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http://www.iceagenow.com/SunSpot_predict_l.gif Solar Flares and the Earth’s Earthquake Machine

 

Evidence of Catastrophes in the Natural World

Catastrophes at the Time of the End

 Part Seven

Translation by the New King James Version

Robert D. Mock MD

robertmock@biblesearchers.com

August, 2003

Graphics Editing, January, 2010

 Section Two

 

Topics

Earthquakes

Frequency of Occurrence of Earthquakes Based on Observations since 1900

 The Richter Magnitude Scale Facts

Number of Earthquakes per Year - Magnitude 7.0 or greater – 1900-1998

Largest Earthquakes in the 21st Century

 Largest Earthquakes in the World in the 20th Century

The 15 Largest Earthquakes in the Contiguous United States

The Most Destructive Earthquakes according to Centuries

1000 to 2000 AD

The Earth’s Earthquake Machine

Predicting Earthquakes

Will America be involved in future Time of the End Quakes?

Tsunamis (Tidal Waves)

Volcanoes in the United States

Largest Explosive Eruptions Since 1400 AD

Volcanoes to Watch at the End of Times

Prophetic Watchers at the End of Times

On Divine Judgments at the End of Times

God’s Judgment on the Chemical and Nuclear Weapons Industry.

 

Links to Earth Catastrophes

Last 30 Day Earthquake Report

Recent Mount Hood Earthquakes

Weekly Volcanic Activity Report

Near Real Time World Earthquake Bulletins

Solar Storms - The Electrical Connection.

Space Weather

 

Earthquake and Volcano Eruptions

 

The Land of Israel is sitting on the western edge of the Arabian Tectonic Plate as it slides north/south along the side of the African Plate, which is pushing into the Anatolian Tectonic Plate, also north and south.  Yet the Anatolian Plate is sliding east and west along the Eurasian Plate. As can be imagined, this is a very unstable part of the world and the site of some of the major catastrophic disasters recorded in the history of man. 

 

For 3,500 years, we’ve had very little experience in living in a world of natural catastrophes. Let us look at earthquakes in an uniformitarian world.  Based upon observations for the past 100 years, we can analyze the frequency of earthquakes around the earth in relations to their size or magnitude.

 

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image002.jpg
 

Tectonic Plates along the Arabian, African and the Eurasian Continents

  

Frequency of Occurrence of Earthquakes Based on Observations since 1900

 

Descriptor

Magnitude

Average Annually

Great

8 and higher

1

Major

7 - 7.9

18

Strong

6 - 6.9

120

Moderate

5 - 5.9

800

Light

4 - 4.9

6,200 (estimated)

Minor

3 - 3.9

49,000 (estimated)

Very Minor

< 3.0

Magnitude 2 - 3: about 1,000 per day
Magnitude 1 - 2: about 8,000 per day

 

The Richter Magnitude Scale Facts

 

When we look at the magnitude of an earthquake size, we must understand the following facts.

 

·         The Richter Magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes.

 

·         Seismic waves are the vibrations from earthquakes that travel through the Earth and are recorded on instruments called seismographs.  Sensitive seismographs, which greatly magnify these ground motions, can detect strong earthquakes from sources anywhere in the world.

 

·         The magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. On the Richter Scale, magnitude is expressed in whole numbers and decimal fractions.

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Earthscience/Geology/Earthquakes/MeasuringEarthquakes/Seismographs/seismograph.GIF

Magnitude 5.3 might be computed for a moderate earthquake.

 

Seismograph Plotting an Earthquake Tremor

 

Magnitude 6.3 might be computed for a strong earthquake.

 

·         Each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude, yet each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy.

 

·         Earthquakes with magnitude of about 2.0 or less are usually called micro earthquakes; they are not commonly felt by people and are generally recorded only on local seismographs.  

 

·         Events with magnitudes of about 4.5 or greater or called moderate earthquakes - there are several thousand such shocks annually - are strong enough to be recorded by sensitive seismographs all over the world.  

 

·         Great earthquakes, such as the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile (magn. 9.5), the Prince William Sound Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska (magn. 9.2), and the 2004 Indian Ocean Indonesian Christmas Earthquake and Tsunami (magn. 9.1 and Tsunami, have magnitudes of 8.0 or higher. On the average, one earthquake of such size occurs somewhere in the world each year.

 

·         There are no upper limits in the magnitude of earthquakesThis will be a good consideration to remember and we consider the apocalyptic earthquakes during the last days before the coming of the Messiah.

 

·         The largest known shocks have had magnitudes in the 9.0 to 9.2 range. Abridged from The Severity of an Earthquake, a U. S. Geological Survey General Interest Publication.

 

According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 18 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year. However, let's take a look at what has happened in the past 28 years, from 1969 through 1996.

 

Our records show that 1992 is the first time that we have reached or exceeded the long-term average number of major earthquakes since 1971. In 1970 and in 1971 we had 20 and 19 major earthquakes, respectively, but in other years the total was in many cases well below the 18 per year which we may expect based on the long-term average. The following is a list of major earthquakes during this period of 1900 – 1998.

 

Number of Earthquakes Worldwide for 2000 - 2010 with Magnitude 7.0 or greater
Located by the US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center

 

        1900    13      1930    13      1960    22      1990    13

        1901    14      1931    26      1961    18      1991    10

        1902     8      1932    13      1962    15      1992N   23

        1903    10      1933    14      1963    20      1993M   16

        1904    16      1934    22      1964    15      1994    15

        1905    26      1935    24      1965    22      1995E   25

        1906    32      1936    21      1966    19      1996    22

        1907    27      1937    22      1967    16      1997    20

        1908    18      1938    26      1968    30      1998    16

        1909    32      1939    21      1969    27      1999    13

        1910    36      1940    23      1970    29      2000    15

        1911    24      1941    24      1971    23      2001    16

        1912    22      1942    27      1972    20      2002    13

        1913    23      1943*   41      1973    16      2003    15

        1914    22      1944    31      1974    21      2004    16

        1915    18      1945    27      1975    21      2005    12

        1916    25      1946    35      1976$   25      2006    11

        1917    21      1947    26      1977    16      2007    18

        1918    21      1948    28      1978    18      2008    12

        1919    14      1949    36      1979    15      2009    17

        1920     8      1950    39      1980    18      2010    7

        1921    11      1951    21      1981    14      May 15, 2010 data

        1922    14      1952    17      1982    10

        1923    23      1953    22      1983    15

        1924    18      1954    17      1984    8

        1925    17      1955    19      1985    15

        1926    19      1956    15      1986#   6

        1927    20      1957    34      1987    11

        1928    22      1958    10      1988    8

        1929    19      1959    15      1989    7

 

        Total 1900-1997 = 1960 events = 20 per year

 

Number of Earthquakes Worldwide for 2000 - 2010
Located by the US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center

Magnitude

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

8.0 to 9.9

1

1

0

1

2

1

2

4

0

1

1

7.0 to 7.9

14

15

13

14

14

10

9

14

12

16

6

6.0 to 6.9

146

121

127

140

141

140

142

178

168

142

73

5.0 to 5.9

1344

1224

1201

1203

1515

1693

1712

2074

1768

1754

817

4.0 to 4.9

8008

7991

8541

8462

10888

13917

 12838

 12078

 12291

 6928

3457

3.0 to 3.9

4827

6266

7068

7624

7932

9191

9990

9889

11735

2898

1078

2.0 to 2.9

3765

4164

6419

7727

6316

4636

4027

3597

3860

3007

1007

1.0 to 1.9

1026

944

1137

2506

1344

26

18

42

21

25

11

0.1 to 0.9

5

1

10

134

103

0

2

2

0

1

0

No Magnitude

3120

2807

2938

3608

2939

864

828

1807

1922

20

11

Total

22256

 23534

 27454

 31419

 31194

30478

 29568

 29685

 31777

*14792

*6461

Estimated
Deaths

231

21357

1685

33819

22880 2

8800 3

6605

   712

88011

1787

225420

Number of Earthquakes Worldwide for 2000 - 2010 

        * Most active year since 1900

        # Least active year since 1900

        $ Year with most people killed since 1900 (295,000 - 699,000;

          dominated by the Tangshan quake with casualty estimate from

          255,000 - 655,000)

        N First full year of operation on NSN/digital recording system

        M Year moment magnitude quotes were introduced

        E Year energy magnitude quotes were introduced

 

Statistics were compiled from the Earthquake Data Base System of the U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center, Golden,CO

 

Analysis of such data can bring some interesting insights.  It is my strong recollection, that two big eras in recent history, there had been a wave of evangelism and intense messianic expectations in the revealing of the Messiah.  In the late fifties, Christian tent evangelism complete with sawdust floors reminiscent of the Sawdust Festivalsl era of the 1830s, Christian evangelists expounded with great fervor on the ‘minutes before midnight’ expectation of the return of Jesus the Messiah. 

 

Then again in the 1962 to 19072 era, Adventist fundamentalist evangelists along with the Campus Crusade for Christ dominated the religious fervor scene of apocalyptic expectations.

 

By analyzing the above earthquake records, 1957 and 1967-72 era were big resurgence years in earthquake numbersIt is also of interest there has been a lull in major earthquake activity for the last decade (1988-99) with only one year exceeding the average number of earthquakes in the past century.    

 

Taking a cosmic viewpoint, if G-d was using earthquakes to warn mankind to start preparing for his potential coming, then it would appear that 1905 – 1914 would be a potential era.  For historians Adventist history, it would be of interest to draw parallel references to apocalyptic interest in end time events with the number of earthquakes noted per year.  This era historically was a critical time in the Seventh-day Adventist Church

 

The prophetic messages of Ellen Gould White were in the waning years, yet the church was kept embroiled in political dissension with the John Harvey Kellogg and Battle Creek Sanitarium split.  Spiritual resuscitation was not in the cards, for this small part of G-d’s Christian Israelite people, who of all Christendom, were the most apocalyptic, minded.  God’s prophetic people were in no mood to be ready for his coming.

 

Yet at the same time there was resurgence within another group of Advent Christians, the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1873 and 1874, N.H. Barbour with the Herald of the Morning, and George Storrs, the publisher of the Bible Examiner, and founder of the Life and Advent Union, promoted the date of the return of Jesus.  When Christ did not return on those dates, Barbour turned to the Diaglott translation of the New Testament by Benjamin Wilson, in which the ‘coming’ of Jesus, was translated the ‘presence’ of Jesus in Matthew. This produced the ability to escape another disappointment in 1874.  It was Storrs and Barbour, who were the Adventist leaders that became the religious mentors of the teenager, Charles Taze Russell along with the Advent Christian Church minister, later Jehovah Witness founder, George Stetson.

