An earthquake toppled houses and damaged a hotel and supermarket in China's extreme southwest near the border with Myanmar, also known as Burma, on Thursday, killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 200, officials and state media said. Photos from the scene showed buildings that buckled, crushing their lower floors. Police, firefighters and soldiers rushed to the area to pull out people trapped in the rubble, including a man and girl stuck in the stairwell of a four-story building, according to state broadcaster China Central Television. One sidewalk was lined with injured people, lying on blankets and being shielded from the sun by large vendor umbrellas. The quake hit while many people, including students, were home for a customary midday rest, the broadcaster said. In addition to the 22 killed, 201 people have been injured, it said. The report said at least two students were among those killed but didn't give details. The website of the Chinese government earthquake monitoring station said the magnitude-5.8 quake was centred on Yunnan province's Yingjiang county and struck just before 1 p.m. local time (midnight ET) at a depth of 10 kilometres. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 5.4 and at a deeper 35 kilometres. Tremors continued to be felt in the area throughout the afternoon and evening, according to CCTV reporter Shu Qian, who was at the disaster scene in Yingjiang County. The quake's epicenter was in Shiming Village, just over two kilometres from the county seat, but triggered a power outage across Yingjiang, which has a population of about 300,000 people, Xinhua said. YOUR NEWS: Do you have family or friends in the region? Share your news tips here. By evening, the power supply was still cut off, though water and communications didn't appear to be damaged, Shu said. An official on duty at the quake monitoring centre, Gao Shaotang, said many houses had been destroyed. Xinhua said the army was sending 400 soldiers to the site for rescue efforts. A government team that includes the Civil Affairs Ministry has also been dispatched to the quake-stricken area, CCTV said. About 5,000 tents, 10,000 quilts and 10,000 coats are also being sent from the central government. An injured woman is carried out of the rubble after a strong earthquake hit Yingjiang county in southwest China's Yunnan province on Thursday. Xinhua/Associated PressThe mountainous area lies 2,400 kilometres southwest of Beijing, close to the border with Myanmar, and is home to many ethnic groups on both sides of the border, which sees heavy traffic in people and goods. Xinhua said the quake-prone region has been hit by more than 1,000 minor tremors over the past two months. The Myanmar Meteorological Department released a statement saying a quake had hit some 370 kilometres northeast of Mandalay, the country's second-largest city. The statement did not mention injuries, damage or the specific area of Myanmar most affected by the quake. Authorities in the tightly ruled country tend not to immediately discuss the effects of natural disasters. Much of the area on the Myanmar side been under the control of various armed ethnic groups, who have battled the Myanmar military to remain free from central government control.

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck northern Chile on Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but no injuries or damage were reported. The quake struck around 9:30 a.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET) in the Tarapaca region, about 60 kilometres from the port city of Arica, the agency said. The latest quake comes just over a year after Chile was rocked by one of the largest tremors ever recorded — a 8.8-magnitude tremor that killed at least 521 people and caused massive damage in the disaster-prone Andean nation. Chile faces constant danger from earthquakes for its location on the so-called "ring of fire" — where the edges of the giant plate beneath the Pacific Ocean form a particularly intense ring of tectonic activity.

A strong, 6.3 magnitude earthquake has rocked the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch, with "multiple fatalities" reported and more damage than the 7.1 quake in September. "Multiple fatalities have been reported at several locations in the central city, including two buses crushed by falling buildings,'' police said in a statement. "A doctor and emergency services are attending. Other reports include multiple building collapses, fires in buildings in the central (city) and persons reported trapped in buildings.'' Civil authorities have set up "triage centres" at several locations around the city to help injured people. People working in the centre of Christchurch interviewed by Sky News New Zealand said the quake was much worse that last year's. The spire of a downtown cathedral collapsed, and witnesses reported seeing many injuries. "The top of the cathedral's collapsed," a police official told Sky News in the city's centre. "It's the heart of the city. It's gone." Because the quake occurred at lunchtime on a busy Monday, more people were hurt. The Sept. 4 quake occurred on a Saturday. Radio New Zealand said staffers in its Christchurch newsroom had to cling to their desks during the shaking, with large filing cabinets toppling over. Christchurch has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Sept. 4 last year, causing extensive damage and a handful of injuries, but no deaths. "What I can see from where I am in the central city is that there are significant amounts of additional damage," Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said. The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centred five kilometres from the city at a depth of four kilometres. Reuters reports that the country, located between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, records an average of more than 14,000 quakes a year. Only 20 would normally top magnitude 5.0, the news agency said.

