MAGNITUDE 5.0 – BABUYAN ISL REGION, PHILIPPINES
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=350500
Subject To Change
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 383 km S of Kaohsiung, Taiwan / pop: 1,519,711 / local time: 04:31:03.0 2013-12-31
232 km NW of Tuguegarao City, Philippines / pop: 115,105 / local time: 04:31:03.0 2013-12-31
193 km NW of Buguey, Philippines / pop: 3,111 / local time: 04:31:03.0 2013-12-31
84 km NW of Davila, Philippines / pop: 3,465 / local time: 04:31:03.0 2013-12-31
MAGNITUDE 5.1 – BABUYAN ISL REGION, PHILIPPINES
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=350498
Subject To Change
Depth: 30 km
Distances: 378 km S of Kaohsiung, Taiwan / pop: 1,519,711 / local time: 04:18:02.0 2013-12-31
227 km NW of Tuguegarao City, Philippines / pop: 115,105 / local time: 04:18:02.0 2013-12-31
184 km NW of Buguey, Philippines / pop: 3,111 / local time: 04:18:02.0 2013-12-31
83 km N of Davila, Philippines / pop: 3,465 / local time: 04:18:02.0 2013-12-31
Massive Sinkhole Appears In The Peak District, Foolow, Derbyshire, UK
A large sinkhole has appeared in part of the Peak District in Derbyshire.
The hole, which eye witnesses said measures about 160ft (49m) wide, has opened up in the village of Foolow.
Caver Mark Noble, 58, from Eyam, said he saw the hole during a walk on Christmas Day, but believes the land began to fall the day before.
He said he has explored the caves at Foolow in the past as huge cavities were left in the area from an old lead mine.
Mr Noble said: “It’s quite a large hole and it’s getting bigger all the time. It’s probably increased by about 10% since it opened up.
“It is quite interesting but there are two other similar large holes that appeared about half a mile away from this one in the 1970s, so it’s not a new thing.”
Seven people have been airlifted from a flooded farm in Dumfries and Galloway after torrential rain led to disruption in several parts of Scotland.
Four children were among those rescued by a Royal Navy helicopter after being trapped for about six hours at Nithside Farm near Closeburn.
Homes had earlier been evacuated at Kirkconnel, in Dumfries and Galloway, and New Cumnock in East Ayrshire.
Flooding also caused disruption on the rail network and several road closures.
Police in Dumfries and Galloway warned drivers not to travel unless it was “absolutely necessary”.
While all the main trunk routes were said to be passable with care in the area, many minor routes were closed or disrupted and some cars had been abandoned.
With more rain forecast on Tuesday morning, police said further flooding and disruption was possible.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency had more than 30 flood warnings in place on Monday evening.
The seven people who had been trapped upstairs at Nithside Farm – a father, four children under the age of eight and two holidaymakers – were rescued at about 19:00.
Two dogs were also rescued, and all those involved were said to be safe and well.
Elsewhere, heavy rain and winds of almost 80mph battered parts of Wales, affecting roads and train services.
Met Office amber “be prepared” warnings for parts of Dumfries and Galloway and Ayrshire have now been lifted but yellow “be aware” warnings remain in place for these areas and much of central and southern Scotland.
There is also a yellow warning for wind in Wales, north-west and north-east England, Yorkshire and Humber, the East Midlands, south-west England and London and the South East.
There are yellow warnings for rain in Wales, Northern Ireland and south-west England.
Transport problems on Monday included:
- A landslip between Dorking and Horsham has halted services between Gatwick Airport and London, Southern Railway said. The route was being used for alternative services to the airport while engineering work was carried out on the Brighton main line.
- Pre-Christmas landslips in four separate locations have meant there are no rail services between Petersfield in Hampshire and Haslemere in Surrey until 6 January.
- Flooding in Wales has caused disruption to train services.
- No trains running on the Isle of Wight due to flooding in Ryde.