 

It was the Herald of the Morning, which imprinted the belief that Jesus returned invisibly in 1874, affected Charles Taze Russell and became the imprint of the future Jehovah’s Witness, when he first published the Zion’s Watch Tower in 1879. Here he publicized the belief in the invisible return of Jesus in 1874. In the November, 1881 issue, he acknowledged also his roots to the Millerite and the 1830-1840 Advent movement called the Second Great Awakening.

 

Jehovah’s Witnesses fundamental tenets as proclaimed in the theology of the Watchtower today is that Christ returned invisible around October 4 or 5 in 1914.  Few Witnesses are aware that their denomination taught that Jesus had returned invisibly forty years earlier in 1874 and was the primary reason for Charles Taze Russel for starting the publication of Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence in 1879.  Actually the 1874 and the 1914 date were interchanged back and forth for almost a decade as new dates continued to be set, 1918 and then 1925.  Actually few Jehovah’s Witnesses know that the dates for their predicted coming of Jesus either visible in 1874 or invisible in 1914 were in direct alignment with larger numbers of earthquakes in this world.

 

Another moderately elevated period for earthquakes was in the 30’s when most of the world was struggling with survival in the Great DepressionThis came with a more critical period of increased seismic activity in the 40’sWhether the increase in earthquakes in the 30’s and 40’s was a partial cause of the increasing restless nature of man-kind, which depicted itself in WW II is not totally known?  What was known historically was the global anti-Semitic antipathy of America and the rest of the world to assist in the reclamation of the Jewish people whose lives were daily being incinerated in the Nazi concentration camp ovens.  Those Jewish people who were able to flee for their lives were prevented by all European countries and the United States to their physical destruction.  Not one Christian Church offered sympathy or protest except the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  So while the world was too busy embroiled in WW II, creating the Holocaust in Germany and defending the last gasp of Imperial power of the Japanese, the Jewish people who survived were praying for that one gasp of hope for their own homeland in Israel.  

 

Men were unable to focus on a spiritual path of elevation, enlightenment and hopeful transformation in anticipation of the second-coming of Jesus.  It is no wonder that G-d will not allow the coming of His Messiah be revealed until there is a people spiritually sensitive to receive Him.  G-d must have a people waiting for Him.  It won’t be just anyone, only those who have prepared themselves to be transformed back into the edenic ‘image of God’ that we were initially created.

 

Once again we saw a small resurgence of Christian messianism in the mid-1950s, a resurgence in earthquakes and also a resurgent era of the sawdust camp-meetings and evangelistic meetings.  What happened?  I’m not sure. Laodicea? 

 

And then there was the 60’s and 70’sSomehow in a cosmic framework, can we perceive the evidence that God and the forces of Good may be using is using seismic activity to try to awaken mankind to his destiny of spiritual growth? Can we perceived that Satan (Lucifer) is busy trying to create scientific dissension (evolution), church dissension (Splits within many churches of Christendom), political dissension (Wars, holocausts and genocide) and social dissent (student uprising, family disintegration, and social fracturing of society),  to keep man so preoccupied and so busy, so they cannot prepare themselves for the Messiah’s return.

 

Will there be resurgence of earthquakes in the 21st century?  Today the trend is clear and with a resounding affirmation.  The question, will this time a people rise and speak with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the Hour of his Judgment is come.  Worship Him that made heaven and earth?”  (Revelation 14:7)  Will there be a spiritual people, in whatever religious community, who are spiritually inclined to listen to God’s quiet voice, to form a nurturing society of trusting transparent believers preparing to meet their Maker?  If this is to be our generation, then our spiritual growing is having to be put on the fast track.

 

What is our most recent evidence of earthquakes (EQ)?

 

Largest Earthquakes in the 21st Century

 

Year    EQs over 7.0  Number of Deaths     Largest quake – Region - Size

 

1999            13                    22,711                 September 30 -- Oaxaca, Mexico -- 7.5M

Most deadly EQ – August 17, Turkey – 7.6M - 17,000 killed, 50,000 Injured, thousands missing,

600,000 homeless

2000            15                        213                 November 16 -- New Ireland Region, P.N.G. -- 8.0M

Most deadly EQ – June 4, Southern Sumatera, Indonesia – 7.9M - 103 killed, 2,174

injured. 

2001           15                    21,358                 June 23 -- Near Coast of Peru -- 8.4M

Most deadly EQ - January 26  - India – 7.7M - 20,085 people killed, 166,836 injured, about 339,000 buildings destroyed and 783,000 damaged in the Bhuj-Ahmadabad-Rajkot area and other parts of Gujarat

 

When we analyze this data it suggests that earthquakes are presently not in a high state or escalating state of progression in spite of the onset of the second millennium.  At the same time, this data, nor any I’ve seen looks at the critical type of earthquake, the deep core quakes which suggestion major earth core shifting or major shifting in the major tectonic plates under the continents.  Are we getting more deeper core quakes, showing major deep crustal plate movement?  That data, we do not have.           

 

What then must one look for in anticipation for the Big Quake? First, we must find a persistent trend in deep core earthquakes of significant magnitude.  Second, we must see progressive number of quakes, though shallow, in major population areas with devastation, increasing loss of life and property.  Third, these earthquakes must be associated with an increase in volcanoes around the world depicting major seismographic changes going in the surface crust of the earth.

 

Let’s now focus down on major quakes of this past century. 

 

Largest Earthquakes in the World since 1900 

Largest Earthquakes in the World Since 1900

Largest Earthquakes in the World in the 20th Century

 

Location

Date UTC

Magnitude

Lat.

Long.

Reference

1.

Chile

1960 05 22

9.5

-38.29

-73.05

Kanamori, 1977

2.

Prince William Sound, Alaska

1964 03 28

9.2

61.02

-147.65

Kanamori, 1977

3.

Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra

2004 12 26

9.1

3.30

95.78

Park et al., 2005

4.

Kamchatka

1952 11 04

9.0

52.76

160.06

Kanamori, 1977

5.

Offshore Maule, Chile

2010 02 27

8.8

-35.846

-72.719

PDE

6.

Off the Coast of Ecuador

1906 01 31

8.8

1.0

-81.5

Kanamori, 1977

7.

Rat Islands, Alaska

1965 02 04

8.7

51.21

178.50

Kanamori, 1977

8.

Northern Sumatra, Indonesia

2005 03 28

8.6

2.08

97.01

PDE

9.

Assam - Tibet

1950 08 15

8.6

28.5

96.5

Kanamori, 1977

10.

Andreanof Islands, Alaska

1957 03 09

8.6

51.56

-175.39

Johnson et al., 1994

11.

Southern Sumatra, Indonesia

2007 09 12

8.5

-4.438

101.367

PDE

12.

Banda Sea, Indonesia

1938 02 01

8.5

-5.05

131.62

Okal and Reymond, 2003

13.

Kamchatka

1923 02 03

8.5

54.0

161.0

Kanamori, 1988

14.

Chile-Argentina Border

1922 11 11

8.5

-28.55

-70.50

Kanamori, 1977

15.

Kuril Islands

1963 10 13

8.5

44.9

149.6

Kanamori, 1977

 

Looking at this chart suggests that the largest quakes are in the 8.5-9.5 Mw area.  Yet is this reflective of the earthquakes in the time of the end as foretold by the Hebrew Prophets and Revelation?  I don’t think so. 

 

A catastrophic earthquake, associated with major worldwide volcanism and polar shifting as foretold in the latter days of Biblical prophecy, would be in the 9 plus magnitude category, and some experts suggest a major earthquake of 13-15 Mw. 

 

Compare this with the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake at 7.7 Mw, which Ellen White, one of the early Advent leaders predicted and would become the most destructive quake in the United States history.

 

·         9 Mw quake would be 31 times more powerful,

·         10 Mw quake would be 961 times more powerful,

·         11 Mw quake would be 29,791 times more powerful,

·         12 Mw quake would be 923,521 times more powerful,

·         13 Mw quake would be 28,629,151 times more powerful than the San Francisco quake.

 

The “Great Earthquake” projected in scripture at the coming of the Messiah, could herald a catastrophic toll of over 90% of the population of this worldSince there are not any Arks of safety for man in this type of catastrophe such as there was for the Great Flood, then salvation for mankind would demand a supernatural intervention.   Would this require moving man out of this three-dimensional world into a fourth dimensional world at the coming of the Maschiah ben Dovid (Messiah son of David)?  The resurrection, the rapture and the revealing of the Messiah in “clouds of glory” suggests that an elevated state of consciousness is in the reality of those saved from destruction by Divine intervention.   

 

Since a lot of Christians, most as the Lost Tribes of Israel, and almost half of world’s Jewry lives in the United States, the big question is what predictable changes can be forecasted for America at the end of times. 

 

Understanding that Hawaii and Alaska are one of the largest quake regions in the world, we now look at the Top 15 quakes in America that do not included Alaskan and Hawaii based earthquakes.

 

The 15 Largest Earthquakes in the Contiguous United States

Alaska and Hawaii are one of the largest quake regions in the world

 

1.    New Madrid, Missouri          1812 02 07 09:45 UTC           7.9 Mw

2.    Fort Tejon, California           1857 01 09 16:24 UTC           7.9 Mw

3.    Owens Valley, California     1872 03 26 10:30 UTC           7.8 Mw

4.    Imperial Valley, California    1892 02 24 07:20 UTC           7.8 Mw

5.    New Madrid, Missouri          1811 12 16 08:15 UTC           7.7 Mw

6.    San Francisco, California    1906 04 18 13:12:21 UTC      7.7 Mw

7.    Pleasant Valley, Nevada       1915 10 03 06:52:48.0 UTC   7.7 Mw

8.    New Madrid, Missouri          1812 01 23 15:00 UTC           7.6 Mw

9.    Landers, California               1992 06 28 11:57:34 UTC      7.6 Mw     

10.  Kern County, California       1952 07 21 11:52:14.0 UTC   7.5 Mw

11.  West of Lompoc, California 1927 11 04 13:50 UTC          7.3 Mw

12.  Dixie Valley, Nevada             1954 12 16 11:07:11 UTC      7.3 Mw

13.  Hebgen Lake, Montana        1959 08 18 06:37:13.5 UTC   7.3 Mw

14.  Borah Peak, Idaho                1983 10 28 14:06:06.5 UTC   7.3 Mw

15.  West of Eureka, California   1922 01 31 13:17:22 UTC      7.3 Mw

 

 

We should note widely differing magnitudes have been computed for some of these earthquakes; the values differ according to the methods and data used. For example, some sources list the magnitude of the 8.7 Rat Islands earthquake as low as 7.7. On the other hand, some sources list the magnitude of the February 7, 1812 New Madrid quake as high as 8.8. Similar variations exist for most events on this list, although generally not so large as for the examples given.

