A Meteorite is reported to have hit Argentina to-day , causing injury or Death.
Confirmation is awaited.
“Some media is reporting that a meteorite or a piece of a satellite struck a woman in Monte Grande, Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing her and injuring eight. Witnesses say that they saw a blue ball of fire striking a house:
Meteorite Hits Argentina
My daughter’s bedroom is on the front and she told me that, when she opened the window after smelling gunpowder, she saw how fireballs coming from the sky and there she saw the explosion that reached my son-in-law on his leg.
Another woman says that she was sleeping when she heard the “impressive noise”. She woke up around 2AM today because she heard a “high pitch noise” and, a few seconds later, she felt an explosion that shattered her house:
When I went out I saw fire coming from above, of light blue. It wasn’t the color of a normal fire, it was all of sky blue.
A young man claims that he has captured the meteor on his mobile phone. The picture—shown on the top—doesn’t seem like the straight trajectory of a meteor or a piece of space junk. It looks more like this imbecile decided to make a fake photo photographing a moving piece of burning wood in the middle of the night.
The police, however, believes this is all a case of mass hysteria driven by the photo and the recent news of the NASA satellite that crashed in the Pacific last Saturday. They went through the rubble to discover a “gas 45-kilogram gas tube, part of some pipe and a [pizza] oven destroyed.” The fire department declared that the explosion was enormous.
A massive explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. rocked the small town of West, Texas, late Wednesday night, leaving more than 100 people reported injured and many feared dead.
According to Sgt. Patrick Swanton of the Waco Police Department, the first call of a fire came in at 7:29 PM local time. Firefighters and other emergency workers responded to the call and began evacuating the area.
Minutes later, the devastating explosion occured. The first call of the explosion came in at 7:53 PM local time said Swanton.
More than 100 victims have been treated at Hillcrest Hospital in Waco, Texas. And at least 60 more have been treated at Providence Hospital.
Toxic, flammable and dangerous: What is an anhydrous ammonia explosion?
“The West Fertilizer facility suffered an anhydrous ammonia explosion, according to Waco Assistant Fire Chief Don Yeager.
That term applies to ammonia in its liquid or gas state. Anhydrous ammonia is classified as toxic and dangerous for the environment – and is extremely flammable and is capable of forming highly explosive mixtures.
If Ammonia is exposed to iodine, Nitrogen triiodide is formed – which is described as a high explosive – capable of exploding out to six miles out.
According to Yeager, the explosion affected other parts of the fetilizer plant too – which could have accelerated the mixing of toxic materials. Anhydrous ammonia is transported as a liquid at temperatures below -28°F.
In the event of a large spill it can form a toxic vapor cloud that is heavier than air until its temperature increases.
Anhydrous ammonia is corrosive to copper, silver, aluminum, zinc, and alloys. It reacts with body moisture, so it may burn body tissue – skin, eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and stomach – on contact, if inhaled or swallowed.”
(Mail online UK)
“I will confirm there have been fatalities,” said Swanton who estimated 5 to 15 were thought to be dead.
Swanton also said that between 3 and 5 firefighters were missing.
There were a “tremendous amount of injuries and we do have confirmed fatalities,” said D.L. Wilson, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Safety at a conference late Wednesday night, He was not able to provide specific numbers.
The blast was so massive that it registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake, according to the USGS.
Texas ExplosionSmoke Billows,Texas ExplosionTexas ExplosionExplosion, Fertilizer Plant ,TexasAn elderly person is assisted at a staging area at a local school stadium following an explosion at a fertilizer plant on April 17, 2013, in West, Texas. An explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco caused numerous injuries and sent flames shooting high into the night sky. (Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune Herald/AP Photo)Explosion: The blast at the fertilizer plant occurred at 7:50pm (CST) on Wednesday captured-father-child.Explosion: Up to 70 people are feared dead and scores more are injured after a huge explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant near the town of West, Texas last nightPrecautions: Half the town has been evacuated as as a result of the explosionBlaze: The blast ripped through West Fertilizer at 7.50pm and fires continue to burn at the sceneTo the rescue: Emergency workers assist an elderly person at an emergency triage area in a local school stadium in West, Texas
Boston ExplosionPeople tend to an injured woman on the corner of Exeter and Newbury Streets after two explosions went off near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. (Bill Greene / The Boston Globe / Getty Images)Boston Marathon Explosion Victims are in shock and being treated at the scene of the first explosion that went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. (John Tlumacki / The Boston Globe / Getty Images)Medical workers runs an injured man past the finish line the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts. (Charles Krupa / AP)Boston Marathon Explosion Victims lay on the sidewalk as emergency personnel respond to the scene of the first explosion near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, April 15, 2013. (John Tlumacki / The Boston Globe / Getty Images)
‘They are surely the most horrifying offshoot of modern technology – nuclear warheads which can smite hundreds of thousands of people dead within seconds, and leave lasting scars on a landscape for generations.
And while most of us will have seen archive footage of nuclear explosions before, one thing we are unlikely to have heard is their sound.
For, according to one expert, most films we see of a nuclear blast use stock ‘explosion‘ sound effects for the bang – and audio footage is few and far between.
The historian was sent the video below from a Russian colleague, and has now shared it on his blog.
Wellerstein wrote: ‘Most films of nuclear explosions are dubbed. If they do contain an actual audio recording of the test blast itself (something I’m often suspicious of — I suspect many were filmed silently and have a stock blast sound effect), it’s almost always shifted in time so that the explosion and the sound of the blast wave are simultaneous.
‘This is, of course, quite false: the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound, and the cameras are kept a very healthy distance from the test itself, so in reality the blast wave comes half a minute or so after the explosion. Basic physics that even a non-technical guy like me can understand.
‘It’s rare to find footage where the sound has not been monkeyed with in post-processing. So I was pleased when a Russian correspondent sent me a link to footage digitized by the National Archives of a 1953 nuclear test. The footage is very raw: it hasn’t been edited much, and is a bit washed out, but the audio is still in “correct,” original sync.’
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