April 16, 2016 - JAPAN - An unexplained carpet of foamy bubbles filled streets in the
centre of the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka in the early hours of
Saturday morning- shortly after tremors from a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.3 shook the town.
Twitter users posted pictures of the mysterious foam, with one calling it "disgusting".
"I saw it just after the earthquake," said Kazuki Nabeta, who lives in
the busy central district of Tenjin, where the bubbles were found.
Some have speculated that the earthquake may have caused an underground pipe to burst.
"People were posting pictures on Twitter and it was near my house, so I went out to have a look," said Mr Nabeta.
"There was a fire engine there. There wasn't anything special about it - it was normal foam."
Fukuoka is 90km away from Kumamoto, where the strongest tremors were felt.
Residents of Fukuoka reported strong shaking but little damage from the two quakes, which took place on Friday and Saturday.
At least 29 people have been killed by the earthquakes, which injured more than 1,500 and left many more homeless.
WATCH: Mysterious foam appears in Fukuoka.
A spokesperson at the Fukuoka town hall said they did not know anything about the bubbles, which remain a mystery. - Independent.
April 16, 2016 - ENGLAND - A huge crack running 100m (328ft) opened up on a section of Dorset's
Jurassic Coast on April 13, 2016. It appeared between Bowleaze Cove and
Redcliff Point at Preston, near Weymouth.
The massive crack splits the land in two on the famous Jurassic Coast in Dorset.
The resulting crevasse measures about 250 yards long, up to 3ft wide and 4ft deep on April 12, 2016.
Thousands of tonnes of earth have given way and will continue to slip away, changing the landscape of the renowned coastline.
It is unknown when the cliff will fall down on the beach, but walkers
and tourists are now being warned to steer clear of the chasm.
This gigantic landslip was caused by heavy rainfall in the last few months.
Fossil hunters and beachgoers are also being warned as the crack will mean extra clay and mud on the shore below the cliff.
As if an earthquake had struck.
The thing is that this geological process is all part of a progressive evolution of the coastline.
If hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rock have moved there is an
increased risk of rock falls and mud that will spill out onto the beach
and create a danger.
April 16, 2016 - JAPAN - Dozens of people are feared trapped under rubble in southern
Japan, as the death toll from two earthquakes has climbed to 41. The
search for survivors is in full swing, while 90,000 people have been
evacuated from their homes to safer locations.
Over 200 aftershocks have hit Japan following the initial Thursday tremor of 6.5-magnitude, which hit the city of Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu. Officials have warned that the risk of further strong aftershocks will linger for about a week.
About 190 of the injured are in serious condition, the Japanese government said.
WATCH: Second deadly quake destroys homes in southern Japan.
Only 24 hours later the same areas was struck by a violent 7.1-magnitude earthquake. The Japan Meteorological Agency briefly issued tsunami warnings for the areas that were still recovering from Thursday’s devastating tremors.
The overall death toll from the two quakes now stands at 41, with more than 1,000 people injured - 184 of them seriously.
About 90,000 people in Kumamoto Prefecture were evacuated to shelters, authorities say.
“We are aware of multiple locations where people have been buried alive,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. “Police, firefighters and Self Defense Force personnel are doing all they can to rescue them.”
The death toll in the earthquakes may be climbing by the hour, Kumamoto Prefectural official Tomoyuki Tanaka said.
About 170,000 households were without electricity and 385,000 without water following the powerful quakes.
Yuichiro Yoshikado described his experience during Thursday’s earthquake to AP. He was in the bathroom at the time.
"I grabbed onto the sides of the bathtub, but the water in the tub, it was about 70 percent filled with water, was going like this," he said, waving his arms, "and all the water splashed out."
"I thought I was going to die and I couldn't bear it any longer," he added.
Among 29 casualties are two students from Tokai University.
“We offer our sincerest prayers for the two,” said a University statement. “We're trying to confirm the safety of other students.”
“I felt strong shaking at first, then I was thrown about like I was in a washing machine,” a Tokai University student told local media, “All the lights went out and I heard a loud noise. A lot of gas is leaking and while there hasn't been a fire, that remains a concern.”
The quakes triggered massive landslides, which cut off roads and destroyed bridges, local media reported, adding that they imperiled rescue and relief efforts.
Meteorologists forecast heavy rain and wind, adding that the temperature is expected to drop to 13 degrees Celsius.
"The wind is expected to pick up and rain will likely get heavier," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a government meeting. "Rescue operations at night will be extremely difficult ... It's a race against time."
230 aftershocks hit Japan in 48hrs
The latest big aftershock came hours after the second deadly earthquake and measured magnitude 5.3.
Japan has suffered more than 230 aftershocks of at least level 1 on the Japanese scale since Thursday's earthquake, Japan's meteorological agency said.
