Category: eruption

Posted in cotopaxi, ecuador, end time, eruption, prophecy, revelation, volcano

Ecuadoran Volcano Erupts for the First Time Since the ’40s (UPDATED)

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE: Ecuador declares state of emergency over Cotopaxi volcano activity

“We declare a state of emergency due to the unusual activity of Mount Cotopaxi,” Correa said during his weekly Saturday address. “God willing, everything will go well and the volcano will not erupt.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ecuadoran Volcano Erupts for the First Time Since the ’40s
By Erik Klemetti

ECUADOR WAS GREETED this morning with a coating of ash from Cotopaxi. This eruption would be its first since explosions rocked the volcano in 1940 and possibly 1942. Today’s eruption was quite small—two explosions that rained ash (see below) on the southern edge of Quito. Climbers on Cotopaxi heard the explosions in the early morning hours, both of which happened after earthquake swarms over the past few days. … Cotopaxi needs to be closely monitored as eruptions in 1877 produced lahars (mudflows) that travelled over 100 km from the volcano. You can watch Cotopaxi on the IG webcam. 

UPDATE 12:45 PM EDT: It looks like Cotopaxi is continuing to have explosions—check out the recent Tweet with a shot of the growing plume.

Valley of Volcanoes. Wikipedia

My husband and I spent a month in Ecuador with two of his friends. We had met some Ecuadorans when they came to Maine for an exchange program and we flew there to visit them in return. We rented an apartment in middle Quito and branched out from there with our friends ushering us around their stomping grounds.

The volcano Pichincha was front and center in the middle of the huge capital city of Quito. If I wanted to see the top, I’d have to stand on my tiptoes and lean over the sink and crane my head upward.

I was amazed that 2,671,191 people live within mere miles of an active volcano. As a matter or fact,t he entire Valley of Volcanoes, the spine of Ecuador, is filled with active volcanoes. Some population center or another is always threatened. We bathed in hot springs fed by underground magma chambers at Papallacta. We washed our clothes in hot springs tricking down the volcano sides at Baños. Baños means baths. Volcanoes are a way of life to Ecuadorans.

The fences surround little private hot tubs heated by volcanic thermal springs
at Papallacta. You can see the steam on the right behind the pumpkin
and in the middle next to the hut. EPrata photo

Here is a photo of part of populous Quito:

EPrata photo

Here in northern Ecuador near Cayambe, another volcano dominates the skyline, even through the low hanging clouds.

EPrata photo

Naples Italy is another huge population center living among a growling bear. Wikipedia says,

Vesuvius has erupted many times since and is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Today, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and its tendency towards explosive (Plinian) eruptions. It is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world.

I feel for all the people around the globe today who are under threat of active volcanoes. Japan and Indonesia are other places where people have been recently evacuated. As we go about our daily life we trust that certain things will work, like the trains, subway, planes, roads, electricity, etc. When there is an interruption like the ah fall on South Quito, it makes life harder than it is already, especially for so many people in Third World countries.

Worse is that these kind of natural interruptions and natural disasters will only continue to increase. We think that we can manage around some light ash falls, some cracks in the road after a temblor, but eventually we will not be able to manage. The seriousness of natural disasters will exceed man’s ability to not only endure them, but even to comprehend them. (Revelation 16:21, Revelation 9:3-4, Revelation 6:14 etc.)

When the rapture happens and we are gathered to Jesus He will unleash all His stored-up wrath and the earth will literally go crazy with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hailstorms, heat, floods, and more.

Revelation 6:12 says “And I beheld when he had 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;”. The sentence is constructed in a way that seems causal. Earthquake occurs, and within the same sentence with no period, the sun turns sackcloth and the moon turns red. Can an earthquake cause this? Yes, if it sparks a volcano eruption. Read more about this below at the link “Of volcanoes, dry fog and sun as sackcloth“

The time is drawing nearer and nearer when sin will be loosed to do its worst, when disasters will top each other again and again- daily. All those who are not true believers will be left behind to face that. Many who think they are believers will shockingly discover they are not, when the true brethren suddenly are gathered up at the last trump into glory and they are left behind.

