To the population of Mizzurian Earth (a designation based purely on the fact that this shadow Earth has become Cordelia's primary shadow Earth after the significant destruction of the "Real" Earth), and for that matter any shadow earth, the events that began on the  5th January 2004 had no apprent cause, and without the knowledge of the the wider events in shadow appeared uncorrelated, outside of the later academic anaylsis in a few university halls. Further, whilst such analyis showed a corrlation in effects, the true cause was still unknown.

Unlike on the "Real" Earth, there were no eruptions of the super volcanoes (Yellowstone et al), and Mount Teide on Tenerife both failed to erupt and stayed intact. That is not to say that Mizzurian Earth  did not suffer a number of significant volcanic eruptions and Earth quakes, it did.  It also suffered at the hands of the "Alien" invaders, but as there was no "Black Road" their apperance was sporadic and appears to be related to sites of "Ancient" significance, often those in folklore associted with faeries, demons, and other "super-natural" phenomena.

The first eruption on that morning was not considered that unusual, after all Kilauea(Hawaii) is considered the most active volcano on Earth. The second one was, despite the fact that it has one of the most consistant lava lakes on Earth. No body expected, Mount Erebus (Antarctica), to erupt Stromboli style, at either that point or any point in the next several hundred years. Over the next few hours the "usual" list of active volcano suspects all erupted in spectacular fashion, Etna and Stromboli, Mount Yasur(Vanuatau, South Pacific, Ring-of-Fire), Santa Maria (Western Guatamala, Siera Madre), Sangay (Ecudor), Mounts Nyirangango and Nyamuragwa (Democratic Republic of Congo, East Africa), Klyuchevskaya Sopka (Far East Russian Peninsula, Ring-of-Fire), and White Island (New Zealand, Ring-of-Fire). These were followed over the next 24 hours by most of the "normally" active volcanoes across the rest of the world, including those in Iceland, and around the Ring-of-Fire.

Accompanying these were a series of Earth quakes. Istanbul,Turkey suffered the long forecast quake cause by the movement of the Anatolian fault, although it's movement and therefore its effect on Mizzurian Earth was no where near as severe as that on "Real" Earth (it was still devastating destroying 50% of the city). North America didn't escape lightly, although there was no "big one", although the actual slip along 320 miles of the Cascadian fault was devastating enough to British Colombia (Vancouver), Washington (Seatle), and  Northern Oregon (Portland). California more of less escaped, with only minor quakes along the San Andreas and conecting faults, although Ridgequest didn't escape so lightly. South America didn't escape unscathed either with a major series of qquakes along the Chilean fault coresponding to the Valporiso region. Elsewhere the Xinjang region of China suffered, as did Indonesia with a major quake in the Molucca Sea.

"Alien" incursions were sporadic and isolated. Whilst 5.56mm rounds would slow most of them it generally took sustained fire from 7.62 calibre assault rifle to stop them. There were reports that some would only succumb to 50cal or equivalent fire. Reports of incursions reached their peak around Valentines day, before slowly decreasing such that by the beginning of March they were almost non-existant. People World wide assumed that after  weeks of carage "normality" had returned.

Appearances can however be deceptive as there was to be one final anomalous event. This occurred on 2^nd April 2004, with a storm unlike anything seen before of since that commenced just after 1:30 pm and raged until between 6:30pm and 7:30pm depending eactly where you were in the world. Thunder and lightening (sheet, striking, and plasma) raged continually across the skys rolling with thick black clouds. The Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth saw 300mm of rain and hail fall during the period.  It was a similar story in the North African deserts with between 350 and 700mm of rain and hail. In both the Northern and Southern Temperate zones it fell not as rain but as snow, with accumulated falls of between 1m and 3m and drifts upto 4 times as deep.