 

Whatever the variation, there appear to be three major unstable regions in America. A summary of the continental U.S. earthquakes, suggests that major seismic activity in the United States will more than likely be in these following three areas:

 

California – 8 quakes greater than 7.3

Missouri – 3 quakes greater than 7.3

Nevada – 2 quakes greater than 7.3

Idaho – 1 quakes greater than 7.3

Montana – 1 quakes greater than 7.3

 

In general, the magnitudes given in the list above have been determined from the seismic moment, when available. For very large earthquakes, the moment magnitude is considered to be a more accurate determination than the traditional amplitude magnitude computation procedures. Note that all of these values can be called "magnitudes on the Richter scale," regardless of the method used to compute them.

Source: Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), by Carl W. Stover and Jerry L. Coffman, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1993.

 

Another interesting investigation is looking at the most destructive earthquakes in reference to loss of human life.  For students of prophecy, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 is of interest because it is placed within some models of end time prophecies.  It is of interest how other more devastating earthquakes were not considered as a key to prophetic fulfillment of end time events.  Are prophecy watchers really being honest in only looking at the quakes in the western hemisphere?  Let us consider the following statistics.

                                   

Most Destructive Known Earthquakes on Record in the World

(50,000 deaths or more)

(Listed in order of greatest number of deaths)

 

Date                            Location                  Deaths   Mag         Comments

 

January 23, 1556       China, Shansi          830,000

October 11, 1737       India, Calcutta**        300,000

July 27, 1976             China, Tangshan     255,000* 8.0   Estimated death toll as

                                                                     (official)          high as 655,000.

August 9, 1138            Syria, Aleppo             230,000

May 22, 1927              China, near Xining   200,000  8.3   Large fractures.

December 22, 856+    Iran,  Damghan         200,000

December 16,1920   China, Gansu           200,000  8.6   Major fractures, landslides.

March 23, 893+         Iran,  Ardabil            150,000

September 1, 1923    Japan, Kwanto        143,000   8.3   Great Tokyo fire.

December 28, 1908    Italy, Messina             70,000   7.5   Deaths earthquake and tsunami.    

                                                                 To 100,000 (estimated)             

September, 1290        China, Chihli             100,000

November, 1667        Caucasia, Shemakha             80,000

November 18,1727     Iran,Tabriz                   77,000

November 1,1755      Portugal, Lisbon       70,000   8.7  Great prophetic tsunami.

 

December 25, 1932   China, Gansu              70,000   7.6

May 31, 1970              Peru                            66,000   7.8  $530,000 damage, rock slide, floods.

1268                            Asia Minor, Silicia       60,000

January 11, 1693       Italy, Sicily                   60,000

May 30, 1935              Pakistan, Quetta         30,000   7.5  Quetta almost completely destroyed.

                                                                  To 60,000                                                             

February 4, 1783       Italy, Calabria              50,000

June 20, 1990            Iran                              50,000 7.7 Landslides.

 

* Official casualty figure--estimated death toll as high as 655,000.

+ Note that these dates are prior to 1000 AD.  No digit is missing.

** Later research has shown that this was a typhoon, not an earthquake.

   (Source: The 1737 Calcutta Earthquake and Cyclone Evaluated by

   Roger Bilham, BSSA, Vol. 84, No. 5, October 1994)

Data compiled from several sources.

United States Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center

 

Earthquakes with 20,000 or More Deaths 1900-2010

Open for Earthquakes with 1,000 or More Deaths since 1900-2010

 

 

Date UTC

Location

Deaths

Magnitude

Comments

1908 12 28

Messina, Italy
38.15N 15.68E

72,000

7.2

Over 40% of the population of Messina and more than 25% of Reggio di Calabria killed by the earthquake and tsunami, Casualty toll is based on census data 1901-1911, some estimates are as high as 110,000. Tsunami 6-12 m (20-39 ft) coast of Sicily south of Messina and 6-10 m (20-33 ft) coast of Calabria. Aftershocks till 1913.

1915 01 13

Avezzano, Italy
41.98N 13.65E

32,610

7.0

Severe damage in the Avezzano-Pescina area. Estimated 3,000 additional people died next few months from indirect effects of the earthquake. Felt throughout Central Italy from Veneto to Basilicata.

1920 12 16

Haiyuan, Ningxia (Ning-hsia), China
36.5N 105.7E

200,000

7.8

Total destruction (XII - the maximum intensity on the Mercalli scale) in the Lijunbu-Haiyuan-Ganyanchi area. Over 73,000 people were killed in Haiyuan County. A landslide buried the village of Sujiahe in Xiji County. More than 30,000 people were killed in Guyuan County. Nearly all the houses collapsed in the cities of Longde and Huining. Seiches from this earthquake were observed in 2 lakes and 3 fjords in western Norway. Although usually called the Kansu (now Gansu) earthquake by Western sources, the epicenter and highest intensities are clearly within Ningxia Autonomous Region.

1923 09 01

Kanto (Kwanto), Japan
35.3N 139.5E

142,800

7.9

Extreme destruction in the Tokyo - Yokohama area from the earthquakeand subsequent firestorms, which burned  about 381,000 of the more than 694,000 houses that were partially or completely destroyed. Although often known as the Great Tokyo Earthquake (or the Great Tokyo Fire), the damage was apparently most severe at Yokohama.

1927 05 22

Gulang, Gansu (Kansu), China (est, 250,000)
37.5N 102.7E

40,900

7.6

Extreme damage in the Gulang-Wuwei area. Landslides buried a town near Gulang and dammed a stream in Wuwei County, creating a new lake. Large fissures and sandblows occurred in the area. Some sources list the death toll as high as 200,000, but this may be confusion with the much-bigger Ningxia quake of 1920. Also, Gu et al. report that over 250,000 livestock were killed by this earthquake. [ 310,311,92,3 ]

1935 05 30

Quetta, Pakistan (Baluchistan, India)
29.6N 66.5E

30,000

7.6

Quetta almost completely destroyed. There were numerous fractures and landslides in the area.

1939 01 25

Chillan, Chile
36.25S 72.25W

28,000

7.8

Extreme damage in the Cauquenes-Chillan area. It was felt from Arica to Puerto Aisen.

1939 12 26

Erzincan, Turkey
39.8N 39.38E

32,700

7.8

Extreme damage in the Erzincan Plain and the Kelkit River Valley.]

1948 10 05

Ashgabat (Ashkhabad), Turkmenistan (Turkmeniya, USSR)
37.95N 58.32E

110,000

7.3

Extreme damage in Ashgabat (Ashkhabad) and nearby villages, where almost all brick buildings collapsed, concrete structures were heavily damaged and freight trains were derailed. Many sources list the casualty total at 10,000, but a news release on 9 Dec 1988 advised that the correct death toll was 110,000.

1974 05 10

China
28.2N 104.0E

20,000

6.8

1976 02 04

Guatemala
15.3N 89.1W

23,000

7.5

The earthquake was centered about 160 kilometers northeast of Guatemala City. Over 23,000 deaths. Thousands injured. Damage was extensive. Most adobe type structures in the outlying areas of Guatemala City were completely destroyed, leaving thousands homeless.

1976 07 27

Tangshan, China
39.6N 118.0E

255,000
(official)

7.5

Official casualty figure is 255,000 deaths. Estimated death toll as high as 655,000. 799,000 injured and extensive damage in the Tang-Shan area. Damage extended as far as Beijing. This is probably the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries, and the second greatest in recorded history.

1988 12 07

Spitak, Armenia
41.0N 44.2E

25,000

6.8

Two events about 3 seconds apart. At least 25,000 people killed, 19,000 injured and 500,000 homeless in the Leninakan-Spitak-Kirovakan area of northern Armenia, USSR. More than 20 towns and 342 villages were affected and 58 of them were completely destroyed. Damage totaled 16.2 billion U.S. dollars.

1990 06 20

Western Iran
37.0N 49.4E

40,000 to 50,000

7.4

Estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people killed, more than 60,000 injured, 400,000 or more homeless and extensive damage and landslides in the Rasht-Qazvin-Zanjan area, Iran. Nearly all buildings were destroyed in the Rudbar-Manjil area.

2001 01 26

Gujarat, India
23.3N 70.3E

20,085

7.6

At least 20,085 people killed, 166,836 injured, approximately 339,000 buildings destroyed and 783,000 damaged in the Bhuj-Ahmadabad-Rajkot area and other parts of Gujarat.

2003 12 26

Southeastern Iran
28.99N 58.31E

31,000

6.6

About 31,000 people killed, 30,000 injured, 75,600 homeless and 85 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed in the Bam area. Believed to be the largest earthquake in this area in more than 2000 years

2004 12 26

Sumatra
3.30N 95.87E

227,898

9.1

This is the third largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake. In total, 227,898 people were killed or were missing and presumed dead and about 1.7 million people were displaced by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 14 countries in South Asia and East Africa. (In January 2005, the death toll was 286,000. In April 2005, Indonesia reduced its estimate for the number missing by over 50,000.) The tsunami caused more casualties than any other in recorded history and was recorded nearly world-wide on tide gauges in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

2005 10 08

Pakistan
34.53N 73.58E

86,000

7.6

At least 86,000 people killed, more than 69,000 injured and extensive damage in northern Pakistan. The heaviest damage occurred in the Muzaffarabad area, Kashmir where entire villages were destroyed and at Uri where 80 percent of the town was destroyed. At least 32,335 buildings collapsed in Anantnag, Baramula, Jammu and Srinagar, Kashmir.

2008 05 12

Eastern Sichuan, China
31.002 103.322

87,587

7.9

At least 69,195 people killed, 374,177 injured and 18,392 missing and presumed dead in the Chengdu-Lixian-Guangyuan area. More than 45.5 million people in 10 provinces and regions were affected. At least 15 million people were evacuated from their homes and more than 5 million were left homeless. An estimated 5.36 million buildings collapsed and more than 21 million buildings were damaged in Sichuan and in parts of Chongqing, Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi and Yunnan. The total economic loss was estimated at 86 billion US dollars. Landslides also dammed several rivers, creating 34 barrier lakes which threatened about 700,000 people downstream. A train was buried by a landslide near Longnan, Gansu. At least 2,473 dams sustained some damage and more than 53,000 km of roads and 48,000 km of tap water pipelines were damaged..