Just a friendly reminder, that we are not on earth to play, but to work, pray, witness, and labor for the Master.

——————————————
Further reading

Of volcanoes, dry fog and sun as sackcloth

CNN: Cotopaxi sends huge ash plumes into the sky

In-Depth Economic Times: Volcano in Ecuador spews huge column of ash

Posted in chaos, control, creation, eruption, God, volcano

Major eruption in southern hemisphere at Sangeang Api

Posted on by elizabethprata

Some Geo-news:

Explosive Eruption at Sangeang Api in Indonesia, “New reports from Indonesia tell of an sizable explosive eruption that occurred today yesterday at Sangeang Api.”

Ash cloud chaos may go on for days with volcano still erupting
FLIGHTS across Australia may be affected by a vast ash cloud from an Indonesian volcano, which has shut down Darwin airport and affected services to Bali. Three separate plumes are billowing from Sangeang Api, which is now erupting continuously after an initial blast yesterday afternoon. The cloud is now sweeping southeast over the west side of the Northern Territory as far south as Alice Springs, according to Tim Birch, a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin.

Here is some information about the volcano:
Sangeang Api is an active complex volcano on the island of Sangeang in Indonesia. It consists of two volcanic cones, Doro Api at 6,394 ft, and Doro Mantoi 5,889 ft. Sangeang Api is one of the most active volcanoes in the Lesser Sunda Islands. It erupted in 1988 and the island’s inhabitants were evacuated. Between its first recorded eruption in 1512 and 1989 it erupted 17 times. It erupted again during December 2012 and May 2014.

The Australian’s headline is of interest to me. When they write ‘ash cloud chaos’ it bespeaks of man’s illusion that he controls nature. As in, ‘Aw, rats. Just when we had everything organized, this ash cloud is going to interrupt our orderly jet flights, picnics, ball games, and tanning.’ If they think one volcano erupting is ‘chaos’ then I wonder what they will think when all the world’s volcanoes are erupting during the Tribulation?

Here is a headline from the ever excitable UK Daily Mail, but their photos cannot be beat:

Pictured from a passenger plane: Menacing 12-mile-high ash cloud looms over Indonesia’s ‘Mountain of Spirits’ after volcano erupts

That does look quite ominous, doesn’t it? Here is another view, retweeted by Volcano expert Professor Erik Klemetti:

MT @teideano The view of the #Sangeang eruption from the sea. Impressive #eruption column. #volcano #indonesia

Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down:
touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. (Psalms 144:5)

Whenever God’s power is expressed so visibly, I ponder His attribute as Creator, King over His creation. I also think about what it will be like during the Tribulation, when God UNcreates the earth.

He created the perfect world, (Genesis 1-2); sin came and He cursed the ground, (Genesis 3:17); He judged the world through the flood and mountains came up, (Genesis 6-9); and He will judge the world again and through that judgment, will reverse the curse. Mountains will fall, (Isaiah 34:9-10, Micah 1:4 ); the earth will crack, (Isaiah 24:1, 19, Nahum 1:5); rivers will dry (Revelation 7:2, Revelation 16:12), and more. The LORD controls the earth. If chaos ensues when one volcano erupts the chaos will be incomprehensible when all of them go off. Read about the power of God in His divine Judgment of the Flood, and think about the coming judgment that awaits the unbelieving world left behind after the Bride is taken up to heaven:

The Power of Divine Judgment in the Global Flood
All we know is God split open the earth and blew what amounts to volcanic eruptions all over the planet that created the mountains, created the valleys,… 

…[Y]ou can do some reading on the Mount St. Helens explosion back in 1980. The steam explosion released energy equivalent to 20 millions tons of TNT when that mountain blew its lid. It toppled 150 square miles of forest in six minutes. Really, talk about reshaping the surface of the earth. 