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck central Chile Friday, centred in almost exactly the same spot where last year's magnitude-8.8 quake spawned a tsunami and devastated coastal communities. Electricity and phone service were disrupted and thousands of people fled to higher ground following Friday's quake, but the government quickly announced that there was no risk of a tsunami, and there were no reports of damage or injuries. President Sebastian Pinera appealed for calm and praised his government and Chileans in general for responding quickly. "Today we're better prepared," Pinera said. "I think we've learned the lesson of Feb. 27, 2010." Rodrigo Ubilla, the vice-interior minister, said the navy had "totally discounted any risk of a tsunami." Still, the strong earthquake frightened many Chileans, especially along the coast, where people quickly moved to higher ground. "There was a preventive self-evacuation," said Vicente Nunez, who directs the National Emergency Office, ONEMI. But he said Chileans could safely return home. Residents fled their homes in Talcahuano, a port city whose centre was ravaged last year by huge walls of water that sent shipping containers and fishing boats into downtown buildings and streets, municipal spokesman Javier Gonzalez told The Associated Press. Skyscrapers swayed in the capital of Santiago, and in the inland town of Cauquenes, mothers ran into the streets carrying babies in their arms. The earthquake struck offshore, about 45 kilometres north of the city of Concepcion. The epicenter was relatively close to the coast, at 36 degrees south latitude and 73 degrees west longitude — almost exactly where the Feb. 27, 2010 earthquake was centred. Friday's quake was half as deep, at 18 kilometres, as the devastating temblor of Feb. 27, 2010. And while last year's massive quake killed at least 521 people and left 200,000 homeless, this time it seemed that Chile emerged relatively unscathed. Hours later a 5.3-magnitude temblor shook the region, according to the USGS. People in Talcahuano weren't taking any chances in any case. The compact city centre is at the base of a bay and surrounded by hills, forming a bowl where the ocean drained and then came back with a vengeance last year. Friday's quake caused a blackout in Concepcion, another city still recovering from last year's disaster. And across the country, Chileans jammed cellphone networks trying to make sure their families were OK. In Cauquenes, a small town almost directly west of the epicenter, mothers ran into the streets carrying babies in their arms. "I was really frightened. This is one of the strongest aftershocks we've had since last year's earthquake," said Ana Alarcon, who closed her small shop and took her two children in a search for her husband, who she couldn't reach by phone. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/02/11/chile-earthquake.html?ref=rss#ixzz1Dhw4DH2S

NASA's planet-hunting telescope is finding 1,000 whole new worlds of possibility in the search for alien life. An early report from a cosmic census indicates that relatively small planets and stable multi-planet systems are far more plentiful than previous searches showed. NASA released new data Wednesday from its Kepler telescope on more than a thousand possible new planets outside our solar system — more than doubling the count of what astronomers call exoplanets. They haven't been confirmed as planets yet, but some astronomers estimate that 90 per cent of what Kepler has found will eventually be verified. Small planets outnumber giants Kepler, launched in 2009, has been orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars, conducting a planet census and searching for Earth-like planets since last year. It has found there are more planets that are much smaller than Jupiter — the biggest planet in our solar system — than there are giant planets. Some of these even approach Earth's size. That means they are better potential candidates for life than the behemoths that are more easily spotted, astronomers say. While Kepler hasn't yet found planets that are as small as Earth, all the results are "pointing in the right direction," said University of California Santa Cruz astronomer Jonathan Fortney, a Kepler researcher. Yale University exoplanet expert Debra Fischer, who wasn't part of the Kepler team but serves as an outside expert for NASA, said the new information "gives us a much firmer footing" in eventual hopes for worlds that could harbour life. "I feel different today knowing these new Kepler results than I did a week ago," Fischer said. NASA will be holding a news conference early Wednesday afternoon on Kepler's latest findings. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/02/02/science-space-kepler-planets.html?ref=rss#ixzz1Cotz3TR5

