Bulgarian capital shaken by 5.6 magnitude quake

By Angel Krasimirov

SOFIA (Reuters) – A 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook Bulgaria’s capital Sofia early on Tuesday, causing residents to rush into the streets, the civil defence office said.

The quake, which occurred at 3 a.m. local time, shook apartment buildings and rattled windows but caused no casualties or damage, Nikolay Nikolov, an official from the office was quoted as saying by the national radio, citing initial reports.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centered about 14 miles (24 km) west of Sofia and occurred at a relatively shallow depth of 5.8 miles (9.4 km).

USGS initially reported the magnitude as 5.8.

The civil defence office said the quake’s epicentre was near the western town of Pernik.

Many people in the Bulgarian capital fled their homes and gathered in the streets.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Ivanka Georgieva, who lives on the eighth floor in a residential block, told Reuters. “It was very strong and it was frightening.”

The quake was felt across the south-western part of Bulgaria.

The small Black Sea country of fewer than 8 million people lies in Europe’s earthquake-prone Balkan region.

(Additional reporting by Eric Walsh in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott and Eric Beech)

Earthquake destroys $400m worth of cheese 

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Photo / Thinkstock

Sunday’s quake in northeastern Italy destroyed more than 300,000 wheels of Parmesan and Grana Padano, a similar cheese, with an estimated value of more than NZ$421m, an industry official said.

“The earthquake was very strong and heavily damaged the structures of many warehouses as well as thousands of tonnes” of the two cheeses, said Stefano Berni, head of a consortium that protects the Grana Padano designation.

“It’s a very heavy loss, but there have been no casualties, which is a great relief at this worrying time,” he told the ANSA news agency.

An initial estimate of 250 million euros is “very conservative,” Berni said, adding that he hoped no further tremors would “further aggravate the state of the already highly damaged and fragile structures.”

A wheel of the cheese can weigh up to 40 kilograms.

- AFP

M6.2 quake and several above M5.0 hit off Northeast Japan in last day — UPDATED

Earthquake Information
Japan Meteorological Agency

17:50 JST 20 May 2012 17:42 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.1 2
17:27 JST 20 May 2012 17:21 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.4 2
16:54 JST 20 May 2012 16:49 JST 20 May 2012 Ibaraki-ken Hokubu M3.3 1
16:38 JST 20 May 2012 16:28 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.7 2
16:32 JST 20 May 2012 16:20 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M6.2 3
14:57 JST 20 May 2012 14:52 JST 20 May 2012 Fukushima-ken Oki M3.6 1
12:56 JST 20 May 2012 12:49 JST 20 May 2012 Niigata-ken Chuetsu-chiho M1.8 1
04:24 JST 20 May 2012 04:17 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M4.8 1
04:20 JST 20 May 2012 04:14 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.4 1
04:11 JST 20 May 2012 04:05 JST 20 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.8 3
03:36 JST 20 May 2012 03:31 JST 20 May 2012 Akita-ken Nairiku-hokubu M2.8 1
01:23 JST 20 May 2012 01:18 JST 20 May 2012 Aki-nada M3.3 1
23:27 JST 19 May 2012 23:22 JST 19 May 2012 Ibaraki-ken Hokubu M3.3 1
23:25 JST 19 May 2012 23:20 JST 19 May 2012 Miyagi-ken Oki M3.9 1
09:14 JST 19 May 2012 09:09 JST 19 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M4.8 1
07:41 JST 19 May 2012 07:36 JST 19 May 2012 Miyagi-ken Oki M3.4 1
07:02 JST 19 May 2012 06:57 JST 19 May 2012 Ibaraki-ken Nambu M3.1 1
06:37 JST 19 May 2012 06:32 JST 19 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M4.7 1
06:28 JST 19 May 2012 06:23 JST 19 May 2012 Sanriku Oki M5.1 2

City believes earthquake damaged Memorial Hall

By Debby Woodin dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

JOPLIN, Mo. — Joplin can add earthquake damage to its history of natural disasters.

City officials believe that a Nov. 6 shaker that was centered in Shawnee, Okla., rattled hard enough here to cause some big cracks in Memorial Hall.

The City Council will be asked on Wednesday to authorize a contract for engineering services to identify the extent of the damage and recommendations for repair.

Jack Schaller, the city’s assistant public works director, said that the building’s caretaker who does regular inspections of the building, along with maintenance duties, reported the cracks right after the earthquake, which was felt as a slight tremor here. If the engineering investigation bears out the city’s contention, it will be used for an insurance claim on the damage.

“That building is 90 or 100 years old, so there are always some cracks from age and settlement,” Schaller acknowledges. “But after that earthquake, the guy who works at the hall noticed some huge cracks, so it’s obvious there had been some significant settlement due to the earthquake.”