Well, just imagine that going on all over the planet. Spirit Lake nearby, north of the volcano…created an enormous wave just because of the tremendous explosion. It created what amounted to a tidal wave, and it stripped slopes of trees 850 feet above the lake’s level. Total energy output, according to what I read, was equivalent, listen to this, to 40 million tons of TNT from that one mountain. Or 20,000 Hiroshima A-bombs. And that’s just one volcano. And when God broke up the planet and reshaped it, it would be that multiplied almost an infinite number of times. The face of the land was changed by steam blasts, landslides, water waves, hot pumice ash, mud floes. Six hundred feet of strata was formed in a handful of minutes.

God’s power is incredible. His attribute of Creator is so often overlooked in pondering His equally wonderful attributes of love, healing, restoration, reconciliation, grace, mercy … but we met God in chapter 1, page 1 of His revelation the bible, as Creator. His power is incredible, speaking the worlds into existence with just a word. Speaking all life into existence in just 6 days, all its myriad manifestations as a ready adult, with complicated reproductive systems, eco systems and habitats. He is amazing!

He will crumble it all away, this time through another global judgment, (The Tribulation) and then after the 1000 years Millennial reign is over, by a fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10). In thinking about God’s power in creation and UNcreation, please also think about the people who will endure His wrath.

Though the heavenly abode will be literally flooded with redeemed saints (Revelation 7:9-17), hell will also have to enlarge its mouth to receive the myriads of hell-bound sinners who will die during the UNcration that happens in the Tribulation. Please be sensitive to that fact, and witness with your mouth and your life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by HIM. Proclaim Jesus, be sure to be clear WHICH Jesus you are proclaiming, and stand in awe of His power when you see such events as a volcanic eruption, and earthquake, or any other powerful earth or solar storm.

I’m so glad I know that God is on the throne. When volcanoes explode or earthquakes happen, I don’t have to believe in any such thing as ‘chaos.’ God’s world is orderly, His plan is unfolding in perfect timing. We may not always know why these things happen, but we do know that chaos is not in control. God is in control.

Posted in earthquakes, eruption, supervolcano, volcano, yellowstone

Earthquake and volcano news: OK swarm continues, volcano discovered in ME, Yellowstone magma lake larger than thought

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve chronicled that earthquakes (up until this year) had been been on the rise. For a steady number of years, using the United States Geological Survey’s own benchmark, the number of quakes had been increasing.

As far as 2013 data, we still have 8 weeks to go, but this is the running tally of number of quakes in the world in each of the four magnitudes I track. Data as always from USGS. The red means the number of quakes have met or exceeded USGS averages.

5.0-5.9 – 1169
6.0-6.9 – 110
7.0-7.9 – 15
8.0-9.9 – 2

The type and location of the quakes had also been diverse from times in the past. There were earthquakes at a deeper level than ever, or large quakes in places there had never been one (Svalbard, Norway).

USGS reported last week,

Earthquake Swarm Continues in Central Oklahoma
“Since January 2009, more than 200 magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes have rattled Central Oklahoma, marking a significant rise in the frequency of these seismic events. “We’ve statistically analyzed the recent earthquake rate changes and found that they do not seem to be due to typical, random fluctuations in natural seismicity rates,” said Bill Leith, USGS seismologist. “These results suggest that significant changes in both the background rate of events and earthquake triggering properties needed to have occurred in order to explain the increases in seismicity. This is in contrast to what is typically observed when modeling natural earthquake swarms.”

What they are saying there, is that there was a sudden and inexplicable change in at least two variables, presenting an unaccountable statistical anomaly, and that they dunno why.

As far as volcanic eruptions go, the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program counts them. I searched the database from January 1, 1930 to December 31, 1939, and did the same for each decade through December 31, 2010. The plain number of eruptions is up. Click to enlarge.

Raw data here
1930s – 312
1940s – 269
1950s – 467
1960s – 537
1970s – 562
1980s – 703
1990s – 574
00-10 -950

In some volcano news, KURL8 out of Montana reports today that the lava pool under the supervolcano at Yellowstone is much bigger than thought.

“The lava pool beneath Yellowstone National Park is more than twice as big as scientists previously believed, that’s according to new research from the Geological Society of America. Scientists from the University of Utah say the lake of molten lava is nearly 50 miles long and 12 miles wide.”

