Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.2 earthquake hits southeast of Easter Island.
5.1 earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone 04p (Seth), located approximately 426 nm northeast of Brisbane, Australia, is tracking east-southeastward at 05 knots.
Wildlife
Polar Bears Eat Reindeer
Recently, scientists in Hornsund, Svalbard — a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic ocean — witnessed a polar bear pursuing a reindeer into the sea before killing it, dragging it ashore and eating it. Then, two days later, they saw the same bear beside a second fresh reindeer kill.
Their observations are the first detailed account of a complete and successful polar bear hunt of a Svalbard reindeer.
These are far from the first accounts of polar bears varying their diets. Normally, in the months when the sea is frozen, they enjoy a diet of offshore seals. But their use of supplementary food sources in the leaner summer months has been known for decades, with bears gorging on seabird eggs as well as feeding at the Churchill dump (a rubbish and recycling facility) in Hudson Bay. Yet, similar reports of terrestrial feeding have become more frequent in recent years.
Polar bears have evolved to be highly efficient predators of marine mammals. They support themselves on a fat-heavy diet and rely on ice-based prey, primarily ringed and bearded seals. As a result, they are profoundly threatened by a warming climate.
With rising global temperatures, Arctic sea ice is melting earlier in summer and refreezing later in winter. And as the ice-free periods become longer, polar bears are spending more time on land without access to their primary food. Therefore, increasing reports of summer scavenging, foraging and terrestrial hunting are signs of a shift in eating habits that is bound to affect the arctic bioszone profoundly.
Wildfires
Wildfires – Colorado, USA
The Marshall fire has grown to over 6 000 acres with the number of burned houses expected to rise from 580. There are 1 778 houses within the perimeter of the fire. But not all of them were affected. However, the number of burned structures may rise to over 1 000. As entire subdivisions were wiped out, many household plumbing systems were also damaged or destroyed, which led to water gushing from the remains of structures. This depleted the water available at fire hydrants which became a challenge for firefighters. There have still been no reports of fatalities, which would be very remarkable considering the rapid spread of the blaze which allowed some residents only minutes to escape.
Disease
Covid-19
The countries with the 10 greatest number of Covid-19 cases:
Bird Flu – France
France has culled 600,000 to 650,000 chickens, ducks and other poultry over the past month in a race to contain a bird flu virus threatening to become the fourth major outbreak in the country since 2015.
The Agriculture Ministry reported virus clusters at 26 factory farms, mainly in the southwest — home to France’s lucrative foie gras pate industry — as well as 15 cases in wild fowl and three at barnyards.
Several European countries are now battling a highly contagious flu strain, H5N1, just a year after a similar virus decimated flocks. Belgium and Britain have announced outbreaks, while Czech veterinarians said Wednesday that 80,000 birds would be culled at a single farm where over 100,000 animals have died from the virus since last week.