Added Schaller, “If slight cracks appeared, you’d know it had settled over time, but when it happens overnight, you know something caused it.” He said normal settlement or wear and tear has not produced cracks that size during the building’s existence.

If the council approves, a contract for $38,630 will be awarded to Allgeier, Martin and Associates to conduct tests and an evaluation. Those tests will include geotechnical probes, a seismic hazard analysis and an evaluation of soil conditions.

Geotechnical testing will be done to find out what the soil strength is at Memorial Hall to determine if there is a hazard for the building to settle excessively, Schaller said. The engineers also will asked to look at methods of stabilizing the damage and options for repair.

The hall is currently being leased by the Joplin School District as space for band classes and practices, and physical fitness activities. The damage does not put students at risk, he said.

“We have had several engineers look at it and structurally it’s in good shape,” Schaller said. “There’s no safety concerns. We just have to figure out how to remediate it and get those cracks closed up and see if we can keep it around another 100 years.”

The city will coordinate with the school district on any schedule to make repairs, Schaller said.

As for having an earthquake that followed a late winter blizzard that piled up nearly two feet of snow, an EF-5 tornado and a summer of excessive heat and drought, 2011 “will be a year that people won’t ever forget,” Schaller said.

Shake, rattle and roll

Other damage was observed in the area believed to connected to the earthquake. The city of Neosho attributes damage to its sewer and water lines to that cause.

 

 

 

2

21.05.2012

Earthquake

Italy

[Modena and Mantova]

This is a time lapse video of the eclipse on May 20th, 2012 in San Antonio, Texas at 8:32PM (ECT) and the Full Moon that we experienced a week prior.

ALL VIDEO IS PROPERTY OF MB PRODUCTIONS. MUSIC USED IN THE VIDEO IS NOT OWNED BY MB PRODUCTIONS. ALL CREDITS GO TO THE WRITERS OF THE TWO MUSICAL SCORES IN THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO.

By James Omoro

Farmers in Rangwe Division of Homa Bay District have lost 12 cattle following acute outbreak of Black quarter disease.

The farmers expressed concern saying curing the disease among their cattle has become a nightmare.

They said the death of the cattle has caused an enormous loss in their economy owing to the fact that cattle keeping is regarded as a major investment among the area residents. The farmers are worried that the situation may aggravate if precautionary measures are not taken early enough.

They appealed to the government to intervene promptly and carry out preventive measures for curbing further deaths of cattle.

Area District Veterinary Officer Alexander Baboon confirmed the outbreak saying that Black quarter is one the dangerous diseases that can claim lives of many livestock within a short duration.

Baboon assured area residents that the government would undertake massive vaccination of animals to combat further spread of the disease in the affected areas.

He called upon farmers to co-operate with Veterinary Officers in a vaccination exercise scheduled for Tuesday May 22. The Officer said the exercise is expected to continue for a period of seven days in Rangwe and Asego Divisions where trace of the disease has been experienced.

He called upon farmers to present their animals for vaccination in the designated places adding that it would be offered free of charge.

Baboon attributed the bacterial disease to prevalent dirty water that has resulted from heavy rains experienced in the region. He told the farmers to be calm as he is making all possible efforts to arrest the situation.

Minnesota’s Moose Population in Sharp, Unexplained Decline

ALONG THE GUNFLINT TRAIL, Minn. — If moose disappear from the boreal forest of northern Minnesota, as some biologists predict, they will not exit with a thunderous crash. Climate extinctions come quietly, even when they involve 1,000-pound herbivores.

Experts who have studied the Northwestern moose — Alces alces andersoni — believe they are witnessing one of the most precipitous nonhunting declines of a major species in the modern era, yet few outside Minnesota fully appreciate the loss.

The moose is an iconic species whose existence is woven into the social, economic and cultural fabric of this region. Its elongated head and wide antlers are emblazoned on everything from T-shirts to tire flaps. The 1960s cartoon character Bullwinkle J. Moose and his flying squirrel friend Rocky were residents of the fictionalized town of Frostbite Falls, Minn.

But the animals that inspired Bullwinkle are not what they were. Here, even healthy bulls — whose size, strength and rutting prowess make them the undisputed kings of the North Woods — are dying from what appear to be a combination of exhaustion, exposure, wasting disease triggered by parasites and other maladies.

The biologists are baffled and also helpless.

Mark Lenarz, who retired in March from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), where he led moose research efforts, said it’s not like the TV show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

“Unlike ‘CSI,’ it’s very hard to identify in the field exactly what an animal is dying from,” he said. “We know something about the symptoms” of distressed moose, he added, “but we don’t necessarily know the exact causes of mortality.”

