Category: earthquake

Posted in earthquake, end time, japan, pre-tribulation rapture

EARTHQUAKE!

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE: I posted more here. “Earthquake: At what point do the warnings end and the Tribulation punishments begin?” Bible verses, and my reasoning why I think the rapture is coming SOON.

A 8.9 quake occurred last night in Honshu Japan. In addition, more than fifteen quakes occurred in that region that were OVER 6.0, classified as major. Here is one snippet of the USGS page that shows some of them but not all of them:

A tsunami happened subsequent to the quake that reportedly had waves 3 feet high. This 8.9 quake was the fifth largest quake to occur since 1900. Now, the Onagawa Nuclear plant is reportedly on fire. Japan has called a nuclear emergency. Four million people are without power in Tokyo and the massive damage from the quake, tsunami and fires is devastating. Devastating isn’t even the word.

Carl Worline opened his latest essay by saying:

“The entire world is on edge because everyone senses that something big is about to happen. Christians know that either the Rapture of the Church or the battle described in Psalm 83 is about to occur. Many Muslims in the Islamic world think their Mahdi is about to return. Members of the New Age Movement look for the arrival of their Maitreya at any moment. The ancient Mayans, various tribes of American Indians, Nostradamus, the notorious 16th century soothsayer Mother Shipton, and Sir Isaac Newton have all predicted a series of cataclysmic worldwide disasters will occur around this time in history. Even the chief ju-ju bead counters who write for the supermarket tabloids are predicting the return of “The King” (Elvis). The Earth longs to be free of the curse it has suffered under ever since the original sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus told us in Matthew 24:7-8 that His return would be preceded by upheavals in nature which He likened to the birth pangs of a woman about to give birth, increasing in intensity and frequency as the moment of the arrival of the child draws ever closer.”

I want you, Christian, to think for a moment, that these events are not punishments. They are warnings. The heightened state of agitation, fear, and heartbreak from all these things are not the Tribulation, yet we wake up every morning with a dread to look at the news to see what has happened that was worse than the day before. A year ago things were bad but in the space of the last 365 days the world has experienced “historic” events one after the other than are monumentally worse to comprehend. Yet they are not the Tribulation events. These are warnings.

So…imagine how terrible the tribulation events will be! Please, please, thrown away your fear and WITNESS to people. The quake is a demand from God that He is present and working in the world to awaken the non-believer, threaten the apathetic, and to announce His soon return for us. Don’t waste even a precious day navel-gazing. The nature of birth pangs is such that a crescendo is reached suddenly.

Non-believer, these extreme events are not “natural.” Things will not get back to normal. They will only worsen. If you cannot believe that they will or even could get worse, listen up: they will. It is because of sin- your sin, my sin, the world’s sin. God will not be mocked and He will punish sin. Your acceptance of that fact and your repentance and appeal to Jesus to forgive them is your redemption. He died on the cross as the sacrifice so that YOU could not be punished when the Great Day of the Lord comes. Will you be able to stand when it does? I pray you will. He loves you, He is shaking you even now. Wake up!
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Posted in christchurch, earthquake, end time, prophecy

Terrible quake in Christchurch New Zealand

Posted on by elizabethprata

A shallow quake, especially one that lasts a long time, will cause a tremendous amount of damage. This one did. It was a 6.6 by NZ standards, a 6.3 according to USGS, but it was only 4 feet deep and reverberated for over a minute. A shallow, long lasting quake such as this would have caused more damage than last year’s 7.3.

A twitter commenter said “Watching TV3 live – apocalyptic…lots of car horns, sirens, confused people and the Cathedral has no top”. This videographer said “It’s terrifying.”

This was the first photo posted on Twitpic:

Radio New Zealand reported widespread damage to the city centre, with a church on Durham St collapsed and concrete lifted by up to a metre. A Newstalk ZB reporter in Christchurch said liquefaction was spewing out of the ground at St Albans High School. School kids had to be removed from the fields with liquefaction also spewing from the tennis courts.

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Posted in earthquake, end time, prophecy

Earthquake…western Florida??

Posted on by elizabethprata

Well, Jesus said there would be earthquakes in diverse places…This one is just south of Mobile Alabama. By the way, the quakes are still occurring in Arkansas. There have been thirty in the last 48 hours.

USGS data. Seismicity for the northern part of the state is common, being part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone. But I have to been able to find where seismic activity occurs in the southern part.