- Roads near the tallest building in Leeds, Bridgewater Place, reopened at 16.00 GMT after being shut because of high winds.
- Fallen trees closed the A36 in Hampshire and the A35 in Dorset. Both were later reopened.
In Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway and parts of Ayrshire have been worst affected.
In the village of Carsphairn, in Dumfries and Galloway, residents described the conditions as some of the worst they had experienced in 40 years.
Police said major roads across the region were affected by flooding including the A74(M) at Greenhillstairs, the A76 at Kirkconnel and the A75 at various points.
About 40 houses in the St Conal’s Square area of Kirkconnel were evacuated and a rest and welfare centre has been set up at the village’s Miners Hall.
Police said the village of Moniaive was almost cut off at one point due to flooding on the A702, and a family had to be evacuated from a bungalow which was cut off by flood water.
Firefighters used rescue boats to assist with the evacuations.
Homes in Port Logan and Newton Stewart also had to be evacuated.
The Whitesands in Dumfries has flooded after the River Nith burst its banks. Electricity supply to this area has also been affected.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said it had attended 55 incidents which involved flooding or water rescues in the Strathclyde and Dumfries and Galloway area between 08:00 and 18:00.
One woman had to be rescued from a stranded car in Moffat.
A number of properties were evacuated in Dundee after a landslide.
Police Scotland said heavy rain had caused a wall to collapse at the rear of Gardner Street at about 16:00.
No-one was injured, but properties were evacuated as a precautionary measure and some roads were closed in the area.
Police Scotland said eight people had been evacuated from their homes in Mansefield Road in New Cumnock, and a further six homes were evacuated in the Leggate area.
Police, fire crews and staff from the council and Scottish Water and Scottish Gas remained at the scene.
In Glasgow, the M77 southbound entry slip was closed because of flooding at Junction 2 Barrhead Road.
Trains from London Euston station to Edinburgh and Glasgow were disrupted by flooding.
Virgin Trains said there were no services running between Carlisle and Carstairs, due to flooding between Lockerbie and Carstairs.
The First TransPennine Express from Manchester Airport to Edinburgh and Glasgow Central has also been affected.
Temporary flood barriers have been moved to sites across Stonehaven after a “considerable rise in water levels” in the River Carron.
Aberdeenshire Council said the move was precautionary and that it was expecting the rain to ease on Monday evening.
BBC weather presenter Christopher Blanchett said 52.6mm (2in) of rain had fallen in Threave in Kirkcudbrightshire between 22:00 on Sunday and 10:00 on Monday, according to Met Office figures.
Head of network operations at Transport Scotland, Scott Lees, said: “Although we would expect to see fewer people travelling at this point in the holiday season, we would advise people to prepare for this, drive to conditions and allow extra time for any journeys they are planning to make.
“Transport Scotland is in regular contact with the Met Office, Police Scotland, operating companies and Network Rail, as well as the ferry operators, and will continue to monitor weather events to ensure the maximum response to any incidents that arise as a result of the expected rainfall.”
Train Collision In North Dakota Ignites Oil Tankers; No Injuries Immediately Reported
A collision between two trains caused a freight train carrying crude oil to derail in North Dakota on Monday afternoon, triggering an explosion and sending flames shooting more than 100 feet into the air. No injuries were immediately reported.
The Cass County Sheriff’s Office said deputies and local emergency crews responded to reports of a derailment near the city of Casselton, N.D., and discovered the oil train burning, with up to 10 cars fully engulfed, said sheriff’s Sgt. Tara Morris.
The train derailed on the Jamestown line at approximately 2 p.m. local time, Amy McBeth, spokeswoman for BNSF Railway told NBC News, adding that no further information was immediately available.
“There was an explosion, where a car let loose and there was a giant fireball, hundreds of feet in the air,” said Assistant Chief Gary Lorenz of the City of Fargo Fire Department, who was in touch with a crew on the scene.