2010 01 12

Haiti region
18.445 -72.571

222,570

7.0

According to official estimates, 222,570 people killed, 300,000 injured, 1.3 million displaced, 97,294 houses destroyed and 188,383 damaged in the Port-au-Prince area and in much of southern Haiti.

 

These statistics portrays two major points:  The Lisbon earthquake is estimated as the most powerful quake in this Most Destructive List in history, yet we do know there were more powerful quakes that had very minimal destruction.  Most earthquake models on the time of the end events appear to focus on the Divine cosmic interest on the western world.  We act as though the eastern world is not within the interest of Divine interventionThis is itself might be a major reason why many prophetic models concerning the times of the end of deficient.  The whole world is of interest to the G-d of Israel and deaths in India, China, Syria, Iran and Japan are just as important as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

 

If we are looking for natural processes during  the decades of the 1700’s to portray God’s interaction in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, then a trend which depicts the decade of 18th century as escalating in catastrophic events would be of interest. 

 

And such an event is noted.  For 300 years, the western did not have any catastrophic earthquakes, outside of China, which was totally unknown to Europe in 1556.  Then we do see a trend in the 18th and 20th centuries in number of earthquakes and the astronomic loss of human life associated with these quakes.

 

The Most Destructive Earthquakes according to Centuries

1000 to 2000 AD

(Earthquakes with 50,000 for more people who have died)

 

1000-1100            none

1100-1200            1136                230,000           Syria       Total 12th c. = 230,000

1200-1300            1290                100,000           China      Total 13th c. = 100,000

1300-1400                   None                                                       Total 14th c. = None

1400-1500                   None                                                       Total 15th c. = None

1500-1600            1556                830,000           China      Total 16th c.= 830,000

1600-1700            1667                  80,000           Caucasia

                                                1693                  60,000           Italy         Total 17th c.= 80,000

 

1700-1800            1727                  20,000           Iran

                             1737                300,000           India

                             1755                  70,000           Lisbon

                             1783                  50,000           Italy          Total 18th c. = 490,000

1800-1900           None                                                         Total 19th c. = none

1900-2000            1908                70,000             Italy

                             1920                200,000           China

                             1923                143,000           Japan

                             1927                200,000           China

                             1932                  70,000           China

                             1970                  65,000           Peru

                             1990                  50,000           Iran

                             1999                  17,000           Turkey      Total 20th c. = 798,000

2000-2020            2001                  20,000           India    

            2004                227,898          Sumatra, Indonesia

            2005                   86,000          Pakistan

            2008                   87,587          China

                                                2010                 222,570          Haiti           Total 21st c. = 624,055

                                                                                                                    First decade only

 

Maybe we are finding clues to the resurgence of the earth’s earthquake machine and how in G-d’s appointed time a new era of global catastrophes is also resurging.  The 20th century is turning out to be the most deadly earthquake century on record in over a thousand years, especially if we discount the worst recorded earthquake in the last 1000 years if we discount the earthquake in China with 830,000 people who died.  One more major earthquake in the first decade of the 21st century and we will be recognized as the worse earthquake century in a thousand years.

     

Maybe Lisbon is not that important except it was the arena of focus to the students of Biblical prophecies during the Great Awaking and the Advent Movement of the 1830’s to 1840’s.  It also appears that China, Peru, India, Iran and Japan must play into God’s plan to awaken his people.

When it comes to major earth changes, maybe biblical students should take a more holistic viewpoint and consider God’s global intervention or lack of intervention instead of just in the western Christian world. 

 

The Earth’s Earthquake Machine

 

According to Nature Magazine in April 30, 2001, scientist Alessandro Forte of the University of Western Ontario and Jerry Mitrovica of the University of Toronto found that the earth is fueled by a four piston heat engine earth enginewith two large sinking cold slabs and two equally large rising hot flumes.  This heat engine is the responsible agent for the generation of earthquakes, volcanoes, continental tectonic plate movements and even climate changes. 

This thesis was also affirmed by Professor Sue O’reilly of the University of Macquarie who suggests that that earth is overlain by a brittle yet cool crust, but underneath is a thick mantel of about 1000 miles thick that continuously mixes with the heat from the molten core of the earth. These viscous blobs of primitive earth material that rise and fall between the mantle and the core, mixing and churning. They form the dynamic energy of earthquakes and volcanoes.

 

When we start seeing strange phenomenon occurring in the natural world and migrations of birds, mammals and sea animals, then people have to think beyond the conventional scientific thinking and be willing to ask questions.  In July 27, 2002, national attention was received when 12 tons of dead and dying jumbo flying squid washed ashore at La Jolla Cove.  According to Eric Hochberg, scientist at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, “It may have been the largest local mass stranding in nearly 100 years.”  It was reported that the squid made strange like a dolphin or a seal as they were dying. One observer states, “The thing that weirds me out about the squid is that they have humanlike eyes.”  Known as Dosidicus gigas, the Jumbo Flying Squid live along the middle to northern eastern Pacific Ocean, yet they are now showing up from Orange County down to Baja.  This phenomenon is believed by scientists to be related to the unusual heating in different areas of the Pacific Ocean by El Nino.

 

More and more scientific study is being done at the core of the earth. This molten core has an inner iron core about the size of the moon, whose temperatures are more akin to the heat of the sun. Surrounding it is an outer fluid iron core    If you have ever watched a lava lamp, then you can understand the dynamic inferno in the center of this earth with the magma convection currents rising and sinking to the surface and then back as they cool and then reheat.  The outer core of the earth with its smaller diameter spinning http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image005.jpgfaster causes the rising and falling magma to twist and spiral like a DNA helical spiral. Understand that this magma surrounds an iron core that is spinning and as such acts like the copper windings around an electric generator.  Massive electric currents, called electromagnetic induction, flow between these positive and negative poles and become the hidden source for the magnetic field that surrounds our earth and continuously regenerates that field. 

 

A 3-D magnetic field surrounding the earth in the Glatzmaier-Roberts geodynamo model at the Pittsburg Superconducting Center and the Los Alamos Laboratories.

 

While these mega electrical forces are spinning and rotating in the center of our earth, massive solar storms and bursts of radiation that race out from the sun at the speed of light and travel across the solar system.  At the point in time when the magnetic field is at the maximum on the surface of the sun, it forms a complete polar reversal and the north and the south poles of the sun exchange places.  The high speed coronal mass ejections, called solar flares, spew out of the sun and in route distort the sun’s magnetic field and as they travel towards the earth, they slam into the magnetic field of the earth, bending, distorting and reshaping the earth’s field.  When these massive solar flares pass through the earth it powers up the internal thermal dynamo and fuels further energy currents to rise from the molten core to the surface of the earth. Beneath the bottoms of the oceans, the once cold waters thousands of deep in the trenches are warming.  These warm areas, especially in the Pacific Ocean are causing the weather changes across the American continents known as El Nino and La Nina.

Image the earth as a moving solar planet with an iron core and covered with water.  What an ideal conductor.  As the magnetic fields are moved ad shifted by the external sun flares, it generates electricity in the center of the earth by electromagnetic induction.

How then is heat generated within the earth?  The caused of heat are compression by gravity, internal friction, radioactive decay and electrical currents flowing through the earth from the sun.  The first three are stable and ongoing forces that are usually uniform in their conduct.  The most variable are the electrical currents coming from the sun which increases the electrical voltage through the earth. There are times when the sun undergoes increasing cycles of sunspots and for longer duration.  If the sunspots become more pronounced it will affect the inner planetary temperature core. 

 

As the temperature rises, the spiraling rise of the magma flows will become more intense. This turbulence underneath the tectonic plates of this earth causes earthquakes to form and vents in the crust of the earth where volcanoes will erupt. The heat radiated under the seas and warms up the oceans, causes the polar ice caps to melt and warms the continental land masses while the glaciers and ice fields progressively melt.  This phenomenon has been see captionoccurring well over a hundred years as attested by pictures of the receding glaciers at Glacier National Park in Alaska over the last century.  This is global warming totally directed by the Hand of the Lord.

 

Double Sunspot Cycle 23

 

A cry has gone throughout the world as the effects of global warming have predictably been affected more and more of the world’s population. The waters in the Great Barrier Reed in Australia were the warmest on record in the summer of 2002.  Massive coral bleaching was reported by scientists of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).  This institute completed an atlas of sea temperatures of the Great Barrier Reef over the past decade and comparing it with historical data showed that 2002 was the warmest water temperatures off northeast Australia since 1870. 

 

Mass bleaching as reported by AIMS showed that on the world’s largest living organism, the barrier reef with 133,300 square miles of coral, over 60% of the reef was affected.  “According to Craig Steinberg, AIMS oceanographer, “The outlook isn’t good. If coral can’t adapt then they’re going to bleach and you get mass mortality.  These sea creatures live with one to two degree of their maximum temperature threshold and a tiny increase in temperature will result in mass extinction of the entire barrier reef.

 

Over in American we witnessed the most massive forest fires in Colorado and the western states in 2002 in decades.  A year later, in the summer of 2003, we witnessed the highest temperature in England in 350 years in the summer of 2003 when the worse heat wave also in centuries hit France with an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 heat related deaths that caused the political job of more than one French governmental minister. 

 

The hottest summer of 2003 has been getting the attention of scientists.  Professor Philip Jones of the climate research unit in University of East Anglia in the UK and Professor Michael Mann of the University of Virginia in American published a recent study in the Geophysical Research Letters supporting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when they concluded that temperatures date for the last 1,000 years affirm that the 20th century had the warmest climate on record. 

 

Going back to the records in nature, studying trunks of ancient trees, cores drilled in the icecaps of Greenland and Antarctica, and historical records in Netherlands, Switzerland and China, Jones and Mann concluded that the northern half of this planet earth is the warmest since the time of Christ, two thousand years ago.

 

Atmospheric gases trapped in polar ice has suggested that before the Industrial Revolution, the level of carbon dioxide was 280 parts per million.  Modern carbon dioxide readings were first taken in 1958 and in that year the carbon dioxide reading was 315 ppm.  By 2002, the level was over 370 ppm.  While the world temperature levels do not seem to rise totally parallel with the rise in carbon dioxide, it has become an increasing factor along with solar flares, oceanic cycles and volcanic eruption.  The debate continues on how much the populations of the world are contributing to these temperature rises.

 

Official temperature reading around the world began in 1880.  In order to extrapolate temperatures in the past, scientists have used evidence from tree rings and corals, oxygen bubbles in ice plus cores from soil and sediments below the earth’s surface.  The evidence generally accepted is that the temperature of the earth since the millennial celebration in 1000 CE, the temperature on the planet has remained constant or possibly cooled a bit. That evidence has now been refuted.   In the past 150 years, it has heated up by 1 degree.  Why the change and why so fast?  Is this another preparation for the time of the end?  Is this another way of awaking the world’s populations on the future signs in the natural world that the Lord of hosts will be preparing to herald His coming? 

