Italy's North still trembles, shaken with a magnitude of 5.4 | The Universal News

It ‘a magnitude 5.4 and occurred about 60 km depth, according to preliminary estimates from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) recorded the earthquake in the province of Parma, in the Cornwall and Berceto. ‘ll earthquake occurred in an area where earthquakes are very deep, up to 70 km, occurred in the past. Experts say an earthquake INGV so deep is easily felt in a wide area.

It ‘was distinctly felt throughout northern Italy.

SOME OFFICES IN MILAN EVACUATION – Evacuated some offices in Milan, where it is automatically tripped the security plan developed by the firms after the earthquake. Firefighters are not evacuations of schools still open in the afternoon (especially pre-schools), but do not exclude that institutions have decided on their own. In the province in Garbagnate Milanese is a nursery school was evacuated for cracks in a wall. Many calls to the fire department for information on the magnitude of the quake.

Liguria: PLENTY OF FEAR, BUT NO DAMAGE REPORTED – So afraid, in Liguria, where shortly after 15:50 was felt a violent shock of an earthquake. Hundreds of phone calls to firefighters and policemen of citizens alarmed. At present, however, are not reported damage to persons or property.

CIVIL PROTECTION ER, NO DAMAGE REPORT – “No damage reported, on the basis of the first tests we did with the fire department and local authorities.” The engineer said Demetrio Egidi, Head of Civil Protection of Emilia Romagna. The epicenter of the quake with a magnitude of 5.4 – reiterated Egidi – was recognized in Cornwall, Monchio Berceto and the Courts, in Parma. “The great depth of the quake, 60.8 km, has meant that it was spread over a wide area, softening the force of the earthquake,” said the head of the regional civil protection.

Powerful M8.6 Flare & Earth Directed CME / Solar Watch Jan 23, 2012 - YouTube

Powerful M8.6 Flare & Earth Directed CME / Solar Watch Jan 23, 2012 - YouTube: ""

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Snow over the Sahara Desert

Extraordinary! This is an exceptional event that occurred Tuesday, January 18, 2012.
lematinal

The Sahara, largest desert in the world, an area where temperatures sometimes approaching 50 degrees Celsius in the shade, has undergone significant snowfall in the region of Bechar, in west-central Algeria, near the Moroccan border. . Surreal scenes of palm trees that face the winds similar to those of Siberia or Eastern-like landscape of ski resorts.

A rare phenomenon but which turns out to be great news for residents, as explained in the website EMarrakech.. Indeed, the white coat who has invested the dunes will be beneficial to groundwater necessary for the culture of the oasis.

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Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to to Armageddon - YouTube

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Is 2012 REALLY The "DOOMSDAY" Year? Mayan Calendars, Prophecy and the Bible (REDUX) - YouTube

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2012 Pictures: 6 Maya Apocalypse Myths Debunked

Myth: Space Strikes to Scramble Planet

Illustration courtesy Nicolle Rager-Fuller, NSF

The end of the world is near—December 21, 2012, to be exact—according to theories based on an purported ancient Maya calendar. Scientists, though, are tripping over themselves to deflate the ballooning hype as the new year dawns. (NASA itself recently felt compelled to issue a comprehensive 2012 fact check.)

(Related: "End of World in 2012? Maya 'Doomsday' Calendar Explained.")

In some 2012 doomsday prophecies, the Earth becomes a deathtrap as it undergoes a "pole shift," courtesy of an asteroid impact (illustrated above), a rare alignment with the center of the Milky Way, and/or massive solar radiation destabilizing the inner Earth by heating it.

The planet's crust and mantle will suddenly shift, spinning around Earth's liquid-iron outer core and sending cities crashing into the sea, the story goes. (Interactive: pole shift theories illustrated.)

Princeton University geologist Adam Maloof has extensively studied pole shifts, and tackled this myth in a 2009 National Geographic Channel documentary called 2012: Countdown to Armageddon (video).

Maloof says magnetic evidence in rocks confirms that continents have undergone such drastic rearrangement, but the process took millions of years—slow enough that humanity wouldn't have felt the motion (quick guide to plate tectonics).

Deadly floods rupture dam in Brazilian town - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state has placed emergency teams on maximum alert as heavy rains that have displaced 35,000 residents were forecast to continue, reviving fears of mudslides and flooding that killed about 900 people early last year.

Residents scrambled to gather their belongings and flee in the Tres Vendas district of Campos de Goytacazes in the north of the state, after a small dam ruptured, sending water rushing through the streets.

Meanwhile, local media reported eight people had died by Thursday after floods in neighbouring Minas Gerais state, with 87 towns there declared a states of emergency.

A pensioner was also reported to have been killed while trying to save personal belongings in one flooded town in northeastern Rio de Janeiro.

Emergency workers said more than 1,000 families from Tres Vendas had been evacuated to shelters.

"We're trying to put up stone barriers to prevent the water advancing but it's difficult," Rosinha Garotinho, prefect of Campos and a former state governor, said.


Flooding killed 900 people and destroyed more than 31,000 homes in Brazil in early 2011

She said there was no immediate risk of flooding in other districts of Campos.

Rio governor Sergio Cabral said the maximum alert, which requires emergency teams to intensify preparations, was focused on vulnerable towns in the north and northeast of the state as well as the Serrana region 97km north of the capital.

A year ago, heavy rain caused mudslides in the Serrana region that killed around 900 people, many of whom were asleep when rivers of mud buried them in their homes.

Photographs of the ruptured dam in Tres Vendas showed muddy water rushing through a gap in the dam about the width of three cars.

"Now, about 40 per cent of the streets [of Tres Vendas] are engulfed in water and we expect it will reach them all," said Major Edison Pessanha of the Civil Defence authority, according to a local government website.

Campos de Goytacazes, located about 280km north of Rio de Janeiro, is adjacent to the offshore Campos Basin from where about 80 per cent of Brazil's oil is pumped.