It's possible that number will increase, maybe double up or even more." Lokopio said he witnessed a large wave crashing into the island. "I saw the wave ... all of a sudden the water was just rising up and moved toward the island and hit all the houses on the coastal area, and all of their property was washed away to the open sea," he said. more... | Earth Changes |

Wild Weather Strikes Southern California (March 28, 2007) - A quick wintry blast brought fierce winds and cold temperatures to normally mild Southern California, but did little to quench the parched region. Tuesday's storm startled residents, who watched as clear morning skies quickly darkened and gusting winds ripped roofs off several buildings, capsized boats and downed power lines and trees. "I've never seen weather like this," said Larry Prantner, manager of Cavi at the Big Oaks Lodge restaurant in the Santa Clarita community of Saugus. "It's March and I'm wearing a coat and starting a fire at the fireplace." The storm was created by moisture and cool air sweeping through warmer, dry air, meteorologists at the National Weather Service said. Warmer temperatures were expected through the rest of the week. While the weather system sprinkled snow and hail across mountain and high desert communities, it wasn't nearly enough to make a dent in the huge shortfall of rain so far this year. "In most places, we got zero or trace amounts of rain," Bonnie Bartling, a National Weather Service specialist, told the Los Angeles Times. "Even in the mountains, we didn't get a whole lot of rain. This was mostly a wind system." Los Angeles is facing its driest year on record. Only 2.47 inches of rain have fallen in downtown Los Angeles since July 1. In a normal year, more than 13 inches of rain would have fallen by now. On Tuesday, winds tore off the roof of Orange County Fire Authority's aviation building in Fullerton and harbor patrol officers made numerous rescues involving capsized craft in Newport Bay and offshore. A large section of roof laminate and asphalt tile landed on four cars and caused minor damages, but no injuries, said Orange County fire Capt. Stephen J. Miller. He said fire crews also responded to numerous reports of downed trees and power lines. more... | Earth Changes |

Aftershocks keep Japan peninsula on edge (March 26, 2007) - Aftershocks kept residents of central Japan on edge on Monday, more than a day after a strong earthquake that killed one person, injured about 200 and flattened homes. Sunday's 6.9 magnitude quake, which struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km (190 miles) west of Tokyo, destroyed houses, buckled roads and cut off water and electricity supplies to thousands of homes. A 5.3 magnitude tremor, one of more than 200 aftershocks, struck early on Monday, and a 4.4 magnitude quake jolted the area in the early evening, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. Officials warned that more could occur. About 2,600 people spent the night in evacuation shelters and many were set to do so again on Monday. "The aftershocks kept me awake and I only slept about an hour," said Yoko Yamashita, 60, who spent Sunday night in a shelter in the hard-hit rural city of Wajima. About 5,600 households lacked tap water in Ishikawa on Monday afternoon and drinking water was being distributed. "I wanted water to clean my face and wash the rice (before cooking), but there wasn't enough," Yamashita said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary panel in Tokyo that 68 houses, many of them old wooden structures with heavy tile roofs, had been destroyed and another 164 badly damaged. The government's disaster agency put the total number of damaged houses at 564. An emergency relief team of firefighters that had been searching the rubble of collapsed houses confirmed that no one was trapped, an Ishikawa prefecture official said. Shogoro Hashimura, 81, hid under a table at the office of his sawmill in Wajima when Sunday's quake struck. "When I looked outside, my lorry was trapped under the rubble and woodchips and lumber were strewn all over," he said. The plight of Wajima's elderly highlights the vulnerability of Japan's ageing population when disasters strike. more... | Earth Changes |

Somalia: Earthquake, tsunami rock Puntland (March 25, 2007) - A powerful earthquake of unknown magnitude hit a northeastern Somalia town with many people unaccounted for overnight, local official said on Sunday. The tremble rocked Qandalla town of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia. At least eight people are missing and are feared to have died in the quake. Saed Waberi, the chairman of Qandalla said the earthquake generated a tsunami which rocked the town mid last night causing casualties. Powerful ocean waves wiped out the town destroying many fishing boats. 16 people were rescued from the waves. It was for the first time that tsunami hit northeastern Somalia town of Qandalla since December 2004 when tsunami waves from as far as Indonisia hit Hafun district of Puntland settlements. Meanwhile the Somalia tragedy follows an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 which struck off the west coast of Japan's largest island, Honshu. At least one person was killed and 150 were reportedly injured by the tremor which was felt in the capital, Tokyo. A tsunami warning was issued for a short time in Ishikawa prefecture, with swell of up to 50cm reported. | Earth Changes |

Rumbling Indonesian Volcano Forces Evacuation (March 23, 2007) - Indonesia's rumbling Mount Batutara volcano has triggered the evacuation of about 15,000 people, an official said Friday. The villagers have left their homes on Lembata island, which lies in the Flores sea close to the restive volcano, local official Andreas Duli Manuk told AFP. Groundwater in the two affected villages of Buyasuri and Omesuri had suddenly turned salty, and there were rougher seas around the smoking volcano's home on the nearby deserted island of Komba, he said. Experts have raised Mount Batutara's alert level to the second of four possible levels, but say an eruption is not imminent. Fishermen and others who occasionally land on Komba have been warned to stay at least two kilometres (more than a mile) away. Indonesia sits on the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire," where continental plates meet, causing frequent volcanic and seismic activity. | Earth Changes |

Forecaster sees active Atlantic hurricane season (March 21, 2007) - The Atlantic hurricane season will be exceptionally active this year, according to a British forecasting group, raising the possibility that killer storms like Hurricane Katrina could again threaten the United States. London-based forecaster Tropical Storm Risk on Tuesday said the six-month season, which begins on June 1, was expected to bring 17 tropical storms, of which nine will strengthen into hurricanes with winds of at least 74 miles per hour. Four of those are expected to become more destructive "intense" hurricanes, TSR said. The long-term average for the Atlantic is for 10 storms to form during the hurricane season and for six of those to reach hurricane strength. The United States emerged unscathed from the 2006 season after it spawned a below-average nine storms, of which five became hurricanes. Experts had universally -- and erroneously -- predicted 2006 would be a busy year for Atlantic storms. None of the hurricanes hit the United States, bringing welcome relief to beleaguered residents of the U.S. Gulf Coast, where Katrina killed 1,500 people, swamped New Orleans and caused about $80 billion in damage the year before. But TSR said current and projected climate signals indicate that Atlantic basin and U.S. landfalling hurricane activity will be 75 percent above the 1950-2006 average in 2007. TSR had predicted in December that Atlantic basin and U.S. landfalling hurricane activity would be just 60 percent above average this year. It raised the projected activity level because of the sudden dissipation in February of last year's El Nino weather phenomenon. An unusual warming of the eastern Pacific waters, El Nino events tend to suppress Atlantic storm activity. more...
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