More than 420,000 people across B.C. have signed up to duck and cover Wednesday in a massive earthquake drill. At exactly 10 a.m. PT, radio stations across the province will sound an alarm and thousands of students, office workers, even clergy and church-goers will dive under desks, tables or any other sturdy piece of furniture and hang on for a minute to practise what to do when the so-called Big One hits. Heather Lyle, co-chair of The Great British Columbia Shakeout, said this is the first time a province-wide drill has been conducted, and the goal is to create awareness that bolting from a shaking building is the worst thing to do. 'Drop, cover and hold on.'— Heather Lyle of The Great British Columbia Shakeout "When you try to quickly run out of a building, first of all an earthquake's gravity will pull you to the ground, but secondly fleeing a building … makes you vulnerable to things falling on top of you, being hit by flying debris," Lyle said. Prone to earthquakes "The best thing to do is to stay where you are. If you're inside a building, stay there. If there is somewhere where you can drop, cover and hold on, great. If not, brace yourself against an interior wall. If you're outside, stay outside." YOUR REPORT: Are you participating in The Great British Columbia Shakeout? Share your photos, videos and personal accounts. Although the last 9.0 magnitude quake in B.C. was in 1700, seismologists have warned that B.C. sits in a geological zone prone to earthquakes. Many public buildings have been upgraded over the years to ensure that the kind of devastation Haitians have been suffering since an earthquake struck the island a year ago isn't likely on the same scale here. But the Haiti tragedy and others have raised awareness. "There's been lots of natural disasters that have occurred elsewhere … so it's more on people's minds," Lyle said. The number of those who registered makes up slightly more than 10 per cent of the province's population. The drill is modelled after a similar exercise that's been used in California the last three years. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/01/25/bc-earthquake-drill-shakeout.html?ref=rss#ixzz1CAGArH43