"We have already seen several in the mid to upper 5 plus magnitude range, and over the next several days and weeks, we would not be surprised to see more earthquakes of this size," said John Bellini, a geophysicist with the USGS, as cited by Reuters.
WATCH: Double quakes hit Japan.
Local residents are still in shock over the earthquakes and the following tremors.
“We left my house as we could not stay due to continuous jolts,” local resident Hisako Ogata, 61, told AFP, “It was so scary," she added. "Thank God we are still alive.”
Mount Aso volcano erupts after 2 quakes
Hours
after the second deadly earthquake, the Japan Meteorological Agency
recorded an eruption at Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan.
WATCH: Mount Aso erupts.
The
1,592-meter volcano is nearly 30 minutes’ drive from the earthquakes
epicenter. It is not yet clear if the volcano’s seismic activity is
connected to the quakes.
Numerous photos and videos on social media showed plumes of smoke rising some 100 meters into the sky.
Historic monuments damaged in the quakes
Several historic monuments in Kumamoto Prefecture have been badly damaged in the quakes.
The 1,700-year-old Aso Shrine in the town of Aso, one of the oldest and most prominent shrines in Japan, has been severely damaged. Some of its curved tiled roofs were flattened on the ground.
The shrine’s towering gate, known as the “Rōmon” or “Cherry Blossom Gate” collapsed and is in ruins. The haiden or worshiping hall was also destroyed.
The Aso Shrine was officially recognized as one of the Kanpei-taisha - it stood in the first rank of government-supported shrines.
The quake has also destroyed another historic Japanese icon – the 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle, which is considered one of the three main castles in Japan. Its walls were severely breached, TV footage showed.
April 16, 2016 - 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.
Mass deaths of saiga antelope in Kazakhstan caused by bacteria
Almost total decimation of Betpak-Dala's population of 200,000 saiga
antelopes in 2015 caused by pathogen that led to hemorrhagic
septicemia, say scientists
The mysterious mass deaths of about 200,000 saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan last year was caused by a bacterial infection.
As news emerged in May last year of the near-total decimation of the
Betpak-Dala population of saiga antelope, there was plenty of
speculation but few concrete answers as to what might have been
responsible.
Kazakhstan's mass antelope deaths mystify conservationists
One idea was that rainfall had resulted in widespread, mortal bloat.
Perhaps there had been some infectious disease that had wiped out herd
after herd. Some even blamed poisoning by toxic rocket fuel spread
around Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.
In the runup to this year's breeding season, which is when the
animals are at their most vulnerable to such events, the Saiga
Conservation Alliance (SGA) has released the latest thinking on what
caused the mass mortality in 2015. Several labs have confirmed the
presence of the bacterium Pasteurella multocida in tissue samples from carcasses collected during last year's die-off.
134,000 saiga antelope dead in two weeks. What is the probable cause?
This pathogen normally lives harmlessly in the respiratory tract of
these antelope but it appears to have run amok, resulting in hemorrhagic
septicemia. This is known to occur in wild and domestic animals in
grassland ecosystems, but it has never resulted in close to 100%
mortality as was observed in the Betpak-Dala population. Research
efforts are now concentrating on figuring out how the Pasturella could have taken over as it did.
Are there any steps that could be taken to minimise the chances of a
repeat of last year? Not really, says Richard Kock of the Royal
Veterinary College. "There is no practical prophylaxis possible against
hemorrhagic septicemia in saiga given the species' behaivour and the
lack of a delivery mechanism for a vaccine." If, however, there are
other contributing factors that can be identified, "the potential for
intervention can be reassessed" in the future, he says.
Prior to the deaths last year, the global population of saiga stood at
around 262,000. The decimation of the Betpak-Dala herd means that there
are now fewer than 100,000 animals in existence.
"With the saiga's calving season just around the corner in early May,
you can feel the tension mounting amongst everyone who works with this
critically endangered species," says Caryln Samuel, SCA's administrator.
Rare 'megamouth' shark caught off Japan
Fishermen were stunned to when they saw the massive beast
An incredibly rare deepwater shark has been caught by terrified fishermen.
The massive 16ft beast was snared in fishing nets as stunned sailors
were forced to pull up the monstrous fish - reportedly weighing over a
tonne.
The enormous deep sea dweller has been identified as a megamouth shark
and was caught five kilometres off the coast of central Japan.
The shark was 16ft long
They have only been spotted 60 times since they were first discovered in 1976 - when a deep-sea anchor caught one off the coast of Hawaii.
The sharks dive as deep as 160 metres underwater during the day before rising as high as 12 metres during the night to feed.
WATCH: Extremely rare megamouth shark caught off the coast of Japan.