 

For BibleSearchers, global warming, caused in part by the rise in the burning of fossils fuels in the past century, is now rapidly spinning out of proportion to the human elements involved.  Once again we are seeing the finger of the Lord working through the natural forces or the Laws of His Creation.

 

Increasing we are beginning to understand how the internal dynamic relationship of the core of our earth is affected by the turbulence and upheavals on the sun.  The years 2000-2002 saw the apex of one of the most potent of the 11 year solar cycles recorded over the last 120 years.  This cycle also depicted a rare double cycle. As the solar flares race from a resurgent sun and slams into the magnetic field of this earth, it energizes the central iron core causing the magma flows to race up to the surface of the earth where under the mantle of this planet the oceans and the continental land masses are warmed.   

 

If the Lord of hosts chooses to extend this cycle and allow the sun to flare with greater intensity, then we will begin to see increased number of earthquakes and volcanic activity.  These are the natural forces, under the control of the Hand of the Lord, that broke up the continental plates, displaced the ocean floors and caused the mountain ranges to rise.  As the land masses rise and fall, the shifting weight will some day cause rotational imbalance to this earth. As the earth begins to wobble more and more, the day will come when we will see a complete polar reversal.

 

Predicting Earthquakes

 

The goal of earthquake prediction is to give warning of potentially damaging earthquakes early enough to allow appropriate response to the disaster, enabling people to minimize loss of life and property.

 

Assumption of Random Occurrence: Scientists study the past frequency of large earthquakes in order to determine the future likelihood of similar large shocks. This is called the assumption of random occurrence.

 

For example, if a region has experienced four magnitude 7 or larger earthquakes during 200 years of recorded history, and if these shocks occurred randomly in time, then scientists would assign a 50 percent probability (that is, just as likely to happen as not to happen) to the occurrence of another magnitude 7 or larger quake in the region during the next 50 years.

 

Clustering of Earthquakes: The clustering of earthquakes leads scientists to estimate that the probability of a magnitude 6.8 or larger earthquake occurring during the next 30 years in the San Francisco Bay region is about 67 percent (twice as likely as not).  This clustering is when strain is released along one part of the fault system; it may actually increase on another part.

 

For example, four magnitude 6.8 or larger earthquakes and many magnitude 6 - 6.5 shocks occurred in the San Francisco Bay region during the 75 years between 1836 and 1911. For the next 68 years (until 1979), no earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger occurred in the region. Beginning with magnitude 6.0 shocks in 1979, the earthquake activity in the region increased dramatically; between 1979 and 1989, there was four magnitude 6 or greater earthquakes, including the magnitude 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquakes.

 

Accumulation of Fault Strain: Another way to estimate the likelihood of future earthquakes is to study how fast strain accumulates.  In the United States, only the San Andreas Fault system has adequate records for using this prediction method.

 

For example, for the past 150 years, earthquakes of about magnitude 6 have occurred an average of every 22 years on the San Andreas Fault near Parkfield, California. The last shock was in 1966. Because of the consistency and similarity of these earthquakes, scientists have started an experiment to "capture" the next Parkfield earthquake.

 

Will America be involved in future Time of the End Quakes?

 

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image007.gifFor decades, California has been expecting the “Big Quake”.  In the mid 1970’s while I was a student there was at least one Christmas we deliberately delayed our return to California because of a prediction of the big one in early January. 

 

To the side is a graph map of southern California earthquakes.

 

Major southern California earthquakes over the last 75 years  (Coming Earth Changes, p69)

 

With the San Fernando quake in 1971, we were always reminded that life could be very tenuous.  Now with our son in college about 30 minutes from Redlands, California, my interest in obviously increased. 

 

           

San Andreas Fault and Southern California

 

California’s major San Andreas Fault is known to be the boundary zone between the Pacific and North American tectonic plate.  In other words, the coastline of California and especially Los Angeles and San Diego are not on the North American land plate but actually part sitting over the Pacific land plate, which is subducted or riding under the western edge of the North American plate.  A non-verified story was told to me about a friend of his, who was part of a submarine exploration under the North American Plate along the California coast.  This sub exploration upward to 50 miles inland before the North American plate and the Pacific plate fully came together. 

 

If these plates were to separate, your imagination is just as fertile as anyone else’s in knowing what will happen to these major cities.  There is no doubt that the seismic activity has increased significantly in the 90's.  This trend is concerning to seismologists because it parallels the cycle of quakes that came before the noted 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image008.gif 

A sudden acceleration in the grinding between the two plates has been documented.  The Northridge Quake in 1994 occurring along a small fault was the first quake to strike urban U.S. since 1933 and the worse financial loss ($13-20 billion) since 1906.  If San Andreas Fault east of Los Angeles began to slip, 10 million people would be affected.  The occurrence of a big quake at Wrightwood, California averages about 100 years. Yet, this fault has been very quiet for over 135 years.  Several 7M quakes or one big 8+M quake could suddenly release this stored stress.

 

The Faults in the San Francisco Bay Area (Coming Earth Changes, p.75)

 

Though San Bernardino-Loma Linda-Redlands with 3 million people would be the most affected, earthquake swarms would radiate towards Los Angeles basin, which sits on a cluster of dozens of faults radiating in all direction.  This land mass area could suddenly break up and collapse like putty, underneath the city of L.A, and the city would disappear like in a sinkhole. 

 

San Francisco and Northern California

 

This area has been seismically quiet since the 1906 earthquake.  Thirty years ago this began to change with the 1990 7.1M Loma Prieta quake originating in the rural Santa Cruz Mountains.  Three faults traverse this area: the San Andreas Fault, the Hayward and the Calaveras Fault.  7M plus quakes usually coming in pairs within the major population areas would create significant deaths and devastation. 

 

The Pacific Northwest, the Tectonic Plates and the Cascade Volcanoes

 

Pacific Northwest Plates (Coming Earth Changes, p.80)

 

This coastline from Vancouver Island, British Columbia to northern California is formed by the subduction under the North American Plate by the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Goda Ridge Plate just off the coastline of this area.  Earthquake projections are for several 8 plus quake or one 9 quake with the next 30 years.

 

This would create two big hazards along with the primary quake damage.  In that the quake would be generated off the coast in the Pacific, tsunamis with estimated waves of 35 plus feet would slash into the coastline.  Seattle which sits on a sandy shelf at sea level would be devastated. 

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image009.gifThe second big hazard from earthquakes is volcanoes.  There are seven active volcanoes besides Mount St. Helens which erupted in 1980, in the Cascade Mountain Range. These include Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak and Mt Rainer in Washington; Mt. Hood, in Oregon; and Mt. Shasta, Cinder Cone, and Lassen Peak, in California.   The explosion of volcanoes would be one hazard, but a collapsing mountain such as Mt. Rainier could sweep through low areas with avalanches and mudflows where 100,000 people now reside. Most of you remember the explosion of Mt. St. Helens.  By historical standards, this was a small volcano as noted in the following graph.

 

Selected Historical Volcano Eruptions. (Coming Earth Changes, p.82)

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image010.gif 

Utah and Nevada

 

California is not the only earthquake prone areas in the United States.  There are several significant faults within the Utah and Nevada states.  The Wasatch fault zone lies near the Grigham City-Salt Lake City - Ogden urban area with one million people.

 

This fault has about ten segments of some 9 to 36 miles in length.  The historical Major Fault Zones in Utah and Nevada data show the occurrence of 6.5 to 7.5quakes.                                

 

Coming Earth Changes p.85

 

Not only is there significant property damage potential, but it also includes Tooele, Utah, the home of the U.S.’s largest stockpile of chemical weapons.                                                

In southern Nevada the fault extends into the region of Las Vegas, also with significant building property but also includes Hoover Dam and the Yucca Mountain high level waste repository. 

 

On August 27, 2003, a rare 4.4 magnitude earthquake occurred nine miles south of the south entrance to Yellowstone National Park.  The park authorities have been watching closely increased hydrothermal activity at the Norris Geyser Basin and increased hydrothermal activity under Yellowstone lake.  This quake, being very shallow according to Park official has vaulted the volcanism model developed by Larry Park towards a worse-case scenario.  “Simply put, anyone living within 600 miles of Yellowstone could be sitting in a modern day Pompeii.  In addition, for http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image011.gifthose living outside this area and west of the Mississippi river, there could be grievous consequences as well because systemic processes are now building beneath Yellowstone, that paint a very clear picture of a major eruption event in its early stages.”

 

Earthquake Zones at the western home of the Nuclear and Chemical Stockpile Storage Facilities - Coming Earth Changes p.85

 

Significant scientific concern has now been expressed as the evidence is becoming more and more clear, the subterranean thermal vents beneath Yellowstone National Park are getting hotter.  Overall the water in the Yellowstone basin is getting hotter.   Norris, the park’s hottest and most active geyser basin with its hot springs and brilliant colored thermal pools is spewing higher and more active steam vents than ever before

 

Steamboat geyser, known as the largest geyser in the world, whose routine activity is dormant upwards to 50 years as spouted four times this year.  The temperature in Pork Chop geyser has risen 8 degrees Celsius in the last few months.  Increased swarms of earthquakes are occurring and new vent cracks are breaking forth.

 

All this activity is heating up the scientific discussion about the relationship between the recent activity in the park and the erupting magma flows miles in the depths of the earth. Yet, what we cannot see in the interior of the earth, we can perceive on the surface.

 

Yellowstone Volcano Alert – August 2003

 

New radar technology is now able to measure minor movement in the crust of the earth. It can watch, in the case of Yellowstone, the breathing or the ups and down movement of the land.  In the last seven years a 28 by 7 miles area south of Norris has bulged 5 inches in the last seven years.  This is very rapid in geological time. This has now brought a third unknown “resurgent dome” in the Yellowstone ancient volcanic caldera whose up and down puffing movement is indicative of the underground movement of thermal water flows and magma.

 

Major southern California earthquakes over the last 75 years  (Coming Earth Changes, p69)

 

How interconnected the subterranean world of magma, tectonic plates and expanding and contracting crustal surfaces of the earth was recently depicted when a recent earthquake in Alaska set off hundreds of earthquakes in Yellowstone the next day and set the bay swelling and pulsing at Clear Lake near Houston, Texas within hours.