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Posted in earthquake, ethiopia

Crazy weather, Ethiopia earthquake, & Africa splitting apart

Posted on by elizabethprata

[NOTE: I updated this entry with one that contains new information about Australia getting snow in summer, click here. Thank you!]

2010’s world gone wild: Quakes, floods, blizzards
This was the year the Earth struck back. Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined. “It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves,” said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010. “The term ‘100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.”

In 2005, the continent of Africa began unzipping. In just days, a 35-mile-long rift opened up, which was 20 miles wide at spots. It happened quickly and initially, scientists surmised that a new sea was growing. However, this assessment as controversial, because their understanding of plate tectonics holds a longer and a slower view. In other words, continents don’t move and split apart in days, it takes millions of years. Or so they thought. In November of 2009, scientists concluded that indeed, the continent of Africa is birthing a new sea, and that was when they used the word “unzipped.”

Here is an excerpt from that article: “The new study, published in the latest issue of Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that the highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of tectonic ocean plates may suddenly break apart in large sections, instead of little by little as has been predominantly believed. In addition, such sudden large-scale events on land pose a much more serious hazard to populations living near the rift than would several smaller events, says Cindy Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester and co-author of the study.”

Man’s understanding is in some cases wise, and in other cases miraculous, but in other cases poor and meager. The earth is not millions of years old and plates can shift apart in a matter of days, or even in a moment. How do I know this to the point of contradicting decades of general scientific understanding? Because in the Tribulation, massive geophysical changes will occur in moments, and the world will indeed split apart quickly. “The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.” (Isaiah 24:19). “The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” (Rev 6:19). Jesus controls all judgments and He will judge the earth, and He won’t take millions of years to do it.

At the Horn of Africa last month, an earthquake swarm at Yemen caused alarm. The swarm was situated at the opening to the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aden, and seemed to be an unusual place for seismic activity. According to the history of the area, at USGS, the Yemen-Gulf of Aden-Djibouti area IS seismic, but in a minor way. Between 1950 through yesterday this area had 56 earthquakes ranging between mag 4.0-5.9. There were no quakes greater than mag 5.9 during that date range. Now there have been 31 (as of 1:00pm), which is 2/3 as many as in the last sixty years. This is statistically significant, as well as prophetically interesting. (Mark 13:8)

And in a third piece of interesting news from that area, not only have there been unusual geophysical changes occurring in rifts suddenly opening, and unusual earthquake activity that has never been replicated historically, but today at the other end of the rift, a 5.1 mag earthquake occurred in Ethiopia.

 How secular man, atheists, and lukewarm “believers” can NOT see the signs is beyond me. God has always used weather to claim man’s attention, ” ‘I will make a violent wind break out in My wrath … flooding rain and hailstones …’ “(Ez 13:13) and ”    ‘There will be … dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves’ (Lk 21.25)” are just two of many examples of how He uses weather and earth changes to warn us out of complacency. Today in this millennium, the weather is acknowledged to have been crazy-unusual, the geo-physical changes in many areas of the world are upending scientists’ understanding, yet they all claim that it is man causing these changes. It is not man causing these changes, or if he is, it is man’s sin causing the world to stumble. Isaiah 24 is the chapter that describes the destruction of the world by God, “The LORD’s Devastation of the Earth” and the reason is explained: “so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.” (Is 24:20). Once again, the LORD is using weather and earth changes (as prophesied) to warn us of His impending wrath.

The Lord is just, and He will not allow sin to languish forever. Sin’s day is soon coming to an end, which means the LORD’S Day is about to begin!
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Posted in dengue, earthquake, end time, moro bay, prophecy

Dengue fever rears its head in FL, deep-focus quakes in Moro Bay

Posted on by elizabethprata

Jesus said that, “There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.” (Luke 21:11).

As I’ve said before, plague’s existence isn’t indicative of an end-time sign. Its spread, type, and location are. We look for patterns that are out of the ordinary in any or all cases. In my prophecy newsletter I sent out yesterday I reported that dengue fever has been popping up all over the Caribbean over the last several weeks.  Dengue fever is common, in season, in some of the Third World Caribbean nations, but not so much in Florida. However the pestilence’s incidences are reaching epidemic proportions rapidly and early. In addition, Floridians are experience it too. It was reported that 5% of the population in Key West and environs came down with it. Now this becomes an unusual pestilence.

1000 exposed to dengue in FL
Five percent of the population of Key West, Florida — more than 1,000 people — have been infected at some point with the dengue virus, government researchers reported on Tuesday.

