Tag Archives: news stories
On May 18, 1980, at 8:32 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake shook Mount St. Helens. The bulge and surrounding area slid away in a gigantic rockslide and debris avalanche, releasing pressure, and triggering a major pumice and ash eruption of the volcano. Thirteen-hundred feet (400 meters) of the peak collapsed or blew outwards. As a result, 24 square miles (62 square kilometers) of valley was filled by a debris avalanche, 250 square miles (650 square kilometers) of recreation, timber, and private lands were damaged by a lateral blast, and an estimated 200 million cubic yards (150 million cubic meters) of material was deposited directly by lahars (volcanic mudflows) into the river channels. Sixty-one people were killed or are still missing. USGS Photograph taken on May 18, 1980, by Austin Post. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

The End is nigh . . .

[Note: this is not a scientific article, but merely my attempt to make light of a possible reality which is scaring me.] The End is nigh  . . .  at least that is the impression I’m getting from recent newspaper headlines. They seem to be jumping onto the 2012 phenomenon bandwagon, despite the fact that […]

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International Date Line

Just a jump to the left . . .

. . . of the International Date Line, that is. Samoa  (formally “Western Somoa” in the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean) is . . .  . . . skipping Friday and going straight to Saturday as it shifts its time zone forward by 24 hours in a bid to move into line with […]

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Warning Sign

The importance of taking your own advice

They look just like big, friendly pussy cats don’t they? Yet all over the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (in an area known as the Kalahari), there are warnings that visitors should not get out of their vehicles. Or even dangle bits of themselves outside of their vehicles. Even if it doesn’t look like there are any […]

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Image via Google Street View

Big Brother is watching you

This post is NOT part of the Kalahari Series!   Although I still have Kalahari photos to show and Kalahari stories to tell, I thought I’d give you all (and me) a break from it. A while back I was out shopping and I saw the following headline on our local paper: “Big Brother is […]

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Southern Cape & Little Karoo

Earth tremor in the Southern Cape

According to News24, the S.A Weather and Disaster Information Service and other sources, a “a light, but quite noticeable tremor” took place at approximately 16:15 on Saturday 14 May. It was felt all the way from the George in the west to beyond Plettenberg Bay in the east, and as far inland as the Langkloof […]

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Shift in Earth’s axis has little effect, experts say

Since Friday I have been watching events in Japan unfold with great sadness for the Japanese people. Devastation and loss of life on that scale is absolutely heartbreaking. And scary – and not just for the Japanese people. As has been reported in the media, the earthquake has not only shifted the main island of […]

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Video: Hippo lifeguard

I’ve just read an amazing story online about a hippo-turned-lifeguard in Tanzania. Hippos can be very aggressive creatures, and are responsible for numerous attacks on people in Africa. This hippo has decided to help its fellow beasts in their annual migration. At a river crossing on the Mara River, video footage was shot of this […]

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