What Lenarz and other experts do know is that a variety of climate stressors — including higher average annual temperatures, a long string of very mild winters, and increasingly favorable conditions for ticks, parasites and other invasive species — are conspiring to make northern Minnesota a moose graveyard.

Since 2002, Minnesota DNR specialists have put radio collars on 150 healthy adult moose; 119 subsequently died, most of them from unknown causes, according to wildlife officials. Car and train collisions accounted for 12 mortalities, while wolves were culpable in just 11 deaths.

Sudden collapse of herds

Meanwhile, annual surveys taken from helicopter overflights show that the state’s primary moose population, in the state’s northeastern Arrowhead region, has been halved in just six years, dropping from 8,840 animals in 2006 to just 4,230 this year. The decline mirrors a similar collapse a decade ago in the state’s northwest corner, where moose plummeted from an estimated 4,000 animals in the mid-1980s to less than 100 by the mid-2000s.

While some monitoring of moose had occurred in the 1990s, most of the animals were gone before scientists could examine cause-and-effect relationships. In the Arrowhead, however, experts are watching mass mortality, discovering multiple moose carcasses in the same area, including animals that appeared relatively healthy only a few years before.

Under attack by ticks, parasites and wolves, the moose’s status as an icon of Minnesota’s North Woods is rapidly ending. Photo by J. Gelineau, courtesy of University of Minnesota, Duluth.

Read Full Article Here

Archaeologists digging at Tel Megiddo in northern Israel have unearthed what turns out to be one of the largest troves of Canaanite treasures ever found, buried in rubble from destruction 3,100 years ago. The treasure was hidden inside a clay vessel that had been unearthed in the summer of 2010. The pot had been filled with dirt and sent for testing. It was only recently that the dirt was examined in a restoration laboratory and the treasure revealed to their great surprise.

The hoard includes a collection of gold and silver jewelry, beads, a ring and a pair of unique gold earrings with molded ibexes and wild goats that was likely made in Egypt. “We find about 10 [whole] vessels every year. The only thing that was unusual was that the jug was found inside a bowl. It was put inside a bowl 3,000 years ago and was covered by another bowl and it was put in the corner of a court yard,” archaeologist Eran Arie told The Media Line.

The hoard is one of the largest and most intriguing ever found in Israel. The treasure likely belonged to a wealthy, perhaps royal, family and was found in the layer of settlement dating to 1,100 B.C., about 150 years prior to the Israelite conquest of Canaan, Arie says.

Israel Finkelstein, a professor Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures, who has been digging at Megiddo for nearly two decades, says the jug was discovered in the remains of a private home in the northern part of the site. It was dated to a period called Iron I.

The ancient city of Megiddo lies on the western border of the Jezreel Valley and had dozens of layers of civilization. It is mentioned repeatedly in Egyptian chronicles and was a major city during the era of the biblical Jewish kings. Christian prophecy holds that it is Armageddon, the site of the final battle between good and evil.

It’s another fascinating find from a unique archaeological site. Tel Megiddo was an important Canaanite city-state until the early 10th century B.C.E. and a pivotal center of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the following centuries. It is a multi-layered site comprising clearly differentiated time periods.

In this time period there are 10 or 11 strata well-dated through radiocarbon analysis. “Such a sequence of radiocarbon dates doesn’t exist anywhere else in the region,” says Finkelstein.

The hoard contained nine pairs of lunette [moon-shaped] earrings of common Canaanite origin made out of gold and a gold ring with a seal. There were also over one thousand beads made from semi-precious carnelian, which was frequently used in the making of Egyptian jewellery in the same period. It also contained a number of silver jewellery pieces.

Arie was supervising the area where the jug was found. He says the layer his team was excavating had gone through a conflagration, or destruction, perhaps connected to the treasure.

“Maybe somebody knew that the family had this kind of hoard and they were looking for it and when they didn’t find it they set it all on fire,” Arie speculates. “It was not hidden under the floor, but on the floor. So the people didn’t know that they were going to perish. It was probably hidden by some kind of organic material, sacks, textile, leaves something that we didn’t find.”

He says an examination of the jewelry showed that some of it had originated from a different period. “Probably part of it was stolen or robbed from an earlier strata. Or some of it may have been heirloom,” he says.

“What was unique in this hoard is that it contained gold and silver jewelry together. This is exactly the period that the Egyptians are not here anymore,” he adds.

At the time this was going on Israelites began to appear in the central mountains and Philistines in the coastal plane. But Megiddo remained a strong Canaanite city well into the Israelite period.

Arie says the source of the silver was to the north, while the gold came from Egypt in the south. The mixture of the silver and gold jewelry can be seen as evidence of the waning Egyptian influence on the area.

“The hoard itself showed that they knew of and still appreciated the Egyptian style,” he says.

Excavations at Megiddo resume next month.