Anastassios Adamopoulos Greek Reporter Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:42 UTC
An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the richter scale hit the Southern Aegean sea, just north of the Greek island of Crete, on Tuesday afternoon.
The centre of the earthquake was in the Aegean Sea, around 44 kilometres north of the Cretan city of Chania according to the Institute of Geodynamics. The depth of the earthquake is estimated at 30 kilometres.
The earthquake lasted for a few seconds and there have not been reports of any injuries or damages in Crete thus far, according to Greek media reports.
Crete is Greece's largest island and the country's most southern land point.
Tara de Landgrafft abc.net.au Mon, 26 Oct 2015 16:18 UTC
Hailstorm ruins crops
Crops have been destroyed in Western Australia's eastern Wheatbelt this weekend with a night of successive hail storms.
Three separate bouts of hail hit the town of Southern Cross and the surrounding farming district on Sunday night, wreaking havoc on crops ripe for harvest.
It was the second hail storm in as many weeks to dash the hopes of farmers at the end of what had been a relatively good season.
Agronomist Gary Kenwood of Southern Cross owns the only farm supply store in town.
Tornado of over one hundred meters frightens Vung Tau tourists
This is the second time a waterspout has been seen in Vung Tau. The first was reported in May in the sea of Long Hai.
In August, a waterspout was also witnessed in the Hai Phong northern port city and the southern province of Kien Giang.
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water. They are connected to a towering cumuliform cloud or a cumulonimbus cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water.
Waterspouts have a five-part life cycle: formation of a dark spot on the water surface, spiral pattern on the water surface, formation of a spray ring, development of the visible condensation funnel, and ultimately decay.
Ms. Le Thi Xuan Lan, from the Hydro-meteorological Observatory of the Southern Region, said that in Vietnam, this phenomenon usually occurs at the beginning and during the rainy season and more in the south than the north, particularly in the sea of Rach Gia - Kien Giang - Tho Chu. However, waterspouts in Vietnam are not too strong.
Heavy snow has blanketed a large swath of north China on Monday, Oct 26th, disturbing traffic but bringing beautiful winter scenery.
A snowstorm hit Mohe, China's northernmost county in Heilongjiang Province, from early morning on Monday.
The depth of snow reached 8 centimeters (3.14 inches) by 17:00 and the heavy snow brought the visibility down to less than 100 meters (328 feet) as well. Vehicles have to slow down on snow-covered roads, while the local sanitation department dispatched snowplows to clear up the roads.
An abandoned autumn beach looking out on the Sea of Azov became a popular sightseeing attraction over the weekend, after mother nature created an incredible mud volcano, which formed a wide, flat island just a few dozen meters away from the shore.
Spewing a slurry made of water and gases mixed with sand and dirt, the mud volcano shot several meters into the air as it started forming an artificial island on Sunday, just off the coast of the Taman Peninsula.
The act of nature was recorded by local beach strollers who witnessed the mud volcano, most typically formed after hot water below the earth's surface begins to blend with mineral deposits, pushing the mixture to the surface. But unlike an actual volcano, the muddy imitation produces no lava.
Comment: Another sign of Earth 'opening up'? See also:
Nearly 280 people were killed when a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake centred in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan ripped across South Asia, toppling buildings, triggering stampedes and knocking out communication lines.
The full scale of Monday's disaster and human toll was unclear when night fell over the remote and rugged terrain as authorities in Pakistan and Afghanistan rushed to mount rescue efforts.
In the most horrifying tragedy to emerge so far from the quake, 12 young Afghan girls were crushed to death in a stampede as they tried to flee their shaking school building.
The bulk of the casualties were reported from Pakistan, where 214 people were killed and more than 1800 injured, disaster management authorities said.
A magnitude-2.9 earthquake struck near San Ramon on Sunday night and a magnitude-2.6 quake hit the same area early Monday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake was centered 1 mile east of San Ramon and struck at 10:13 p.m. The smaller one hit at 2:48 a.m. in roughly the same area.
The area has seen more than 200 small quakes in recent weeks, part of a swarm that started Oct. 15. Seismologists have said there isn't anything to fear over the swarm. They say the Calaveras Fault is releasing tension, and the chances of a quake above magnitude 6.7 is only 7 percent within the next 30 years.
Tens of thousands of Israelis remained without power a day after a severe storm passed through the country and caused the death of a construction worker.
Most of the homes without power on Monday, a day after the lashing rain and strong winds blew through the country, are in central Israel, where traffic and street lights are not working, causing dangerous traffic tie-ups.
Hundreds of trees and large branches remain on the ground, as well as felled billboards and power lines. Debris from private homes and building sites also is littering the streets.
The worker, 20, was killed Sunday in the central Israeli city of Pardes Hanna when the heavy winds blew down a wall at the site where he was working.
Comment: Another sign of Earth 'opening up'? See also: