December 8, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- The remnants of a smoldering building the size of a football field
emerged as dawn broke in LA on Monday morning after 250 firefighters
spent hours battling a blaze on the upscale-residential-building-to-be.
Two
adjacent buildings have been damaged in the blaze as the heat being
emitted burst their windows and two major freeways in the vicinity of
the fire were forced to shut down. “It looked like a bomb had just exploded,” LA fire captain Rick Godinez told the LA Times.
An active fire broke out on three floors in an adjacent 16-story
high-rise building at 221 North Figueroa nearby, while another on the
same street was also exposed, reported ABC7. “When they came out of the quarters they could see it was fully engulfed,” fire department spokeswoman Katherine Main told the paper. “It was a building under construction in the framing phase. Almost 1 million square feet and a city block.”
The building was intended to be a seven-story upscale residential building with commercial space on the lower level.
LA
Fire Department spokesman David Ortiz told the paper as the fire was
still blazing that some 250 firefighters had been dispatched to
extinguish the blaze, which he characterized as ‘huge.’
WATCH: Massive inferno engulfs downtown Los Angeles building site.
“It was the perfect storm, if you will, for fire spread,” Ortiz said in a phone interview with Washington Post “There were no dividing firewalls between the different components of it.” “This
is a historic fire, what we as firefighters would call ‘a career fire….
I really can’t remember a building fire this big, and I have been with
the department for 13 years,” he told NBC news in a separate interview.
The precise cause of the blaze currently remains unknown. - RT.
Ebola patients lie outside Port Loko District Hospital in Port Loko, Sierra Leone on Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Tanya Bindra
December 8, 2014 - SIERRA LEONE -
Two more Sierra Leonean doctors have died from Ebola, further depleting
the West African country’s ability to respond to the devastating
outbreak, health officials said Saturday.
The deaths bring the number of Sierra Leonean doctors killed by Ebola to nine.
The disease is spread through the bodily fluids of people showing symptoms and people who have died of the disease.
Because
transmission requires close contact with those fluids, health workers
are among the most at risk of contracting it and hundreds have become
infected in this outbreak.
Dr. Thomas Rogers, who had worked
at Connaught Hospital in the capital, died Friday, according to Chief
Medical Officer Dr. Brima Kargbo. Dr. Dauda Koroma also died Friday,
said Jonathan Abass Kamara, a spokesman for the Health Ministry.
In all, 11 Sierra Leonean doctors have been infected; one has been cured and another is still in treatment.
Ebola
has sickened more than 17,500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone. Of those, about 6,200 have died. The disease is currently
spreading fastest in Sierra Leone.
The high number of
infections in health workers has deterred many from volunteering to work
on Ebola wards, especially local health workers.
While foreign
doctors and nurses who have become infected have been evacuated for
treatment at world-class hospitals abroad, locals are typically treated
in-country.
In an effort to address that disparity, special
clinics dedicated to the treatment of health care workers and staffed by
foreigners have opened in Sierra Leone and Liberia and another is
planned for Guinea.
Rogers was treated at one of those, a clinic in Kerry Town staffed by British army medics. - Global News.
December 8, 2014 - PANAMA - A magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck off the coast of Panama on Monday,the second strong quake to rock the country in three days.
The tremor was centered 20 kilometers (12 miles) south-southeast of the
Punta de Burica peninsula, near the border with Costa Rica, and hit
just before 4:00 a.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Another earthquake struck off the coast
of Panama on Saturday, near the epicenter of Monday's quake. Both
earthquakes occurred along the Panama Fracture Zone, the largest and
most seismically active tectonic boundaries in the region. Earthquakes
along the Panama Fracture Zone are typically of low to intermediate
magnitude (less than magnitude 7.2) and occur at shallow depths,
according to the USGS. The largest earthquake in the area since 1900
took place in July 1962 and measured magnitude 7.2.
Panama
celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal
in August, an engineering marvel that transformed the nature of trade in
the Americas. The multibillion-dollar, 77-kilometer-long (48-mile)
canal connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and was the largest
engineering project undertaken by the United States when it was
completed in 1914. The project revolutionized shipping from the East
Coast of the U.S. to the West Coast of the Americas, Europe and Asia. - IBT.