The fissures began appearing years ago. But in recent months, seismic activity has accelerated in northeastern Africa as the continent breaks apart in slow motion. Researchers say that lava in the region is consistent with magma normally seen on the sea floor -- and that water will ultimately cover the desert. Cynthia Ebinger, a geologist from the University of Rochester in New York, could hardly believe what the caller from the deserts of Ethiopia was saying. It was an employee at a mineralogy company -- and he reported that the famous Erta Ale volcano in northeastern Ethiopia was erupting. Ebinger, who has studied the volcano for years, was taken aback. The volcano's crater had always been filled with a bubbling soup of silver-black lava, but it had been decades since its last eruption. The call came last November. And Ebinger immediately flew to Ethiopia with some fellow researchers. "The volcano was bubbling over; flaming-red lava was shooting up into the sky," Ebinger told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The earth is in upheaval in northeastern Africa, and the region is changing quickly. The desert floor is quaking and splitting open, volcanoes are boiling over, and seawaters are encroaching upon the land. Africa, researchers are certain, is splitting apart at a rate rarely seen in geology. The first fracture appeared millions of years ago, resulting in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The second fracture, stretching south from Ethiopia to Mozambique, is known as the Great Rift Valley, and it is lined with several volcanoes. Millions of years from now, it too will be filled with seawater. Could Go Quickly But in the Danakil Depression, in the northern part of the valley, the ocean could arrive much sooner. There, low, 25 meter (82 foot) hills are the only thing holding back the waters of the Red Sea. The land behind them has already dropped dozens of meters from previous levels and white salt deposits on the desert floor testify to past encroachments of the sea. But lava soon choked off its access. For now, no one can really say when the sea will finally flood the desert. But when it does, it could go quickly. "The hills could sink in a matter of days," Tim Wright, a fellow at the University of Leeds' School of Earth and Environment, said at a recent conference hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. In the last five years, the geologic transformation of northeastern Africa has "accelerated dramatically," says Wright. Indeed, the process is going much faster than many had anticipated. In recent years, geologists had measured just a few millimeters of movement each year. "But now the earth is opening up by the meter," says Loraine Field, a scholar at the University of Bristol who also attended the conference. Earth tremors cause deep fissures to form in the desert floor and the ground in East Africa is shattering like broken glass. Researchers in the Gulf of Tadjoura, which juts into Djibouti from the Gulf of Aden, have recently registered a barrage of seismic shocks. "The quakes are happening on the mid-ocean ridge," Ebinger reports. Shifting Tectonic Plates Lava gushes out of fissures in these underwater mountain ranges to constantly create new earth crust -- when it hardens, it becomes part of the sea floor. As the magma surges upward, it spreads the ocean floor on both sides, shifting tectonic plates and causing tremors. In recent months, the quaking in the Gulf of Tadjoura has been getting closer and closer to the coastline. As Ebinger explains, the splitting of the ocean floor will gradually extend to dry land. This is already the case along some fault lines in the Ethiopian desert, creating a geological spectacle that can otherwise only be witnessed deep below the surface of the ocean. Even the pattern of earthquakes supports the conclusion that the desert landscape is transforming into a deep seafloor, according to a recent article in the Journal of Geophysical Research published by Zhaohui Yang and Wang-Ping Chen, two geologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The researchers have recorded several strong earthquakes at a shallow depth in northeastern Africa similar to ones that are otherwise only seen on mid-ocean ridges far out at sea. In recent months, researchers have also recorded an up-tick in volcanic activity. Indeed, geologists have discovered volcanic eruptions near the earth's surface at 22 places in the Afar Triangle in northeastern Africa. Magma has caused fissures up to eight meters (26 feet) wide to open up in the ground, reports Derek Keir from the University of Leeds. While most of the magma remains beneath the surface, in places like Erta Ale it has made its way above ground. An Ocean Without Water Scientists have also noted that the kind of magma bubbling up in the region is the type otherwise only seen spewing forth from mid-ocean ridges deep below the water's surface. One of its signature characteristics is a low proportion of silicic acid. The magma coming out of Erta Ale has the same chemical composition as the kind that emerges from deep-sea volcanoes. The entire region increasingly resembles an ocean floor -- one without water. The new burst in activity began in 2005, when a 60-kilometer-long fissure suddenly formed in the Afar Depression. Since then, roughly 3.5 cubic kilometers of magma have gushed forth, according to Tim Wright -- enough to cover the entire area of London to an average person's height. From a geological perspective, the speed with which the magma is pushing forth is astonishing. It has been channeling its way through the rock below the earth's surface at speeds of up to 30 meters per minute, reports Eric Jacques from the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris. Satellite measurements attest to the consequences: In one 200-kilometer stretch welling up with magma, the ground looks like asphalt on a hot summer day. Magma is also pooling up under the Dabbahu Volcano in northern Ethiopia, Lorraine Field reported in San Francisco. Continuing to Expand The satellite data has also shown that a much larger area has been scarred by fissures than previously assumed, says Keir. Subterranean currents of magma are also causing ground temperatures to spike in eastern Egypt, a team of geologists from Egypt's National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics recently reported in Seismological Research Letters. At the AGU conference, Columbia University's James Gaherty reported that magma eruptions have ripped a 17-kilometer gash into the desert floor in the northern part of Malawi and that the lateral pressure they have exerted has even lifted the surrounding earth up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) in places. The most violent upsurge of magma in recent years, though, happened in an unexpected place. In May 2009, a subterranean volcano erupted in Saudi Arabia. A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 accompanied by tens of thousands of milder tremors forced 30,000 to seek shelter. Magma spewed out of the ground in an area about the size of Berlin and Hamburg combined, Sigurjon Jonsson from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology reported at the AGU meeting. The fact that the eruption took place almost 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from the fault line in North Africa "surprised all of us," says Cynthia Ebinger. And the world's largest geological construction site continues to expand. Loraine Field confirms that more and more magna is pushing its way to the earth's surface, adding that: "The magma chamber is reloading." Oxford University's David Ferguson predicts a considerable increase in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the region over the next decade. They will, he says, "become of increasingly large magnitude."

Source: PhysOrg.com

Few areas of science are more controversial than cold fusion, the hypothetical near-room-temperature reaction in which two smaller nuclei join together to form a single larger nucleus while releasing large amounts of energy. In the 1980s, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleishmann claimed to have demonstrated cold fusion - which could potentially provide the world with a cheap, clean energy source - but their experiment could not be reproduced. Since then, all other claims of cold fusion have been illegitimate, and studies have shown that cold fusion is theoretically implausible, causing mainstream science to become highly speculative of the field in general.