 

The Central and Eastern States

 

Within the central  and eastern states are eight known fault zones.  Only one, the New Madrid

Seismic Zone has demonstrated the capacity for large earthquakes.  Though there have not been

any quakes greater than 5 in this century, in the 1811-1812 era, 2000 quakes were generated in

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image013.gifthis area.  This included about 5 in the 8 plus magnitude, 15 quakes in the 6.5-7.8

Magnitude.  If this were to be repeated, the cities of Memphis and St. Louis would be devastated. 

 

Earthquake Source Zones in Mid America (Coming Earth Changes p.91)

 

Seismologist have placed the fault zones with the greatest threat to land and population as

(1)   New Madrid Seismic Zone

(2)   St. Lawrence Valley Seismic Zone,

(3)   the Charleston, S.C.area,

(4)   the Cape Ann, Mass area and

(5)   the Wabash Valley Fault Zone.

 

One other fault of significance is the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone.  This area causes more seismic activity than any other area in mid to Eastern U.S. except the New Madrid Fault Zone.  Along this zone also run several hydroelectric power plants, two nuclear power plants and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image014.gif 

The Eastern North Atlantic Seaboard

 

New York City and the eastern Seaboard have been placed in several end of times prophetic models including visions by Ellen White. Stanford and USGS scientists have found evidence that stresses have been building in the last 100 years in the upper crust of western

 

Long Island and the northern part of New York City.  The 1884 quake of about 5 magnitude was located near the mouth of the Hudson River. The fault that came from that quake runs through Central Park, Manhattan and Greenwich Village. 

 

Great earthquake motion intensity map for 8.0 to 8.9 Quakes

(Coming Earth Changes p.95)

 

On April 20, 2002, a rare 5 M earthquake rocked the northeastern part of the United States as it

radiated from a fault a little over two miles under the earth’s surface, fifteen miles southwest of

Platsburgh, New York. 

The last recorded earthquake was a  magnitude 5.1 event in 1983 in the Blue Mountain Lake area, New York.  The largest historic earthquake in the northeastern region of the U.S. and Canada occurred near Charlevoix, Quebec in 1663, 200 miles to the northeast. 

Also northeast in New Jersey in the Ramapo Fault Zone, evidence has been found, according

to evidence in radiocarbon dating of basal peat bogs, of not only sinking but in rotating the crustal blocks within the zone. This scenario could occur below New York City area and a similar condition would occur in the Cape Ann Fault, which would cause significant damage to Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Tsunamis (Tidal Waves)

Facts about Tsunamis

 

Tsunamis are seismic sea waves. Their name is a Japanese word meaning ‘harbor waves’. They are often incorrectly called ‘tidal waves’ (rare events linked to tides). A tsunami is a series of traveling ocean waves of extremely long length and period. They are caused by under-sea events

like earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions; or by other natural events such as ocean meteorite impacts, or large landslides into bays or lakes. (The effect in a lake is known as a ‘seiche’).

A tsunami is like the effect of a stone landing in a pond. Waves radiate out in ever-widening circles. As a tsunami crosses a deep ocean, length from crest to crest may be 150 km (50 miles) but the height may be under a meter (3 feet), unfelt by ships nor seen from the air, and may reach speeds up to 1,000 km/h. (600 mph) The waves’ energy extends from deep ocean floor to surface.

Effects on Coastal Regions

 

As tsunamis enter shallow water near coastlines, wave speeds drop as energy is compressed into much shorter distances. Wave heights increase dramatically up to 40 meters (120 plus feet), threatening life and property, as they strike the shore with devastating force (see diagram). Between multiple waves, which may vary in size, sea-level may actually drop well below normal. Great destruction may arise even though the tsunami may have been caused thousands of miles away.

 

Where Do They Occur?

 

Pacific Region - The majority of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean, although they have occurred in all oceans of the world. In our region, areas most at risk include many Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and the heavily-populated coasts of Japan and Indonesia.

 

Australian Occurrences - On average, a tsunami is recorded in Australia every two years, but most are too small to be seen by people. The tsunami threat to Australia varies from ‘low’ for most of the continental coastline to ‘medium’ along the northern half of WA (see map, page 27). A small one struck WA in 1994.

 

In the 1980s a tsunami reached Darwin at low tide, which fortunately cancelled out most of its force. Evidence also exists of large tsunami impacts on the south-east coast, but before European settled on the continent. The largest actually recorded in Australia was in August 1977 at Cape Leveque , WA, with a ‘run-up’, or traveled up the beach and land 6 meters (19 feet) above sea level.

 

History of Tsunami Disasters

 

The worst tsunami disaster followed the volcanic eruption of the island of Krakatoa in 1883 when 35 meter  (115 foot) waves crashed into Java and Sumatra, drowning 36,420 people.

In 1896, a large tsunami killed 27,000 in Japan. In May, 1960, an earthquake (9.5 Mw) off the coast of Chili, generated waves in the deep water of the Pacific that traveled a full 150 degrees around the globe, or more than 10,000 miles, landing ashore in Japan with a 15 foot tsunami.  Altogether it killed 1,000 people in Chile, Hawaii, the Philippines and Japan.

 

From 1970 to 1997, tsunamis caused over 9,000 deaths, including 2,700 on the Indonesian island of Flores in December, 1992. Computer projection states that a 30 foot asteroid impact between Australia and New Zealand would generate a tsunami which would impact southern Japan with 125 to 175 foot wave.

 

Volcanoes in the United States

When the continental plates begin to move, the tsunami and volcanoes emerge or erupt.  Neither USA EARTHQAUKE MAP LARGE.GIF (97880 bytes)one can exist without the evidence of earthquakes.  What an area of fascination, especially for children, for volcanoes web sites on the Internet are amongst the most popular sites to date.

 

The United States, next to Japan and Indonesia, has the most potentially active volcanoes in the world, 68.  Most volcano sites are in Alaska and Hawaii, the most famous; Augustine Volcano and Mona Loa, yet 20 sites are known in the contingent United States. 

 

The University of Buffalo scientist studying ice cores that discovered a mystery in relation to global climate change and solar activity and sunspots.  In their studies, it showed that volcanic eruptions have now been observed to interfere and reverse the effect of sunspots on global climates.  Most of the studies on global warming have been centered on the effect of human interference on atmospheric changes in the climate.

 

Two different mechanism that effect the climate are the cosmic ray and charged particles that stream towards our earth.  According to Michael Ram, Ph.E., professor of physics at UB claimed that it was the goal to find out if “periods of maximum sunspots will influence the climate to behave in a certain way.  Many times scientists would find a trend between the sun and the climate then suddenly this trend would reverse.  So the students started studying the dust concentrations in ice cores from Greenland which give a “past-atmospheric dust concentration.”  Since dust is a very sensitive marker of dry climate changes they began to co-relate the ice cores for the past 300 years with laser-light scattering techniques with sunspot data that has been recorded for also the same 300 years.

 

What they found were 32 years of positive sun/dust correlation, but it was also in the years that there was relatively little worldwide volcanic explosive activity.  Every one of these ‘quiet” periods came to an end with increase volcanic explosions. The assumption was that low level of cosmic ray on the Earth came from high sunspot activity.  This would give less cloud cover, less rain and high dust levels.

 

Then came the Indonesian volcano Krakatau that erupted in 1883 and killed 36,000 people worldwide.  The normal sun/dust correlations, between 1860 to 1882, which were ‘quiet periods’ in the atmosphere came to a complete halt.  Six major volcano eruptions, between 1800 to 1962, showed the same reversals between sunspot and climate.  So here we have increased solar flares and activity causing less clouds, less rains and more dust yet, more volcanoes adding more dust and sulfates in the air also increase the dust levels. Where sunspots decrease cloud cover, volcanoes increase cloud cover. 

 

American and the Pacific Northwest Volcanoes

 

The most prolific site of past, present and potentially future volcanic activity in the continent United States is the Cascade Volcanic region in the Pacific Northwest: Washington, Oregon and Northern California.  Here the Juan de Fuca plate, part of the larger Pacific plate, is cramming itself under the lighter North American plate.  How fast? About an inch and one-half a year.  Deep under the surface, the compressed and heated rocks melt into magma, ascending like blobs to the surface.  They are then stored in chambers, gradually developing pressure until the lid blows off and the volcano erupts.  Out pours the lava, gas, ash, steam and molten rocks.

 

It is Mount St. Helen’s that is most familiar to the American public, for she is the only volcano to erupt since 1950.  In 1980, she erupted, killing 56 people and leveling enough trees to build 300,000 homes.  Yet Mount St. Helen’s is only one of 13 of the 20 known volcano site in the contingent U.S., all of which are potentially active volcanoes in the Cascades mountain range.  Eleven of these sites have erupted according to vulcanologists in the past 4000 years, seven in the past 300 years.  These 13 include:

1.    Mount Baker – dormant for thousands of years, erupted in the mid 1800’s and has active steam vents near the summit in Sherman Crater.

2.    Glacier Peak – erupted at least 6 times in the last 4000 years.

3.    Mount Rainer  - the most unstable and most dangerous.

4.    Mount St. Helens – the most recent eruption in 1980.

5.    Mount Adams – minor eruption 1000 years ago.

6.    Mount Hood – last erupted 200 years ago with widespread flowing rivers of fire and mudflows.

7.    Mount Jefferson –

8.    Three Sisters, Newberry Volcano, Crater Lake, Medicine Lake Volcano,

9.    Mount Shasta – California’s most active volcano who has erupted about every 300 years.

10.  Lassen Peak – erupted in 1914-1917 with 6.4 miles of volcanic debris.

           

The KTT (Kermadec Tonga Trench)

 

The main pressure points are the KTT area along the Australian and Pacific Plates and the Caribbean Plate pointing towards the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  The main sliding areas are the Indonesian, Indian-Himalayan, and Peri-Mediterranean area.

 

The most active region the world in terms of earthquake activity is an area northeast of New Zealand called the KTT or the Kermadec Tonga Trench.  It is this area, I feel that watchers of natural signs must keep a close look, for this area appears to be an early warning area of seismotectonic activity for the whole world.   When massive earthquake and volcanism is observed in this area, especially in the deep plates, then a major chain reaction may ensue. 

 

Between the Kermadec Islands and the Tonga Islands, is what is known as the Monwai Seamount, about 750 miles NE of New Zealand.   Whereas the Tonga and the Kermadec Trenches are from 5.5 to 6.5 miles in depth, the Monwai Seamount is relatively shallow as 2.4 miles in depth. This uplift is the result of volcanic uplift.

           

Closer to New Zealand in the Bay of Plenty is a 1050 foot, emerging submarine volcano, call White Island.  It is about 10 x 12 miles in size consisting of two overlapping strato-volcanoes.  In the years between 1996-1999, intermittent activity has been monitored here with steam and tephra eruptions. It is this summit that forms a part of the famous legends of the Maori tribesmen.