Dengue fever turns epidemic in Caribbean
Mosquito-borne dengue fever is reaching epidemic stages across the Caribbean, with dozens of deaths reported and health authorities concerned it could get much worse as the rainy season advances.

Dengue cases double over last year
Thousands of health workers and soldiers will destroy mosquito breeding areas across the country this weekend, worried dengue cases are on track to nearly doubled from last year, officials said Friday. At least 27 deaths have been reported, and health officials say more than 5,000 people have been diagnosed so far in 2010 with the virus that causes fever, headaches and extreme joint and muscle pain.

Dengue upsurge, failing health care system blamed
The failure of local health care systems is mostly to blame for the annual rise of dengue cases, Dr Colin Furlong, Head of the Medical Practitioners Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT), said yesterday. With the advent of the rainy season, the country has again begun to see a flood of possible dengue cases, with one confirmed death two weeks ago, that of a 14-year-old boy. In Puerto Rico: Dengue running above epidemic threshold. Now, dengue fever is showing up in Central Florida.

On another topic, earthquakes, the Philippines experienced three deep-focus quakes of high magnitude tonight.

7.4 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
7.6 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.4 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
7.3 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.3 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
4.9 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Deep-focus quakes stump scientists because according to seismology, they are not supposed to be able to happen that deep. The Moro Bay quakes were 600 km deep. Scientists call these rare, deep quakes “seismic anomalies”.

Most earthquakes are shallow. They are concentrated no deeper than 20-25 kilometers down. However, a few extremely deep quakes rumble at depths of about 600 kilometers. Geophysicists are really not certain what causes the very deep quakes, because at 640 kilometers rocks are so hot that they flow rather than snap under geological stresses. The more common, shallow earthquakes are generally created when rocks snap and fracture. Since the deep quakes seem to be concentrated in subducted slabs of terrestrial crust that plunge down deep into the earth’s mantle, geophysicists suppose that the increasing heat and pressure applied to the descending slabs may cause “explosive” phase changes in minerals contained in the slabs. Phase changes often involve volume changes that, if sudden, might generate seismic waves. Too, water of hydration in minerals may be explosively turned into vapor. But this is all surmise at present. source

# Lower mantle: 49.2% of Earth’s mass; depth of 650-2,890 kilometers (406 -1,806 miles)
# Transition region: 7.5% of Earth’s mass; depth of 400-650 kilometers (250-406 miles)
# Upper mantle: 10.3% of Earth’s mass; depth of 10-400 kilometers (6 – 250 miles)
# Oceanic crust: 0.099% of Earth’s mass; depth of 0-10 kilometers (0 – 6 miles)
# Continental crust: 0.374% of Earth’s mass; depth of 0-50 kilometers (0 – 31 miles).

Earthquakes with depths greater than 300 km between 1906 and 2004.

1907 Sea of Okhotsk 548km mag 7.7
1922 North Peru 664km mag 7.9
1932 Fiji 560 4.0km mag 7.7
1950 Sea of Okhotsk 339km mag 7.7
1954 Spain 630km mag 7.9
1956 Fiji 436km mag 7.6
1958 Peru–Bolivia 592km mag 7.6
1961 Peru–Bolivia 620km mag 7.7
1963 Peru–Bolivia 573km mag 7.7 
1963 Peru–Bolivia 573km mag 7.7
1970 Colombia 623km mag 8.1
1972 Celebes Sea 332km mag 7.7
1973 North Korea 593km mag 7.8
1994 Bolivia 647km mag 8.3
1994 Fiji 563km mag 7.6
1996 Flores Sea 589km mag 7.9
2002 Fiji 699km mag 7.7
2002 Fiji 631km mag 7.7

So you can see these kind of quakes are rare. To have three such in one night is highly irregular. May He come soon!

Posted in crust, earthquake, end time, malaysia chasm, prophecy

Earth crustal changes continue, Malaysia chasm opens in highway

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been looking into the pattern of crustal collapses lately that evidence themselves in sinkholes, chasms, and explosions. I reported on them May 25 here, May 31 here, June 10 here, June 13 here, including the famous Guatemala sinkhole and the fear-inducing spate in China. For end time connections, I like to work from the firmly known and described from the Tribulation, and work backwards. I proposed the theory that the floods, quakes, volcanic action around the world was a precursor to the shifts in earth’s crust that will later, during the tribulation, be catastrophic.