Tectonic Summary - Seismotectonics of the Caribbean Region and Vicinity
Extensive
diversity and complexity of tectonic regimes characterizes the
perimeter of the Caribbean plate, involving no fewer than four major
plates (North America, South America, Nazca, and Cocos). Inclined zones
of deep earthquakes (Wadati-Benioff zones), ocean trenches, and arcs of
volcanoes clearly indicate subduction of oceanic lithosphere along the
Central American and Atlantic Ocean margins of the Caribbean plate,
while crustal seismicity in Guatemala, northern Venezuela, and the
Cayman Ridge and Cayman Trench indicate transform fault and pull-apart
basin tectonics.
Along the northern margin of the Caribbean plate,
the North America plate moves westwards with respect to the Caribbean
plate at a velocity of approximately 20 mm/yr. Motion is accommodated
along several major transform faults that extend eastward from Isla de
Roatan to Haiti, including the Swan Island Fault and the Oriente Fault.
These faults represent the southern and northern boundaries of the
Cayman Trench. Further east, from the Dominican Republic to the Island
of Barbuda, relative motion between the North America plate and the
Caribbean plate becomes increasingly complex and is partially
accommodated by nearly arc-parallel subduction of the North America
plate beneath the Caribbean plate. This results in the formation of the
deep Puerto Rico Trench and a zone of intermediate focus earthquakes
(70-300 km depth) within the subducted slab. Although the Puerto Rico
subduction zone is thought to be capable of generating a megathrust
earthquake, there have been no such events in the past century. The last
probable interplate (thrust fault) event here occurred on May 2, 1787
and was widely felt throughout the island with documented destruction
across the entire northern coast, including Arecibo and San Juan. Since
1900, the two largest earthquakes to occur in this region were the
August 4, 1946 M8.0 Samana earthquake in northeastern Hispaniola and the
July 29, 1943 M7.6 Mona Passage earthquake, both of which were shallow
thrust fault earthquakes. A significant portion of the motion between
the North America plate and the Caribbean plate in this region is
accommodated by a series of left-lateral strike-slip faults that bisect
the island of Hispaniola, notably the Septentrional Fault in the north
and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault in the south. Activity adjacent
to the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault system is best documented by
the devastating January 12, 2010 M7.0 Haiti strike-slip earthquake, its
associated aftershocks and a comparable earthquake in 1770.
USGS plate tectonics for the region.
Moving
east and south, the plate boundary curves around Puerto Rico and the
northern Lesser Antilles where the plate motion vector of the Caribbean
plate relative to the North and South America plates is less oblique,
resulting in active island-arc tectonics. Here, the North and South
America plates subduct towards the west beneath the Caribbean plate
along the Lesser Antilles Trench at rates of approximately 20 mm/yr. As a
result of this subduction, there exists both intermediate focus
earthquakes within the subducted plates and a chain of active volcanoes
along the island arc. Although the Lesser Antilles is considered one of
the most seismically active regions in the Caribbean, few of these
events have been greater than M7.0 over the past century. The island of
Guadeloupe was the site of one of the largest megathrust earthquakes to
occur in this region on February 8, 1843, with a suggested magnitude
greater than 8.0. The largest recent intermediate-depth earthquake to
occur along the Lesser Antilles arc was the November 29, 2007 M7.4
Martinique earthquake northwest of Fort-De-France.
The southern
Caribbean plate boundary with the South America plate strikes east-west
across Trinidad and western Venezuela at a relative rate of
approximately 20 mm/yr. This boundary is characterized by major
transform faults, including the Central Range Fault and the Boconó-San
Sebastian-El Pilar Faults, and shallow seismicity. Since 1900, the
largest earthquakes to occur in this region were the October 29, 1900
M7.7 Caracas earthquake, and the July 29, 1967 M6.5 earthquake near this
same region. Further to the west, a broad zone of compressive
deformation trends southwestward across western Venezuela and central
Columbia. The plate boundary is not well defined across northwestern
South America, but deformation transitions from being dominated by
Caribbean/South America convergence in the east to Nazca/South America
convergence in the west. The transition zone between subduction on the
eastern and western margins of the Caribbean plate is characterized by
diffuse seismicity involving low- to intermediate-magnitude (Magnitude less than 6.0)
earthquakes of shallow to intermediate depth.
