WebProNews

Tag: Pipeline

  • Pipeline Explosion Has Residents Without Heat In Extreme Cold

    Residents in the Canadian province of Manitoba have been left without natural gas for heat, after a pipeline exploded on Saturday.

    The explosion sent a huge fireball into the night sky.

    The natural gas pipeline explosion cut heat to thousands of people who could be in for some extremely cold weather in the coming days. No injuries have yet been reported, but residents in some municipalities south of Winnipeg could be waiting quite a while for their services to be restored.

    Some residents are expecting some serious temperature drops, with wind-chills that could dip down to 45 degrees below zero, F.

    Although workers are in the process of getting emergency gas to the more critical locations the blizzard like storms and freezing temps could cause safety issues in delivering these emergency supplies.

    The cause of the explosion is unknown at this time but is being investigated, however it is believed that the extreme cold may have damaged the infrastructure.

    With the extreme weather the country has been facing, first with the Polar Vortex, followed by another major storm, coined “Bombogenesis” have been the major contributor to the fuel and gas prices soaring.

    The soaring costs of fuel are due to dwindling supplies as the extreme weather has swept through North America. In most cases, grid operators have been able to maintain stability throughout the extreme conditions.

    “We are in the midst of another temperature drop. A bit of an Arctic front is moving in here, and to the south of us, there is a blizzard system, so people in this area are going to get a nasty, cold, winter storm day,” CBC’s Katie Nicholson reported.

    Emergency Measures spokesperson Nicki Albus on Saturday spoke about the cold that is on its way.

    “We know it’s cold and people may be concerned about that but we are on the job here. Everyone here’s communicating well. We have a great group of people at the site and in the communities who have set up their emergency operation centres to handle this dilemma.”​

    The consequences of Saturday’s pipeline explosion have stretched as far down as Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin, causing the local utility companies to request that customers conserve gas over the weekend.

    Manitoba Hydro and TransCanada officials could not say when natural gas would be restored to the area.

    Hydro officials said customers in the area should prepare for an extended gas outage.

    Image via YouTube

  • Dinosaur Tail Fossil Found In Alberta

    The fossil of a dinosaur tail was recently unearthed in Alberta, Canada. This news should excite paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts everywhere, since news like this has not been made aware to the public for quite some time. It is always exciting when humans are able to find things that they did not know existed before and whether it is a new species or more evidence of dinosaurs, it is certainly a big deal. There are several types of dinosaurs that have already been discovered, but there is also the possibility of a new species of dinosaurs being found.

    The fossil was discovered by a backhoe operator for the Tourmaline Oil Corporation. There was a construction crew working on an oil pipeline in Alberta, when all of a sudden in the middle of their work day, the team made a very rare find when discovering a dinosaur fossil during their digging. What they found was a whole part of a tail and it is possible that more of the dinosaur is buried under the rock. After it was discovered, paleontologist Matthew Vavrek was alerted and came to the scene to inspect. Upon seeing the fossil, he said “As we walked around it, we saw this whole part of a tail of a dinosaur. To see something like that is pretty incredible.” This is pretty extraordinary because paleontologists usually find fossils jumbled up, broken apart, crushed and spread out over a large area, but it is very rare to find a fossil in one piece like this one, according to CNN.

    The guy running that backhoe at the time must feel awfully proud of himself, although the happenstance discovery is ironic since other experts spend their lives trying to do what this man did on accident. After thinking he had just chipped off a section of rock, he laid the piece down and continued his excavation work. Vavrek says that if they are able to pull a whole dinosaur out of the ground, it is likely to be about mid-size-as far as dinosaurs go, although it could be larger. The Huffington Post mentions that it could take years to identify what type of dinosaur the tail belonged to, according to what early experts like Vavrek have determined.

    The plan is for technicians to use tiny jackhammer-like instruments to buzz away the dirt and reveal the stony skeleton. Even after they uncover it, it could take many years to determine what kind it is, and even longer if it is something new that has never been discovered before. This is a big discovery for the world of science, and hopefully scientists will be able to learn a lot from the finding.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgMOumzxs0s

    Image via Youtube