For all that, scientists say that the real danger in that area is not from an eruption, since the geysers let off steam and pressure. It’s from the earthquakes.

“Researchers analyzed, get this, 4,500 earthquakes in and around Yellowstone from 1985 to 2013. … The last major earthquake in the area measured 7.3 and was in 1959. It was the most destructive earthquake ever recorded in the Rocky Mountains.”

In other interesting volcano news, it was reported at a geology conference this week that remnants of a supervolcano have been found in Maine.

Maine’s volcanoes (yes, Maine) among world’s biggest
“Maine has supervolcanoes. Wait, Maine has volcanoes? Yes, and their eruptions could have been among the biggest ever on Earth, geoscientist Sheila Seaman reported here Tuesday (Oct. 29) at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. … Since they formed, the ancient volcanic layers have been tilted up by tectonic forces, providing a top-to-bottom slice through a supervolcano. For example, Isle au Haut, part of Acadia National Park, exposes the heart of a volcano. “The whole magma chamber is lying on its side,” Seaman said.”

The Most Active Volcano You’ve Never Heard Of
“In the extreme northeast region of Russia is the Kamchatka Peninsula. Familiar to people who play the board game Risk, Kamchatka is a huge mass of land sticking out into the north Pacific, and sitting on the peninsula is a cluster of volcanoes, some of them among the most active on the planet. The biggest of these is Klyuchevskaya Sopka, a monster stratovolcano towering over 4750 meters (15,500 feet) high. It’s also the most active, having been more-or-less erupting continuously since the late 1600s. It’s erupted a dozen times just since 2000! On Oct. 20, 2013, the Landsat 8 Earth-observing satellite flew over Klyuchevskaya, capturing a tremendously long plume of ash as well as two separate lava flows moving down the volcano’s flanks:

Isn’t earth so interesting!!
I can’t wait until we see it from that vantage point!

Ever since the fall of man and the curse that was given by God over man, beast, and earth, the creation has been groaning. Though the dates in this scientific article are no doubt off, it is interesting to see that man has been living with a restless earth since the beginning of the curse

9,000-year-old painting of volcano linked to a  real eruption
“A 9,000-year-old painting of an exploding volcano, the oldest ever found, can now be linked to a real-life eruption in Turkey. The towering Hasan Dag volcano erupted 8,970 years ago, plus or minus 640 years, according to a new dating technique that analyzes zircon crystals in volcanic rock, geochemist Axel Schmitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, reported here Wednesday at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. Turkish scientists long suspected Hasan Dag was the source of the painting’s dramatic scene, but never had a precise date for its volcanic rocks, Schmitt told LiveScience. The volcano is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the ancient village of Çatalhöyük, where the painting was discovered in 1964 during an archaeological dig.”

(FMI on the painting itself, here is the article from Daily Mail)

Daily Mail Caption: “A mural, pictured, found on a wall in the Turkish settlement of Catalhoyuk depicts a village in front of a volcano. The painting is thought to be a warning about the danger of nearby stratovolcano Mount Hasan, located 70 miles northeast from where the mural was found.“

Turkey is interesting. The world’s most mysterious and stunning archaeological site is there, Gobekli Tepe. I wrote about it in 2011 here.

I’d posted from the article, “The elegant bas-reliefs of vultures, scorpions, and other creatures found on the T-shaped pillars had to have been created by skilled artisans, evidence that hunter-gatherers were capable of a complex social structure. Pillars at the temple of Göbekli Tepe—11,600 years old and up to 18 feet tall—may represent priestly dancers at a gathering. Note the hands above the loincloth-draped belt on the figure in the foreground.”

Some believe that the area of the Garden of Eden was in southern Turkey. Here is a map showing the nearby village of Catalhoyuk  to the Turkish volcano Mount Hasan, and Gobekli Tepe’s location. They are about 250 km apart or about 158 miles.