The plate boundary
offshore of Colombia is also characterized by convergence, where the
Nazca plate subducts beneath South America towards the east at a rate of
approximately 65 mm/yr. The January 31, 1906 M8.5 earthquake occurred
on the shallowly dipping megathrust interface of this plate boundary
segment. Along the western coast of Central America, the Cocos plate
subducts towards the east beneath the Caribbean plate at the Middle
America Trench. Convergence rates vary between 72-81 mm/yr, decreasing
towards the north. This subduction results in relatively high rates of
seismicity and a chain of numerous active volcanoes; intermediate-focus
earthquakes occur within the subducted Cocos plate to depths of nearly
300 km. Since 1900, there have been many moderately sized
intermediate-depth earthquakes in this region, including the September
7, 1915 M7.4 El Salvador and the October 5, 1950 M7.8 Costa Rica events.
The
boundary between the Cocos and Nazca plates is characterized by a
series of north-south trending transform faults and east-west trending
spreading centers. The largest and most seismically active of these
transform boundaries is the Panama Fracture Zone. The Panama Fracture
Zone terminates in the south at the Galapagos rift zone and in the north
at the Middle America trench, where it forms part of the
Cocos-Nazca-Caribbean triple junction. Earthquakes along the Panama
Fracture Zone are generally shallow, low- to intermediate in magnitude
(Magnitude less than 7.2) and are characteristically right-lateral strike-slip faulting
earthquakes. Since 1900, the largest earthquake to occur along the
Panama Fracture Zone was the July 26, 1962 M7.2 earthquake. - USGS.
December 8, 2014 - EARTH - The following constitutes the latest reports of unusual and symbolic animal behavior, mass die-offs, beaching and stranding of mammals, and the appearance of rare creatures.
Seven sperm whales found dead in rare mass beaching in South Australia
A
pod of seven sperm whales washed up dead Monday in a rare mass stranding
on the South Australia coast, with animal welfare officials struggling
over the logistics of handling the huge carcasses.
The whales,
which can weigh up to 50 tonnes, were found at low tide by residents on
Parara beach, about 93 miles northwest of Adelaide.
"We're not sure why they beached," a Department of Environment official told AFP.
"A theory is that one was ill and moved to shallow waters and then called out to fellow pod members who followed it in."
A local fisherman suggested they could have been chasing a school of salmon.
Animal welfare manager Deborah Kelly said it was rare to see whales beach in the area.
"I
haven't seen a marine event like this in South Australia since the mass
stranding of 58 dolphins at Nepean Bay in the 1990s," she told the Adelaide Advertiser.
WATCH: Sperm whales found dead on a South Australian Beach.
The department official said police and the council were considering
their options on how to handle the carcasses, which were now in shallow
waters and could attract sharks.
"It's a very big logistical task," the official said.
Sperm whales is the largest of the toothed whale species and can grow
up 52 feet. It has the largest brain of any known animal currently in
existence. - Telegraph.
Mako shark washes up dead on Barmouth beach, Wales
The
huge Mako-type mackerel shark was found on Barmouth beach, western
Wales, on Saturday afternoon, 6817 miles away from its natural habitat
A massive shark has washed up on a Welsh beach - 7000 miles away from its natural habitat.
The huge Mako-type mackerel shark was found on Barmouth beach, western Wales, on Saturday afternoon.
Normally the fish are found in the Atlantic Ocean off the Argentinian coast, a whopping 6817 miles away from Wales.
Photographer Gwion Liggett, from Barmouth, Gwynedd, captured the amazing scene just a few hours after the shark was found.
Gwion, 32, said: "It was such a massive beast.
"When I heard a shark had washed up nearby I just had to check it out for myself.
"I've never known anything like that come near here.
"It's unbelievably huge - I'd say about 3metres long.
"Unsurprisingly it had brought a large crowd to look around.