Despite the intense skepticism, a small community of scientists is still investigating near-room-temperature fusion reactions. The latest news occurred last week, when Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna announced that they developed a cold fusion device capable of producing 12,400 W of heat power with an input of just 400 W. Last Friday, the scientists held a private invitation press conference in Bologna, attended by about 50 people, where they demonstrated what they claim is a nickel-hydrogen fusion reactor. Further, the scientists say that the reactor is well beyond the research phase; they plan to start shipping commercial devices within the next three months and start mass production by the end of 2011.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=201817256339889828327.0004991bca25af104a22b 5000+ Black Birds http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/03/arkansas.falling.birds/index.html?hpt=T2 500+ Black Birds http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/112843019.html Dozens of Black Birds http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Woman-reports-dozens-of-dead-birds-in-her-yard-112830524.html 100,000 Drum Fish http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136401&catid=2 Tens of Thousands - Fish http://www.wbaltv.com/r/26357581/detail.html Thousands of Fish http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2010/december/183768/Dead-fish-turn-up-in-Cocoa Thousands of Fish http://www.wftv.com/news/26367953/detail.html Dozens of fish http://www.ksat.com/news/26316464/detail.html Fish http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/Dead_fish_wash_up_on_Washington_Park_beach_112105654.html 50 - 100 Birds - Jackdaws http://www.thelocal.se/31262/20110105/ Penguins http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/4490315/Weather-patterns-lead-to-mass-bird-deaths 24 birds - H5N1 flu http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/health/04global.html?_r=4 100 Pelicans http://www.carteretnewstimes.com/articles/2010/12/28/topsail_voice/news/doc4d120c21c2083603738750.txt 300+ Doves http://www.geapress.org/ambiente/faenza-piovono-tortore-morte-foto/10282 70 Bats http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/12/28/20101228tucson-70-dead-bats-found.html 100 Tons of Fish http://www.parana-online.com.br/editoria/cidades/news/502434/?noticia=MORTANDADE+MISTERIOSA+DE+PEIXES+NO+LITORAL Hundreds of Snapper http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10697906 http://www.3news.co.nz/Dead-fish-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see-PHOTOS/tabid/1160/articleID/193199/Default.aspx 10 Tons of fish http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/4477740/Enlisted-to-help-with-deadly-haul Hundreds of fish http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2011/01/04/16757321.html Thousands of fish http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2010/12/13/barramundi-found-dead-after-flood/ Hundreds of Fish http://www.smh.com.au/environment/water-issues/fish-dying-in-blackwater-20101214-18wtn.html Hundreds of Fish http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=79520 Scores of Fish http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/environment/concern_as_fish_die_in_beauty_spot_brook_1_2224957 Hundreds of Fish http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/12/24/hundreds-of-fish-killed-in-greenbank-park-lake-after-water-freezes-over-100252-27879505/ 150 Tons of Red Tilapias http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Story/A1Story20101231-255737.html Thousands of Fish http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20101218-309667/Residents-gather-eat-dead-fish-floating-in-barangay-Ibo Scores of dead fish http://www.france24.com/en/20101227-authorities-probe-dead-fish-haitian-lake Several Manatees http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/fl-treasure-coast-manatees-20110104,0,7714948.story Hundreds of Starfish, Jellyfish http://www.abcnews4.com/Global/story.asp?S=13735801 200 Birds http://www.ktre.com/global/story.asp?s=13787277

In the latest of a string of mass animal deaths, 10,000 cows and buffalo have died in Vietnam. Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed the news this week that more than 10,000 cows and buffalos died nationwide due to harsh weather conditions. Cattle have been dying throughout Vietnam, which has had a particularly intense winter. The northern mountainous province of Cao Bang was hardest hit with 2,260 dead cattle, per Thanh Nien News. Some have said the number of total dead cattle may be as high as 13,000. Mass animal deaths have been in the news quite a bit lately. Hundreds of birds were found dead in South Dakota early this week, and before that birds were found dead in Italy and birds fell from the sky in Arkansas, among other incidents. Some of the mass die-offs have been explained - for instance, indigestion is thought to be the cause in Italy and the U.S. government has admitted involvement in the South Dakota case. But others remain up for debate.

The United States Geological Service has reported a major earthquake in a remote area in southwestern Pakistan measuring a magnitude of 7.2. The earthquake struck at 1:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday in Baluchistan province, about 45 kilometres west of Dalbandin, Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. Local TV reports said the earthquake was felt in several provinces in the country. Initial reports of damage were not yet available. Earthquakes often rattle the region. A magnitude 7.6 quake on Oct. 8, 2005, killed about 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir and left more than three million homeless.

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