Horatio said, 
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

Hamlet replied,
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Volcanoes being discovered, restless earth, unknown paintings of long ago eruptions, and mysterious monoliths by disappeared rivers…there is so much we do not know but even as we partially know now, later we will fully know, by His grace. (1 Corinthians 13:12).

“How great is God–beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.” (Job 36:26)

Posted in end of days, end time, eruption, Tolbachik, volcano

Russia’s Tolbachik volcano eruption continues, creation of lava lake worries authorities

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yet another volcano that was “once dormant” has come to life. This article is from the UK Telegraph. Geology Professor Erik Klemetti says from a scientific standpoint, “bad article, cool video.” It is a cool video. Here is the news:

Erupting Russian volcano creating a lava lake
A lava lake has started to form at the once-dormant Plosky Tolbachik volcano in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula.
“Russian scientists said there were no signs that the Plosky Tolbachik volcano will stop erupting soon, Russian broadcaster RU-RTR reported earlier on Friday. … After lying dormant for almost 40 years Plosky Tolbachik suddenly erupted in November.”

It is the creation of the lava lake that has caught their attention. This article from Australia reports:

Plosky Tolbachik volcano erupts in Russia’s Far East
A VOLCANO erupting in Russia’s Far East is sending plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and creating a lava lake. The Plosky Tolbachik volcano is located in Kamchatka peninsula, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest residential areas. Gennady Karpov, a volcano expert at Russia’s Academy of Sciences in the Far East, said: “There were no lava lakes at Kamchatka volcanos before now. We have never seen this before.” Plosky Tolbachik has emitted jets of hot lava up to 200 metres high.”

Both articles speak of hot or burning lava. Klemetti’s wry tweet made me laugh: (Erik K / Eruptions ‏@eruptionsblog)

“And what’s the deal with “burning lava”? Is this as opposed to “pleasant and soothing lava”?”

Posted in anak krakatau, eruption, volcano

25 Volcanoes Showing Abnormal Activity; Red Sea has a new island; What would a Christchurch volcano eruption look like?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here are a few tidbits as I hastily get ready for work…but volcanoes have been much on my mind lately. They have also been much in the news…

25 Volcanoes Showing Abnormal Activity: Presidential Aide
Padang, West Sumatra. Twenty-five volcanoes in Indonesia are now showing abnormal activity or have been put on alert or watch status, presidential special aide Andi Arief said here on Saturday. According to official data, 25 volcanoes, including Anak Krakatau, are now under alert or watch status and they must be given priority with regard to disaster mitigation planning at district or city levels,” he said at a workshop on journalists’ role in disaster management.”

Red Sea has a new island
NASA announced today (January 17, 2012) that an underwater eruption of a volcano in the Red Sea appears to have stopped, leaving behind a newborn island. The island began forming in December 2011.”

Let’s pour tons of water into an active volcano to generate power
“Chalk this up under things that sort of seem like terrible ideas: geothermal energy developers are planning to pump millions of gallons of water into an active volcano in Oregon to see if they can somehow generate electricity without angering the gods. You may not realize that most of the western United States is covered with active volcanoes. This is “active” in a geologic sense, since with a few notable exceptions, nothing much has been going on for hundreds or thousands of years. But just because a volcano hasn’t blown up recently doesn’t mean that it’s not stuffed to the brim with magma, a fact that Iceland has been relying on to produce more geothermal power than it knows what to do with.”

What would a Christchurch volcano eruption look like?
“I’ve been asked to speculate on the appearance and effect of an eruption (should it ever occur) in the volcanoes immediately south and east of Christchurch, New Zealand. A few days ago, I wrote of a theory that the recent sequence of earthquakes around Christchurch (on the South Island of New Zealand) over the past 18 months may be the precursor of an eruption of the two (perhaps more) volcanoes that form Banks Peninsula.”