WATCH: Shark beached on Barmouth beach.
"People had said marine biologists had been down earlier yesterday to check it out.
"Unfortunately I've heard some 'treasure hunters' have been down and stolen the head."
Gwion has no idea how the shark had come to become washed up on the
coast but thinks the shallow waters around the beach may have caused it
to get stuck.
He said: "When I got to the shark, it still looked quite fresh.
"I'm no expert but it either got stranded or died out in the shallow waters as it wasn't decaying." - Daily Mirror.
Wild boar creates havoc at Yonsei University, South Korea
A wild boar broke into a Yonsei University Wonju campus building on Dec. 4. at approximately 7:28 p.m., according to Yonhap.
Wonju is the most populous city in the Gangwon province just 87 miles east of Seoul.
After creating havoc and noise on the first floor of the building, the boar escaped.
"There was a very large boar that broke through the entrance.
It proceeded to damage the elevator doors and even got trapped," said a
man named Shim. "My coworkers I were on our way out and it frightened
us."
Police and firefighters were called to the scene, but by
that point all that was left were broken doors, glass and blood from the
boar's injuries.
The building is a student dormitory as well as a business incubator. It is surrounded by hills and natural areas. - The Korea Times.
Toddler dies after attack by family dogs in Citrus County, Florida
Deputies
responded to the death of a 2-year-old toddler Saturday afternoon from
an apparent dog attack, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office said.
The family had three children, four Rottweilers and another small dog.
Animal control officers removed all five dogs, said Heather Yates,
Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
WATCH: Two-year-old boy killed by dogs.
Yates said the Department of
Children and Families was notified, as is standard when a child dies and
other children are in the home.
"The parents are distraught," Yates said.
No further information was immediately available. - Tampa Bay Times.
Farmer trampled to death by elephant herd in India
A
farmer, Devappa Naidu (55), of Konganapalle village on Gudupalle mandal
of Kuppam constituency and Tamil Nadu border was trampled to death by a
herd of elephants in the early hours of Sunday.
As the
incident took place just a few meters away from Chittoor district limit,
there was confusion among the police and forest personnel on both sides
till noon. A boy from the village, who accompanied the farmer last
night during vigil at the fields, said Devappa Naidu on hearing some big
rustle in the thickets rushed there, mistaking for a raid by boars.
In the morning, villagers found the body of the farmer badly crushed,
with footprints of elephants on the wet soil. , The body was shifted to
Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu for autopsy. - The Hindu.
A mystery is unfolding on the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Hundreds of endangered sea turtles have been washing up on the shore, sick and stunned by the cold ocean water. Biologists and volunteers are mounting an unprecedented rescue response to save as many turtles as possible before it's too late.
Most of the turtles are juvenile Kemp's ridleys (Lepidochelys kempii)
measuring less than a foot long. They are being trapped on their
southbound fall migration to warmer climes by the arm of the cape, which
protrudes into the Atlantic Ocean. Many wash up not only incapacitated by the cold, but also with life-threatening conditions like dehydration, pneumonia,
infections, or off-kilter blood chemistry. Their skin is often
discolored, and early on many were overgrown with algae.
"They're terrible looking" when they first wash up, says Bob Prescott,
director of the conservation group Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife
Sanctuary in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, who is coordinating the
recovery of stranded turtles from the beaches. Fortunately, they respond
well to treatment. His crews of volunteers and staff members have
picked up more than 1070 turtles so far, about 20% of them already dead.
That's far above the average of 200 turtles that have washed up each
fall for the past decade. The number of arrivals has declined, Prescott
says, but it is still higher than normal and won't likely reach zero
until the end of the year, when the annual cold-stun season comes to a
close. With water temperatures dropping, more of the turtles are showing
up dead, and bigger species that can withstand the cold longer, like
loggerheads (Caretta caretta), are starting to wash up.
Prescott's team sends the living turtles, often packed in banana boxes,
to a sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts, run by the New
England Aquarium. Six hundred and fifty turtles have been admitted so
far - approaching triple the hospital's previous record of 240, set in
2012. Workers at the hospital have been putting in 12- to 14-hour days,
with extra volunteers and staff from out-of-state aquariums pitching in,
says Charles Innis, the aquarium's director of animal health, who
oversees the sea turtles' care.
