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Posts Tagged ‘new zealand’

Wow a “raft” of stone floating in the ocean?

10,000 sq miles?

Side Note: Do you think volcano’s could discharge enough salt to turn sea’s red?

Amazing!

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Vast volcanic ‘raft’ found in Pacific, near New Zealand

Aerial view of the pumice "raft" (Image: AFP/New Zealand Defence Force)
A navy officer described the floating spectacle as the “weirdest thing” he had seen at sea

A vast “raft” of volcanic rocks covering 10,000 sq miles (26,000 sq km) of ocean has been spotted by a New Zealand military aircraft.

A naval ship was forced to change course in order to avoid the cluster of buoyant rocks, located 1,000 miles off the New Zealand coast.

The unusual phenomenon was probably the result of pumice being released from an underwater volcano, experts said.

One navy officer described it as the “weirdest thing” he had seen at sea.

(more…)

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Six days of blizzards!?!  Wow, I would call that extreme weather, especially this early…

Also has a significant impact on food production…

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NZ – Snow hits farmers big time

Following a reasonably benign winter, the Southland region of New Zealand (NZ) has in the past week been hit by “the worst spring storm in living memory” according to the NZ Herald.

Six days of blizzards have caused deaths among new lambs numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and raised concern over the welfare of ewes yet to lamb.
Besides the effect of the cold weather itself, the continued snowfall has not allowed snow on the ground to thaw, making it much harder for stock to feed.
This makes ewes about to lamb particularly susceptible to metabolic illnesses from a lack of nutrients.
Reportedly, lamb mortality in the area may be as high as 15% for some farmers. With average prices for lambs expected to be around NZ$80/head this season (NZ Herald), the financial loss to NZ producers will be significant, estimated to exceed NZ$50 million (NZ Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry).

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Click on the article title for a link to full original referenced article.

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