More than 300 earthquakes have shaken Chile's far-northern coast the past week, keeping people on edge as scientists say there is no way to tell if the unusual string of tremors is a harbinger of an impending disaster.

The unnerving activity began with a strong magnitude-6.7 quake on March 16 that caused more than 100,000 people to briefly evacuate low-lying areas, although no tsunami materialized and there was little physical damage from the shaking.

But the land has not settled down. More than a dozen perceptible quakes were felt in the city of Iquique just on Monday.

"The situation is out of the ordinary. There's a mix of a string of tremors and their aftershocks that make things more complex to evaluate," Mario Pardo, deputy head of the Universidad de Chile seismology center, told the local newspaper La Tercera. "We can't rule out a larger quake."

Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. A magnitude-8.8 quake and ensuing tsunami in central Chile in 2010 killed more than 500 people, destroyed 220,000 homes, and washed away docks, riverfronts and seaside resorts.

The strongest earthquake ever recorded on Earth also happened in Chile - a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people.

An oddly timed dust storm is moving into the Valley right now. A Dust Storm Warning remains in effect until 5 p.m. for Maricopa and Pinal County as the massive wall of dust moves north along Interstate 10, and into parts of the southeast Valley.

We're all used to dust storms in the summer -- but rarely do they come in March.

Live video feed

March came in like a lion, and it looks like the lion isn't leaving, but you can't blame the "polar vortex" this time.

As a massive winter storm at sea known as a Nor'easter prepares to skirts the Northeast coast of the USA, bringing with it high seas and bitterly cold weather in its wake, Dr. Ryan Maue writes:

Massive Nor'easter will develop a warm-core thru a seclusion process.

Compare previous image w/Hurricane Sandy - same 850-mb Wind speed & MSLP. Nor'easter wind field much stronger/larger.

[It is] maybe 4 times more powerful than Sandy based on integrated KE of wind field.

The image of the storm is quite stunning for it's sheer size.

A malfunction at a BP refinery in Whiting, Ind., spilled crude oil into Lake Michigan before it was discovered.

The malfunction was found around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, according to BP spokesman Scott Dean.

The problem caused oil from the Whiting Refinery's "cooling water outfall" to spill into the cove between the wastewater treatment plant and the steel mill.

It is unclear how much crude oil was spilled. No one was injured.

"The discharge has stopped," Dean said, "and BP and its response team have deployed boom, containing the oil to a cove."

An animal horn thought to be 3,000 years old has been found on a beach in Gwynedd after the recent storms.

Engineer Derfel Hughes from Rhos Isaf made the discovery while walking at Dinas Dinlle, near Caernarfon.

Mr Hughes checked with museum experts who reckon it belonged to giant wild cattle called aurochs which became extinct in the 17th Century.

He gave it to a friend at the Greenwood Forest Park tourist attraction in Y Felinheli where it could go on show.

"Finding it was a total fluke," Mr Hughes told the Daily Post.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time

Another sinkhole in Armala, locals terrified

The land cave-in that appeared at Thulibeshi Phant of Armala, Kaski, today morning, has further terrorised locals.

The sinkhole has destroyed Krishna Prasad Paudel's cowshed. According to Paudel, the sinkhole appeared suddenly at 4:00 am today. "We evacuated a buffalo to a safe place. Otherwise, it would have been killed," said Paudel.

After a sinkhole appeared on land deemed safe by locals, they have been terrified.

"My family members did their best to fill the sinkhole with soil, but the cave-in has not stopped, Paudel said.

"The cave-in at the upper portion of the land has taken away our sleep," Parbati Acharya said. "The sinkhole has endangered the entire settlement. Wherever we step, there seems to be a cave-in. How can we save our property?" Acharya wondered.

Unstable weather and dangerous conditions caused by an Antarctic cold front hitting warm tropical air 2,500kms off Australia's west coast is expected to severely affect the search for MH370 over the coming weeks and months.

An aviation meteorologist and an air and sea consultant have both predicted rough times for the planes and ships in the Indian Ocean, and an 'on and off' mission at best as the area's eight-month-long winter brings brutal swells and high winds to the search area.

Aviation safety consultant, Geoffrey Thomas of airline industry business publication airlineratings.com, warned today's weather was merely 'a taste' of conditions which would soon close in over the search area.

A sinkhole has closed a portion of Route 322 in Derry Township, Dauphin County.

"322 (westbound) is being closed at Hockersville Rd past the Cherry Dr intersection for a sink hole," a tweet from the Derry Township Police Department states.

It's expected that the portion of road will be shut down through rush hour.

"Coldest Mardi Gras Ever?" asked the New Orleans Times-Picayune as revellers sported long underwear under their costumes to cope with temperatures in the thirties. On the same day it was four degrees Fahrenheit at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, an all-time low - breaking a record set in 1873. Niagara Falls has frozen over twice this winter, and the ice cover on Lake Michigan reached 90 percent, matching the all-time record.

Record-low temperatures, so much snow that municipalities are running out of salt, and one "polar vortex" after another. What's going on? Where is the global warming we were warned about?

The temperature of the planet has not risen for the past seventeen years.

The climate models that were supposed to project "climate change" (global warming) on the basis of manmade carbon dioxide emissions have failed. The Climategate scandal gave us a glimpse of a corrupt scientific establishment scrambling to cover up that failure.

The Environmental Protection Agency has doubled its estimate of the amount of crude oil that leaked into a nature preserve in Ohio through an underground pipe.

According to the Associated Press, federal officials have calculated that more than 20,000 gallons of crude oil seeped into the Oak Glen Nature Preserve by the time they first noticed a 5-inch crack in the pipeline on March 17. Initially, officials projected that 240 barrels of oil, or 10,000 gallons, had spilled.

While efforts to clean up the spill continue, Sunoco Logistics, the company that controls and operates the pipeline, said the crack has been successfully repaired under a plan approved by the federal government. A special clamp was installed on the pipe near the leak, and was tested before the oil flow was turned back on Sunday.

The cause of the incident remains unknown, however, and Sunoco spokesman Jeff Shields told the AP it is still being investigated. The cracked section of the pipe will likely be removed at some point in the future and taken to a laboratory for analysis.

Despite the leak, officials said that air and water quality tests in the surrounding area have all turned out well, and that local water supplies are not at risk. As RT reported previously, the oil had primarily collected in a marshland area the size of a football field, while natural barriers kept it from flowing into the Great Miami River.

While human health is not in any danger, the oil spill does pose a threat to local wildlife such as amphibians and fish, some of which have been found dead in the area. Site workers are currently collecting contaminated animals as they find them, cleaning them and releasing them back into the habitat. Officials told the AP that lingering winter weather has limited the damage, since fewer animals are traveling through the environment.