 

On the North Island off of New Zealand, is a 9100 foot summit, Ruapehu, which is one of the most active volcanoes in the region.  This strato-volcano has at least four cone building areas and one active vent, Crater Lake.  This area, I believe is an area to be watched with great interest.

 

Mount Etna and the Callabria region of Italy

 

Almost directly opposite the South Pacific area of the KTT is one of the next most unstable regions of the earth’s globe.  It might be regarded as an antipodal region of the KTT region in the South Pacific, because it is on the opposite side of the earth’s crust.  In the Mediterranean area, Mount Etna towers above Catania, in the northeastern part of the island of Sicily, and the Callabria area of Italy.  This region marks the boundary zone between the African and Eurasian crustal plates. Earthquakes along this zone are known as strong, http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image016.jpgdeep-focus earthquakes. 

 

Mount Etna in Etna, Italy

 

Mount Etna (37.73 degrees N, 15.00 degrees E, summit elev. 10,870 feet) has one of the longest documented records of volcanism in historical times and is the highest volcano in Europe.  During historical times, it has erupted about every six years, yet since 1958 the volcanic output has increased significantly, the most in 300 years and has the longest duration of volcanism of any volcano, a total of 472 days.  Violent eruptive activity has been increasing in the especially since 1993 with both the Etna and Stromboli volcano simultaneously erupting, Etna with three craters erupting and Stromboli with four craters erupting.

 

Etna has the longest history of eruptions, beginning in 1500 BC when it was first recorded and has had 190 eruptions since then. The largest eruption was in 1669 when lava flows destroyed parts of the town of Nicolosi six miles away.  Current activity is about one sixth the rate of Kilauea in Hawaii.

Hutton, William, Coming Earth Changes, ARE Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1996.

  

Mount Etna, Moses and the Exodus of the Israelites

 

http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image017.jpgWhat it of interest is that Mount Etna was one of several volcanoes who erupted in that famous era of 1500 BC.  The most famous being the powerful explosion of the island of Thera (Thira also called Santorin or Santorini) the southernmost island in the archipelago of the Cyclades in southern Greece.  This is the most powerful volcanic explosion recorded in the last 3500 years.  The island of Thera was about ten miles in diameter and estimated at 5,200 feet high and its eruption destroyed the highly civilized Minoan civilization.  Also at this time, according to geologists, the eastern margin of the Sinai Peninsula underwent a major uplift.  The tephra (ash) blew across the Mediterranean towards the New Kingdom of Egypt and the 18th Dynasty reign of Amenophis II and his descendents.

 

NASA Sir-C image of Etna’s Summit craters

 

Does it surprise us that this event also coincides with the dramatic Exodus of the Children of Israel, in which many of the ten plagues can be related to recent volcanic explosions.  Traversing across the Sinai, we also see the Israelites camping about a loud, venting, thunderous volcano, Mount Sinai, when the Tables of Stone were given to Moses.  Imagine walking in and out of a peninsula of one smoking cauldron and crater after another, and you can imagine the fear and temerity of the Israelite people.

 

This one volcanic explosion, or you might say a clustering of explosions from Mount Etna to Thera or Santorini then across the Sinai lava beds to Mount Sinai was felt at least from China to Greenland.  G.M. Friedman, in Geotimes (March 1992) stated that ash (tephra) was carried all the way to China and the records of that era record the deleterious impact on agricultural Image of a map showing Mount Vesuvius and where it is located in Italy.production, which included the dimming of the sun, famine and crop failures.  On the opposite side of the globe, the ash is recorded in the Greenland ice cores.

 

Mount Vesuvius near Naples, Italy

 

Near Mount Etna is another volcano, I have on my watch list, Mount Vesuvius, near Naples, Italy.  Mount Vesuvius (40.82 degree N, 14.43 degree E, summit elevation 1281 m) is most famous with its 79 AD eruption, which destroyed the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.  Another significant explosion occurred in 1631 and 1760. The last cycle of activity ended about 1944. http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image019.jpgCompare this date with the number of earthquakes on the century list above.  Recently it has portrayed itself with moderate seismicity and intracrater fumarolic activity in the Somma caldera. 

 

Vesuvius victims in a boathouse on the shoreline at Herculaneum

 

Nine years after the destruction of the Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod, one of the greatest disasters occurred in natural history.  The ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were completely destroyed. The area today around Mount Vesuvius is the world’s most densely populated area of any volcanic region.  According to Edoardo Del Pezzo, a research professor at the Vesuvius Observatory in Naples said, “We expect that a wide area could be destroyed in minutes.

 

Recreation of the 79 CE explosion of Vesuvius shows the following scenario.  In a Newsweek article by Barbie Nadeau, it states, “Twenty thousand residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum thrived on the mountain’s unusually rich soil, which they Mt Vesuvius, Paolo Gaspariniprobably attributed to the blessings of Fauna, the goddess of farming and fertility. In August of that year the gods got ugly. Wells dried up, mountain streams stood still, birds and dogs went silent, the ground rumbled. One day hot gases, ash and pumice shot 30 kilometers into the sky. Ash rained down on Pompeii at the rate of six inches per hour, and then came the lava.” 

 

Mount Vesuvius

 

In reference to the discussion above on the Earth’s Earthquake Machine, Italian and French researcher discovered that five miles below Mount Vesuvius is a massive layer of spiraling magma that stretches from Vesuvius to the Phlegraean Fields below Naples.  This magma plume was reported to be 145 square miles in 2001.

 

It reminds us of the prophecy of Edgar Cayce.

 

Edgar Cayce – “There will be upheavals in the Arctic and in the Antarctic that will make for the eruption of volcanoes in the torrid areas, and there will then be the shifting of the poles so that where there have been those of a frigid or semi-tropical will become more tropical, and moss and fern will grow.”

 

Mount Pelee and the Caribbean Plate Point

 

Mount Pelee (14.82 degree N, 61.17 degree W, summit elevation 1397 m) is on the island of Martinique in the West Indies.  It is the most active volcano in the Lesser Antilles arc.  In the past 5000 years, according to http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image021.jpgvulcanologists, there are been more than 20 major eruptions.  Looking on the maps of major plates, we see it at the eastern edge of the Caribbean Plate as it juts into the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  As we now know, this area is expanding or widening.  The problem is that the western edge of the Caribbean plate hits the must larger Pacific Plate.  In other words, it is getting the ‘big squeeze’. 

 

Mount Pelee

 

The l’Etang Sec summit crater has two lava domes put in place during the 1902 and 1929 eruptions.  Earlier we talked about the first eruption which killed 29,000 people in the city of St. Pierre, and marked the beginning of volcanological studies in the behavior of pyroclastic flows.

 

Seismicity studies began in 1985 and 40 events have been recorded up till June 4, 1999.  Due to location, I have placed this volcano on my watch list for both earthquake and volcanic activity.  It also serves as an early warning system of deep tectonic and crustal shifting activity.

 

Largest Explosive Eruptions Since 1400 AD
VEI Greater Than or Equal to 5

 

Volcano 


Aniakchak 
Kuwae 
Sakurajima
Bardarbunga
St. Helens
St Helens
St. Helens
Billy Mitchell
Kelut
Raung
Huaynaputina
Kamaga-Take
Parker
Long Island
Usu
Tarumai
Gamkonora
Tongkoko 
Tarumai 
Katla 
Tambora 
Galunggung 
Cosiguina 
Sheveluch 
Askja 
Krakatau 
Tarawera 
Santa Maria 
Ksudach 
Katmai 
Cerro Azul 
Bezymianny 
St. Helens

Country 


USA-AK 
Vanuatu, SW Pac.
Japan
Iceland
USA-WA
USA-WA
USA-WA
Bougainville, SW Pac
Indonesia-Java
Indonesia-Java
Peru
Japan
Philippines
New Guinea
Japan 
Japan
Indonesia-Halmahara
Indonesia-Sulawesi 
Japan 
Iceland 
Indonesia 
Indonesia 
Nicaragua 
Russia 
Iceland 
Indonesia 
New Zealand 
Guatemala 
Russia 
USA 
Chile 
Russia 
USA

Date 


1450C
1452 
1471
1477
1480D
1482D
1540
1580C
1586
1593
1600
1640
Jan. 4, 1641
1660
Aug. 16,1663 
Aug. 6, 1667
1673
1680 
Aug., 1739 
Oct. 17, 1755 
April 5, 1815 
Oct. 8, 1822 
June 20, 1835 
Feb. 17, 1854 
March 29, 1875 
Aug. 26, 1883 
June 10, 1886 
Oct., 24, 1902 
March 28, 1907 
June 6, 1911 
April 10, 1932 
March 30, 1956 
May 18, 1980

VEI 


5? 
6
5?
5?
5+
5
5
6
5?
5?
6?
5

6

5
5?
5?



5? 










5

Type of Volcano 


Caldera 
Caldera
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano
Ash shield
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano
Explosion crater?
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano
Complex volcano
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano 
Subglacial 
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano 
Caldera 
Fissure on lava dome 
Stratovolcano 
Shield 
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano 
Stratovolcano

Modified from Table 3 in Newhall, CG, and S Self, 1982, The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) is an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism: Journal of Geophysical Research87, 1231-1238. 

 

Let’s take a closer look at the beautiful and one the most picturesque volcanoes in Washington, Mount Rainer.  Two http://www.biblesearchers.com/catastrophes/catastrophes7_files/image022.jpghundred years it has been a landmark of serene beauty.  Yet within its core the rocks are crumbling and weak.  This combination with its tall peak with steep sides, weak and loose interior held together only by gravity and one cubic mile of glacier ice makes this mountain of beauty one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. 

 

Mount Rainer in Washington State

 

Mount Pelee in the Caribbean Martinique, was a similar volcano which erupted in 1902 in which a giant pyroclastic flow of 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit of molten rock, ash and gas raced with potential speed up to 80 miles per hour sweeping into the town of St. Pierre, killing 29,000 people. 

 

So also, Mount Rainer, could also either blow or flow, or both.  Tall volcanoes, like Etna, Vesuvius, Mount St. Helens and Mount Pinatubo (Philippines) are usually explosive volcanoes.  It was Mount Pinatubo, who in 1991 spewed 15 million tons of ash, rock and sulfuric acid 22 miles into the stratosphere.  If this material had fallen on New York City, it would have buried the city under 1000 feet of debris, leaving only a few skyscrapers sticking out the top.