Innis's team has been
stabilizing the turtles and then shipping as many as possible to other
animal hospitals for further treatment and eventual release. This
morning, a private plane flew 50 of the turtles to Houston. Last week,
the U.S. Coast Guard airlifted 193 to Florida. Innis says the Cape Cod
turtles have filled just about every facility along the U.S. East Coast,
and aquarium staff members are now trying to place them in Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Texas. "We just simply don't have tank space available
to handle 600 turtles here. And nobody does, really," Innis says. "It's
really a national effort at this point."
The healthiest turtles
typically require a month or two of care before they can be released,
but the sicker ones may have to stay for up to 8 months, Innis says,
adding that he expects at least 70% of his patients to survive.
Many juvenile Kemp's ridleys never foray north of Cape Cod, but the
ones that do and make it out before the water turns deadly cold don't
seem to return, Prescott says. Instead, they join other East Coast
turtles in warmer waters farther south, where they spend a decade or so
maturing before returning to nest on their home beaches in Texas and
Mexico.
The reasons for this year's remarkable stranding remain
unknown. Some observers have suggested that there may be more juvenile
Kemp's ridleys thanks to recent hatching success resulting from
conservation efforts. But Donna Shaver, chief of the Division of Sea
Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore in Corpus
Christi, Texas, where most U.S.-born Kemp's ridleys hatch, says it may
be more complicated than that. The number of hatchlings in the Gulf of
Mexico has increased substantially since the mid-1980s, but it has
varied quite a bit in recent years, suggesting that oceanographic
conditions may also be behind this year's large crop of stranded
turtles.
Another hypothesis is that rapidly warming water in
the Gulf of Maine, which includes Cape Cod Bay and waters north to Nova
Scotia, could be luring turtles farther north than they once ventured,
causing more to become trapped on their southbound journey when the
water cools in the fall. But biologists are putting serious
investigation into the causes of the record strandings on hold until
January, after the rush to save turtles ends.
From Shaver's
vantage point, the Cape Cod rescue work - which she is not directly
involved in - is very important. The International Union for
Conservation of Nature lists Kemp's ridley sea turtles as "Critically
Endangered," and the species is thought to have been harmed by the BP
oil spill in 2010, which killed hundreds of turtles and may have
contributed to subsequent declines in nests. Only about 5500 females
nest each year, the best available proxy for their total population.
"We're really hoping for great success for those folks that are working
so hard to try to find these turtles and bring them back around to
health," Shaver says. - Science Mag.
Dog attacks leap 48% in just 12 months in Wollongong, Australia
Dog attacks in Wollongong have soared a staggering 48 per cent in just 12 months with nearly 50 people and more than 200 animals harmed.
The latest statistics from the NSW Division of Local Government show
there were 237 dog attacks in Wollongong from April 2013 to March this
year, compared with 160 in the same period a year earlier.
The Wollongong local government area ranks fourth in the state for the
number of dog attacks reported, behind Blacktown, Gosford and Newcastle,
and also has a higher than average attack rate.
The statewide attack rate was one attack for every 1350 dogs.
By contrast, Wollongong's rate was one attack for every 735 dogs.
Wollongong City Council blamed the media and an ''increase in reporting'' for the huge rise in dog attacks in a year.
''There appears to be an increase in reporting attacks or incidents by the public when incidents occur,'' a spokesman said.
''Council believes that the increase is also due to the attention to attacks given by the media in recent times.''
He said the council treated attacks with ''the highest priority'',
taking actions such as issuing fines, negotiating with owner to have
dogs euthanased in the interests of public safety, seizing dogs, and
issuing ''Dangerous Dog'' or ''Menacing Dog'' declarations which impose
higher responsibilities on dog owners.
In the year to March, 21
people in Wollongong were injured in ''serious'' attacks (where
injuries from the attack needed medical treatment or hospitalisation)
and 25 people were involved in less serious cases.
In Warrawong
in April last year, a 45-year-old woman received bites to her face and
hands and was taken by paramedics to Wollongong Hospital.
