Earth Changes
The prime minister's office said in a statement that "the government decided to designate the area affected by the leak of hydrofluoric acid as a special disaster zone."
About eight tons of hydrofluoric acid escaped from a facility owned by chemical manufacturer Hube Globe following an explosion that killed five workers and injured 18 others. Exposure to the acid can cause damage to lungs and bones and affect the nervous system.
The incident occurred on September 27 when workers of the Gumi National Industrial Complex were unloading the acid from a tanker in North Gyeongsang Province - the Korean Silicon Valley, 200 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Since then, more than 3,000 residents in the area requested medical treatment for eye, throat and lung irritation caused by toxic fumes from the spill. Around 300 people were moved from their homes to temporary shelters, with complaints ranging from nausea to chest pains.
The fire began Monday around 5:00pm GMT and was rated at level five - the highest in the Russian system.
Nearby workers noticed and reported the fire to authorities. Witnesses said that the city's entire southern region was cloaked in smoke, Vesti reported.
An as-yet undetermined amount of natural gas is trapped in the aquifer underneath the Bayou Corne community, state and parish officials have said.
The area has been rattled by earth tremors, has waterways with gas bubbling to the surface, and is in the vicinity of a 4-acre sinkhole south of La. 70 that has grown larger since its emergence Aug. 3. Bayou Corne's 150 households have been evacuated since the sinkhole appeared just off the edge of the Napoleonville Dome, a 1-mile-by-3-mile underground salt deposit.
Spectators across northern England and Scotland captured photos of the dancing green Aurora Borealis lights, some with pink tinges.
The British Geological Survey said Britain's most visible Northern Lights event of 2012 lasted from 9pm to 4am.
According to NASA, the show was caused by the sun spitting out a giant mass of solar particles - known as a 'coronal mass ejection' - which smashed into the earth's magnetic field at 24,000mph.
The Northern Lights are usually only spotted in the UK on a few nights each year.
2012-10-09 12:32:04 UTC
2012-10-09 22:32:04 UTC+10:00 at epicenter
Location
61.033°S 153.960°E depth=10.2km (6.4mi)
Nearby Cities
729km (453mi) NW of Young Island
1876km (1166mi) SSW of Invercargill, New Zealand
1925km (1196mi) SSW of Gore, New Zealand
2000km (1243mi) SSW of Dunedin, New Zealand
2068km (1285mi) S of Hobart, Australia
Technical Details
The Wellington City Council has had several calls over the past few days with the most recent being about 5am today.
Have you heard the noise or know what it could be?
Spokesman Richard MacLean said the complaints had been coming in from Mt Victoria, Newtown and Mt Cook residents. "We are interested to hear if this starts to become a constant thing. We are keeping our ear to the ground."
Over at the Southern California Weather Authority we name the Pacific Storms that come into the region, a novelty since 1998-1999. This is Pacific Storm Adam, a category three system for Wednesday into Thursday.
Pacific Storm Adam will hit the Point Conception areas on Wednesday, and Los Angeles overnight Wednesday into Thursday, bringing locally heavy rain in spots under the thunderstorms that form.
Hail, funnel clouds, and waterspouts will also be a concern along with resort level snows for any cells that pass those areas.
After the system moves out on Thursday night, it will quickly eject into the plains where severe thunderstorms will be likely between then and Saturday across a large area.
These storms will contain large hail, damaging winds, and even tornadoes.
Parts of the Midwest could fall short of normal snowfall again this year with the main storm track to the south. Farther west, dry conditions are forecast to persist in the Northwest, leading to growing drought concerns. A breakdown of the Winter 2012-2013 forecast can be found below.
More than 50 severe storms are predicted to hit the state's east over the coming months, with some of them likely to be as damaging as Sydney's eastern suburbs hailstorm of 1999.
Hail stones as large as cricket balls caused more than $1.5 billion of damage during the intense, long-lived thunderstorm.
At the time, it was Australia's most costly natural disaster.