A five metre wide chasm has mysteriously opened in a busy road. The enormous crevice tore through the ground late last night, causing traffic chaos in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Miraculously no one was killed, although one truck was overturned by the force of the collapse. Officials have no explanation for why the giant hole has appeared but confirmed they were looking into it.

“Lucky escape: No one was killed, although this truck was overturned by the force of the collapse.”

Another report stated “Most motorists were simply bemused at the sight, taking photos of the geological menace – but the fact the road collapsed in the middle of the night caused trouble for others. June tends to be the wettest time for this part of the country, with the southwest monsoon dumping nearly a fifth of the annual rainfall during the month. But since no one has yet come up with a definitive explanation as to the appearance of the hole, officials continue to look into it.”

It’s interesting to think that the road “mysteriously” cracked, and that “officials have no explanation.” These kind of words are repeatedly and often in news stories these days about why the ground is simply not solid anymore beneath our feet. The red mud bubbling up from underneath a Chinese thoroughfare puzzled officials too, as well as the road that cracked unexpectedly from which the bubbling mud oozed. New first-ever airborne radar images of the deformation in Earth’s surface caused by a major earthquake show that in the April 2010 Calexico 7.2 mag quake just south of San Diego, the earth moved substantially, in some places 2 1/2 feet, it shifted 6-10 feet in Mexico. The quake broke San Diego’s Crust and at Mexico’s border, and the new space imaging shows where Earth’s crust shifted 10 feet.

As this age comes to a close, major shifts of all kinds, not just earth crustal shifts, are evident. These changes will become worse as time goes on, until the full-fledged Great Tribulation begins and nothing is the same. For now, though, the shifts may seem distant and unconnected, but they are as bright as neon for the aware Christian watchmen, because “you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.” (1 Thess. 5:4-6)

Posted in chile, earthquake, end time, prophecy, revelation, security gate

Raw video of the Chile quake

Posted on by elizabethprata

I post this for a reason. It is a Chilean security camera focused on a gate. The shaking evident as the earthquake in Chile today ramps up, you see just how violent an 8.8 magnitude quake can be.

“And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.” (Revelation 16:18) Revelation describes an earthquake to come that will be so strong that it will exceed every other earthquake that has ever happened. It will be so strong that it fells all the cities of the earth. It will be so strong that every island disappears, likely covered because of the resulting tsunami.

The earthquake that Revelation describes is bigger than the one that hapened today. The strongest earthquake ever recorded occurred in 1960. It was a 9.5 magnitude that struck Chile. It hit off the coast, causing tsunamis over 60 feet high, that traveled as far as Hawaii, Japan, and New Zealand, killing 4,000-5,000 and leaving over 2,000,000 people homeless. The earthquake that Revelation describes will be even BIGGER than the 9.5.

If you are not saved by grace and blood of Jesus, then you may well survive until the end of the Tribulation when this prophesied earthquake hits. I ask you to ponder the violent shaking seen in the video of the 8.8 that occurred last night in Chile, then ponder also if you want to be on the earth when an earthquake occurs that will make the violent shaking in that video seem like a placid pond in comparison. If you do not want to be around, and you have been feeling a little tug in your heart, then that it the Holy Spirit convicting you of your sins. Sins are things you do that are wrong and disrespect God, like lying, stealing, rotten thoughts, anger, and a host of other things. Anyone who has unforgiven sin in their heart cannot be near to God and will forever be banished from His presence upon death, to a place commonly referred to as hell.

But a remedy is available for you. No, you cannot stop sinning, it is in our nature, and only one man has ever lived who never sinned- Jesus. But you can ask Jesus the Spotless One to forgive you of your sins. If you genuinely feel guilt and sorrow over your past actions, and desire to live a more pleasing life to Loving God, then ask Him to forgive you. He will. Then He will send the Holy Spirit to help you resist sin in the future.

I hope the earthquake’s shaking has shaken your very soul and that you accept His offer of forgiveness before it is too late for you or too late in time. For there will be a moment in tine when God, who knows your heart, will see that it is too hardened to accept mercy and will give you over to sin’s consequences. (Rom 1:26; Zech 7:11-12)

Posted in birth pangs, chile, earthquake, end time, prophecy

Every day a new tragedy happens

Posted on by elizabethprata

It’s really excruciating to go to bed now. I know that my sweet slumber will refresh me, but upon awakening each day there seems to be a new and worse tragedy happening than had occurred on the day before. Friday there was a terrible snowstorm/rainstorm that affected over a million New Englanders. They soon were suffering in the cold and the dark with no power as hurricane force winds lashed their homes.