“It’s burning very strong right now,” he said. “You can see the plume of smoke for 25 miles.”
Huge Fireball Over Iowa Likely Meteor, America
A very huge fireball in the Iowa skies awed and amazed several witnesses in Des Moines and across the U.S. Midwest. There were hundreds of reports received by the American Meteor Society (AMS), of a bright ball of fire streaking across the night sky. Experts agree that is very likely a meteor entering and burning up in our atmosphere.
The AMS is a non-profit organization that collects information and reports on any possible meteor sightings. A total of 460 people filed reports with the AMS on the Iowa incident, mostly coming from the area around the Minnesota and Iowa border.
The massive fireball caught the attention of many Iowa residents and the event was even captured on a street camera in the City of North Liberty. According to the AMS, a very bright meteor is actually called a “fireball.” The AMS defines a fireball as an object with about the same brightness as the planet Venus in the evening or early morning sky.
As soon as people witness the huge fireball, posts began appearing in social media feeds. People in Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois also reported seeing the fireball in the sky. None of the witnesses reported hearing any sound neither before, during, nor after they saw the fireball streaking across the sky.
The National Weather Service’s, Kurt Kotenberg, said they are poring over all the reports of the fireball appearing around 5:40 p.m. Thursday. Kotenberg finds it interesting that Venus was visible in the night sky right after sunset when the reports started coming in.
Not all people think that the huge fireball over Iowa was a meteor. Skeptics questioned witnesses if the sighting could have been a falling satellite or some sort of space junk. Most of the witnesses stood firm saying that what they saw was a meteor or a meteorite. The fireball went from a bright light to suddenly disappearing in the sky, a characteristic of meteors entering and burning up in our atmosphere.
According to experts there are thousands of these types of fireballs seen all day and night. Although the fireball did not appear to be a meteor shower, it could have possibly been what is considered a “shooting star.”
While the National Weather Service is still investigating what the fireball actually was, they do think that it will be extremely hard to come to any concrete conclusion due to the lack of detailed information contained in the reports. However, the weather service did catch security camera footage of the event occurring, from cameras installed on the weather service facilities.
The Science Center of Iowa’s, Richard Miles, said that it could have been a good sized bright fireball meteor, but something such as this could also be caused by falling space debris as well.
Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Iowa, Steven Spangler, said that humans have been launching a lot of stuff into space for the last 56 years. When this space junk falls back to earth, it can sometimes resemble a meteor streaking a trail of fire across the sky.
So far it’s impossible to get a definitive answer from experts as to whether the huge fireball over Iowa was likely a meteor or not.
http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/huge-fireball-over-iowa-likely-meteor/
Sun Has ‘Flipped Upside Down’ As New Magnetic Cycle Begins
The sun has “flipped upside down”, with its north and south poles reversed to reach the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24, Nasa has said
Now, the magnetic fields will once again started moving in opposite directions to begin the completion of the 22 year long process which will culminate in the poles switching once again.
“A reversal of the sun’s magnetic field is, literally, a big event,” said Nasa’s Dr. Tony Phillips.
“The domain of the sun’s magnetic influence (also known as the ‘heliosphere’) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field’s polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.”
To mark the event, Nasa has released a visualisation of the entire process.
At the beginning, in 1997 the video shows the sun in Solar Cycle 23 with its positive polarity on the top (the green lines), and the negative polarity on the bottom (the purple lines).
Each set of lines gradually move toward the opposite pole, showing a complete flip around 2002, completing the sun’s previous cycle.
Both set of lines representing the opposing magnetic fields then begin to work their way back, to culminate in the latest flip.
“At the height of each magnetic flip, the sun goes through periods of more solar activity, during which there are more sunspots, and more eruptive events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections,” said Nasa’s Karen C. Fox.
“Cosmic rays are also affected,” added Dr. Phillips. “These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy.”
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