 

When Mount Rainer blows and erupts, cascading avalanches will destroy the area 10 miles around with mudflow, lahars, will flow down the valleys for fifty miles all the way to Seattle and inundating at least 14 towns and cities, including, Tacoma, Auburn, Ashford, and Seattle.  (“America’s most dangerous Volcano, Discover, November, 1999, p.83-89)

 

Within the state of California is evidence of 75 volcanic vents during the recent history with at least 500 vents noted in geological time. At least 10 of these have erupted in the past 600 years, an era of uniform placidity. These include Mount Shasta, Lassen Peak, Cinder Cone, the cluster of volcanoes in Medicine Lake Highland and the Mono-Inyo volcanic chain. 

 

Prophetic Watchers at the End of Times

 

Revelation 6: 12-17 - And I beheld when He has opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair , and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

 

Using modern day geological data, we must consider seriously the following. Major crustal shifting will occur first in the deep tectanic plates starting in the KTT region of the South Pacific, with antipodal activity on the other side of the world at the Eurasian-African plate junction at Mount Etna and Vesuvius.  The Pacific Plate pressure will then exert significant force against the Caribbean plate which points into the Mid Atlantic Ridge area.  At this junction,  Mount Pelee will begin major volcanic and seismic activity. 

 

At this time, it is my expectation that we will then see major unprecedented seismic activity on the west coast of the United States with the San Andreas Fault sustaining significant activity.  Catastrophic losses in human life and societal destruction will spell the beginning of a major rearrangement of the United States.  According to geological futurists, the subduction of the central California valley will bring the return of an inland sea formerly seen in ancient times.  Then mid American will possibly see a major rift where the Great Lakes will empty into the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern seaboard will suffer catastrophic losses in the disappearance and subduction of most notably at New York City and surrounding region. 

 

How does this affect the prophetic watchers of future end times events.   With worldwide earthquakes, we know that worldwide volcanism will erupt.  The tectonic places of the continental plates will shake, separate, collide and collapse.  The darkened sun, the moon turned to blood, the darkened day are all signs of extreme volcanic activity.  We will also see in a few moments that, tilting of the earth’s poles, slowing of the earth’s orbit, sliding of the earth’s crust, increasing solar flares and novas, the earth loosing her geomagnetic shield, and the most ominous of all, comets and asteroids colliding unto our earth, all weave a complex fabric into the events at the end of time.

 

What about the Land of Israel.  Scientists are prediction that a major earthquake could happen any time in the near future.  Yaacov Heichal is the chairman of the steering committee that works with the ministerial committee on earthquake preparedness. As Heichal has stated,

 

Yaacov Heichal -  “Our main assumption is that there will be a major quake in this area about every 80 – 90 years.  The last one was in 1927Jerusalem was affected that time, along with Nablis and Jericho and, to some extent, Lod and Ramle.  The last major quake before that was in 1837.  That time, the epicenter was in the north: the Galilee, the Beit She-an area, Safed. The data shows that there were 3,000 deaths – basically, that was the population of that area at the time.  Since nothing has happened in the last 70 – 80 years, the risk is growing.”

 

When the scientists of Israel are talking about earthquakes, they are talking about a major quake.  Annually there are 4000 quaked in Israel in the magnitude of 4-5.  A major quake above a magnitude of 6-7 does cause structural damage to building and the resultant loss of life.  Dr. Avi Shapira is the director of the Seismology Division at the Ministry of Infrastructure’s Geophysics Institute.  “An earthquake is, chronologically , a random phenomenon.  There’s no such thing as an earthquake happening every 80 to 90 years.”  Yet he does agree that an earthquake can happen at any moment.  Probability calculations state that within 50 years the probability of an earthquake is very high because the accumulated energy will have to be released from the tectonic plates below Israel. 

 

On Divine Judgments at the End of Times

On the chemical and nuclear weapons industry.

 

Nuclear Age has brought a very interesting form of evil upon the earth, contamination that will last thousands of years.  Biblical authors have suggested that the scanty remains seen of pre-flood civilization is that God buried these ante-diluvium remains deep in the earth because of the serious departure from the commands of God.  This included violation of the laws of genetics and possible laws of thermodynamics.  Did the ancients have access to nuclear weapons?  This we do not know.

 

Considering that we now have 1200 metric tons of Plutonium and unknown quantities of Uranium 235 and 238, which exist stored in storage facilities or bombs, the United States are one of the greatest producers and storage facilities of nuclear material.

 

Main sites nuclear storage and waste deposits in the United States.

 

Oak Ridge National Lab – Oak Ridge, Tenn.

            One million curies radioactive cesium/strontium injected underground

            2 nuclear power plants and several hydroelectric plants

            Area of subsidence in the East Tennessee  Seismic Zone

 

Savannah River Plant, George

            900,000 curies radioactive solution mixed fusion into streams and ponds.

            Major area of subsidence if the East Tennessee Seismic Zone.

 

Hanford Plant, Richland WA

            700,000 curies mixed fusion into soil and surface ponds

            Pacific Northwest Earthquake and Volcano Zone

 

Nevada Test Site – south Nevada – NW of Los Vegas

          Above and below ground nuclear test site which include huge quantities of plutonium

and cesium – total 1041 test explosions

            Near the Utah-Nevada Earthquake Zone

 

Lawrence-Livermore National Lab – Lawrence. CA

            Major testing for SDI

            Major weapons and design facility

            In Northern California, east of the Calveras and Hayward Fault near San Francisco

 

Nuclear Weapons and Production Facilities

Three Weapons Lab:

            Sandias National Lab – Albuquerque, NM

Los Alamos National Lab – Santa Fe, NM

Major weapons and design facilities

                        Area of uplift and mountains – fault zones certain

                        Near the southern region of the Rocky Mountain uplift zone        

Lawrence-Livermore National Lab – Lawrence. CA

 

Nuclear Weapons Production Complexes

            14 Production reactors in Washington State and South Carolina

                        In the Pacific Northwest Seismic and Volcanic Zone

South Carolina – Major subsidence Zone east of East Tennessee Seismic Zone

           

Eight Separation and Reprocessing Plants and 239 underground storage tanks for

high level radioactive waste - Washington Idaho and South Carolina

Near the Pacific Northwest Earthquake and Volcano Zone

 

Plutonium Storage Facility - Rocky Flats, Colo - Tons of machined plutonium for

 nuclear weapons – 16 miles from Denver proper.

Located in the major uplift zone of the Rocky Mountains

 

Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository Site

            Waste Repository Site near Los Vegas

            Near the Utah-Nevada Fault Zone

 

Chemical Weapons Storage Site

            Tooele, Utah, home of the large storage facility site

            Near the Utah-Nevada Fault Zone and the East Tennessee Seismic Zone

 

 

Let us re-look at two texts concerning the end of times.

 

Revelation 11:13 - “And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand; and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

 

Revelation 11:19 - “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”

 

When the sixth seal judgment passes over the United States, Satan will have sealed his people with the Mark of the Beast and God will have sent his ‘Ascending Angel’ to seal His people, the the ‘Great Earthquake’ will hit this earth and the tectonic plates will begin to shake and to crack.  All the mountains of the earth and the islands of this earth will be shaken.  The beginning of massive tectonic changes will begin.

 

Contrary to what most end time catastrophic futurists think, the great continental plates will not be just jamming harder against each other, but at this time will begin to separate. Within as little as eighteen months later, during the seventh trumpet and vial plague of the seventh seal, the great continents will begin to separate from each other, the tectonic uplifts will collapse and the great mountain chains on the continents will come crashing back down to this earth and the islands as oceanic mountains will collapse and settle to the bottoms of the oceans..  T

 

When God gets through with His judgments, the US weapons industry will be deactivated and buried deep into the earth.  Chances are that this same judgment will be true to every nuclear, chemical and biological weapons facility in the world.

 

 Return to the Beginning

 

Part One -     Planetary Changes at the Time of the End

Part Two –    Isaiah the Catastrophic Prophet

Part Three -  Major Earthquakes and Catastrophes in the Old Testament - Part One

Part Four -    Major Earthquakes and Catastrophes in the Old Testament - Part Two

Part Five –    Major Earthquakes and Catastrophes in the New Testament

Part Six –      Evidence of Catastrophes in the Natural World – Part One

Part Seven – Evidence of Catastrophes in the Natural World – Part Two

Part Eight –  The Catastrophic Destruction and Restoration of Pangea

Part Nine -    Eden as Pangea and the Flood as a Mass Extinction

 

Message from BibleSearchers

 

BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end.  It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”.  Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth.  In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest.  Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace.  Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth.  The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel.  In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information.  We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.

 

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Links

 

Earthquake Links

Earthquake by USGS ( authors Kaye M. Shedlock and Louis C. Pakiser)

Introduction to Earthquakes by USGS

Earthquakes in History by USGS

Where Earthquakes Occur by USGS

How Earthquakes Happen by USGS

Measuring Earthquakes by USGS

Volcanos and Earthquakes by USGS

Predicting Earthquakes by USGS

 

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

United States:

·         Largest Earthquakes in the U.S.

·         Other Large US Earthquakes, Magnitude 7 or greater.

·         U.S. Largest Earthquakes, by State

·         U.S. Earthquake History, by State

·         Deaths from Earthquakes in the U.S.

·         National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project

·         United States Seismicity

World:

·         Largest Earthquakes in the World Since 1900

·         Significant Earthquakes in the World, by Year Since 1980
(M6.5 or greater or caused fatalities, injuries or substantial damage)

·         World Seismicity Maps

·         Most Destructive Earthquakes in the World

·         Earthquakes in the World with 1,000 or More Deaths

·         Earthquakes in the World this Year, Magnitude 7 and Greater

·         Number of Earthquakes in the World per Year, Magnitude 7 and Greater

·         Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program

·         Flinn-Engdahl Regions

·         Earthquake Statistics & Facts (World & U.S.)

 

Cool Earthquake Facts

Earthquake Photos New Topic

Earthquake "Top Ten" Lists

Faults

Locating Earthquakes

Magnitude & Intensity

New Madrid Seismic Zone

Past & Historical Earthquakes

Plate Tectonics

San Andreas Fault

Seismic Waves

Today in Earthquake History

Tsunami

Virtual Field Trips

Time Information

 

More Links

More Earthquake Links

 

Volcano Links

Volcano World by the University of North Dakota

Largest Volcanic Eruptions since 1400 CE by Volcano World

Ice Cores and Volcanos by the University of Buffalo

Mount Etna Volcano in Italy by Volcano World

Mount Vesuvius near Naples, Italy by Wheeling Jesuit University

Mount Vesuvius by Volcano World

Massive Magma Layer feed Vesuvius by BBC

 

Solar Flares

The Resurgent Sun by Science at NASA