There was also a 7.0 earthquake in Japan near the Ryuku Islands. A tsunami warning was issued. As with any earthquake, there is always fear and panic, especially because of aftershocks. The tsunami warning also added to the fear and uncertainty because beaches were evacuated.

I went to bed and awoke to the news that an 8.8 earthquake had occurred in Chile and that tsunami warning again had been issued. All of the Pacific and all of Asia braced for impact. That’s an entire continent. There are reports of 71/2 foot tall tsunami waves hitting now. Tsunami alerts are out for the whole of the Pacific basin, which means about a quarter of the earth’s population is under risk. Nations cry in anguish at the roaring and the tossing of the seas.(Luke 21:25)

New tragedies are happening every day. Moreover, their scale is increasing. The frequency of record-breaking snowstorms hammering the eastern US has risen to once-in-a-while to one-a-week. Each one was bigger than the last. Each has a more colorful title than the last: such as “Snowmageddon”, and “Snowicane”… The earthquakes in Japan and Chile were massive but also, the aftershocks of the Chile quake were all each as big as massive quakes in themselves. One measured 6.9. And of course, there’s Haiti and the tragedy that recently occurred there.

Here is an interactive graph showing an increase in earthquakes over the last century. Its data ends in 2006 so I wonder what it would look like if information from 2006-now had been included! When the data is arrayed like it is on this graph it is quite startling to see the increase. (Source USGS) (Left, a girl sobs in anguish in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake)

A person queried me on one of my earthquake blog entries on exactly where does it say in the bible that there will be an increase in earthquakes as a sign of the end times. The scriptures do not specifically say there will be an increase in earthquakes in literal language but it does say so in a metaphor. Here is Jesus’ statement in Mark 13:8 – “For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” Jesus never used a metaphor for no reason, and He was making a picture here for the disciples.

Birth pangs, or labor pains, are defined as “One of the repetitive pains occurring in childbirth. Often used in the plural. Also: Difficulty or turmoil associated with a development or transition.” Synonyms are: contraction, throes, struggle, sweat, travail. Birth pangs are an event that is unstoppable, increase in intensity and frequency, and result in a new creation. During the duration of the labor, the mother is in throes, sweats, and travails. When it is over there is peace, and rest.

What we have been witnessing is exactly the pangs that Jesus warned us would come and that He told us to watch for. He said so in Mark 13:37, “What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!'”” and if you have obeyed that command you have seen that the birth pangs are increasing.

God is fully in control and He has always sent weather to show His wrath, or to shake up the people, or to render judgment. He sends snow: Job 37:6 “For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth…” and indeed there was snow in the United States this week. He sends hail. Psalm 105:32: “He gave them hail for rain…”  and indeed there was hail in Egypt this week that caused chaos and killed 4 people. He sends earthquakes. Isaiah 29:6 “Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.”  And all the symptoms the Lord said would occur, including signs from heaven and fearful events, are occurring.

Emotionally, it’s so hard to watch, though. On the one hand, to see the LORD’S power is fearful and awesome. To watch His promises unfold is a blessing, hard as these particular promises are to endure. But also with the increase in intensity and frequency of birth pangs comes heartache and tragedy for people. People we know and love are travailing. People we do not know are weeping in grief. Children lose parents, parents lose children. The unsaved are at increased risk of their fate: eternal separation from God! The terrible times Paul said would come are indeed here. For me, it is a most terrible time knowing that as each end time event occurs, many more unsaved are sent to their eternal destiny. The loss of so many unsaved is a heartache beyond comprehension. I know that for the Lord it is even worse, for “God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3). Unfortunately we know that many still choose to go on the broad way, to their destruction.

Far from the secular view that many have of the Christian, that we are so secure in our eternal destiny (we are) that we feel morally superior to those who must endure the consequences of their choice to reject Jesus (we don’t). Quite the opposite. Claiming His promise of eternal security is so simple, and so available, it deepens our sadness and grief for the lost each time a tragedy like this occurs, because it is so unnecessary. Terrible times indeed.

Christian, please continue praying. Stay strong, appealing to the Holy Spirit to stand us upright. Now is not the time to quail, cower, or quit. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be <sup class="xref" value="(AF)”>blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,” The world needs the light of Jesus now more than ever. Be that light, in prayer and in love.

Peace.