Other
victims included a 21-year-old Bellambi man who received bites to his
arms and legs in September, a 51-year-old Warrawong woman who received
lacerations to her hand and leg in October and a 48-year-old Bellambi
woman who was bitten on her neck and toe in November.
Wollongong attacks on children included a Koonawarra 15-year-old who was
hospitalised with a severe foot injury in August, a Unanderra
16-year-old bitten on the shin on New Year's Day and a two-year-old
Berkeley boy who was taken to Wollongong Hospital with a 20-centimetre
laceration to his head.
Humans weren't the only victims, with 214 animals attacked by dogs in Wollongong.
In Shellharbour, there were 28 dog attacks in total during the 12-month period, while in Kiama there were just 15.
In the three months to March, the top three attacking dog breeds across
NSW were Staffordshire bull terriers (158 attacks), Australian cattle
dogs (100 attacks) and American Staffordshire terriers (82 attacks). - Illawarra Mercury.
Rampaging water buffalo attacks and injures 14 pedestrians, China
A water buffalo tore through a small southwestern Chinese town in a mad rampage.
A
water buffalo tore through a small southwestern Chinese town in a mad
rampage, chasing down pedestrians and injuring at least 14 bystanders.
In surveillance video footage released by state media, the water
buffalo is seen wandering in the center of town in Jingyan County
located in China's Sichuan province.
In one shot, the buffalo is shown setting its sights on resident Liang Cuirong who was riding past on her bicycle.The animal chased Liang, knocked her off the bike and trampled her repeatedly.
The buffalo also reportedly chased to another resident before damaging cars and chasing down more passerby's.
It finally took four police officers and 10 rounds to take down the buffalo and end the 40 minute long bovine panic.
"We took aim at its head," Huang Tao, one of the police officers who
brought down the buffalo, told state media. "Shot it until it fell
down."
WATCH: Buffalo goes on a rampage in China.
Water buffalos are used in the region to till soil and
act as general beast of burden in the rural farming communities on the
outskirts of town.
It remains unknown how this particular beast ended up in the middle of Jingyan but authorities are investigating. - ABC News.
Wild boar attacks woman in her backyard, India
A
55-year-old woman of Adhivarahapuram near Tiruttani was admitted to
government hospital on Friday after she was attacked by a wild boar.
"Around 4.30 in the morning, Pattammal went out to the backyard of her house, where the animal attacked her, injuring her right hand. The victim raised an alarm but the animal disappeared," Forest officials said.
A team of officials led by Tiruvallur District Forest Officer P.
Muhammed Shabab visited the victim in the hospital. Financial assistance
was handed over to Pattammal by Mr. Shabab at the hospital. A team has
been sent to the village where the woman was attacked to check the
movement of any animal. Further investigation is on, he added. - The Hindu.
140,000 birds killed due to avian flu in British Columbia, Canada
A poultry farm under quarantine because of a outbreak of avian influenza is pictured in Chilliwack, B.C. Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
With
seven countries now turning away imports of Canadian poultry due to a
Vancouver-area outbreak of avian flu, federal officials are rushing to
contain the highly contagious virus before it can infect farms beyond
the Fraser Valley.
While the virus is not dangerous to humans, it has the potential to kill off entire barns of poultry within a matter of days.
“To
lose most of your flock within the span of a week is completely unheard
of,” said Ray Nickel, president of the B.C. Poultry Association. “It’s
hard to even visualize unless you’ve gone through and experienced it.”
Over
the weekend, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed that five
farms have become infected by a “high pathogen” strain of H5N2 never
before seen on Canadian soil.
As of Sunday, all five
properties were subjected to “biosecurity” quarantines as crews in
HAZMAT suits destroyed as many as 140,000 chickens and turkeys.
As
many as 90 additional poultry farms fall within the
three-kilometre-wide quarantine zones established around the infected
farms.
The stocks at these other farms will not be culled if no
evidence of avian flu is found, but they are subject to strict
conditions about moving their birds out of the Fraser Valley.
In a
weekend statement, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it has
“mobilized all available resources to manage this situation.” - National Post.