Here, Professor Erik Klemetti makes a lot of sense, as he always does, this time about Yellowstone caldera and conspiracies

Yellowstone: The Anatomy of a Supposed Volcanic Conspiracy
“As many of my regular readers know, I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet over the media’s (and public’s) obsession with the Yellowstone Caldera. Now, I truly appreciate what a geologically unique and powerful location Yellowstone is today — it is one of the few active giant caldera systems on the planet and it is located in the middle of one of the more populous (and powerful) countries on Earth. The caldera has the ability to produce a society-changing event where much of a continent could be rendered uninhabitable for years if not decades.”

Here is a piece I wrote a while back on the link between volcanoes and Revelation 6:12, which prophesies a link between a great earthquake and the sun going dark: “And I beheld when he had 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;” Of volcanoes, dry fog, and sun as sackcloth.
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Posted in end of days, eruption, footage

First footage of Nabro Volcanic eruption

Posted on by elizabethprata

On June 12, 2011, seismologists around the world were stunned to watch an event unfold that has no precedent in modern history. A series of moderate sized earthquakes with two strong ones  occurred in a circle around the Volcano Nabro along the border of Eritrea and Ethiopia. According to the Global Volcanism Project at the Smithsonian Institute, “The 2218-m-high Nabro stratovolcano is the highest volcano in the Danakil depression of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.” It is a stratovolcano whose last known eruption has been described as unknown, or never. On June 12, shotly after the earthquakes were reported, ti erupted.

Initially shocked by the thought, the eruption was attributed to nearby Dubbi, which, having four known eruptions would make the activity rare but not unprecedented. However, eagle eyed internet surfers soon found a satellite photo of the ash plum and pin-pointed the eruption to Nabro. This was later confirmed to be the case.

News was slow to emerge from the regions, being so unpopulated. However ti did make news that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left the region in a hurry because the ash plum was disrupting flights. She had been speaking tot he African Union in neighboring Ethiopia. This week, Nabro erupted again. Below is some news and then the first video footage of the eruptions has finally surfaced. Irish Weather Online posted the footage, which is permeating the web quickly at this moment

Nabro volcano erupts again Thursday (6/16)
“Volcanic activity has increased at the Nabro volcano in Eritrea, just four days after the stratovolcano sent an ash plume more than 15km into the air. The ash drifted westnorthwest over Sudan Thursday evening threatening to bring further disruption to air traffic in the east Africa region. Sunday night’s eruption led to some flight cancellations in neighbouring Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia, and saw a massive ash plume being carried as far away as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkmenistan, the Central African Republic and Egypt.”


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Posted in dubbi, end of days, eritrea, eruption, nabro, prophecy

Spectacular volcanic eruption at Eritrea: last eruption was 1861

Posted on by elizabethprata

Last night’s quake swarm evidently did trigger or was a precursor to a volcanic eruption at Eritrea. There are several volcanoes in that region, though Nabro is said to have never erupted and Dubbi last erupted in 1861. The volcanoes in that area have been quiet ever since. Until last night. Here is the progression of the news:

Eritrea quakes
“A series of moderate earthquakes struck the Eritrea – Ethiopia border region on Sunday evening, seismologists said, but it was not immediately known if there was damage or if there were casualties. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a total of 14 light to moderate earthquakes in the border area on Sunday evening, with the strongest being two 5.7-magnitude earthquakes which were both centered in Eritrea.”

Seismologists, volcanologists, and knowledgeable laymen immediately noticed the unusual nature of these quakes. They were strong, and they were occurring in a pattern that suggested a circle around a known volcanic region.

Then people noticed what looked to be an ash plume forming, seen in successive satellite photos. The cloud seemed to be stationed over one area, but grow over time, lengthening in the all-too-familiar plume formation. It looked for all the world like an ash plume, not a thunderstorm. But how can this be? The area was thought to be fairly dormant for volcanoes?

Getting news from the area was difficult because of the nature of the remoteness and lack of infrastructure to disperse news quickly. The quakes were a fact, confirmed on USGS and EMSC. Whether these quakes were related to the Nabro or Dubbi volcanoes, I was not sure. I went to bed.

This morning, the net was alive with stories swirling about this unusual event. It WAS a volcanic eruption!! Irish Weather Online explains:

Major Eruption Of Nabro Volcano In Eritrea
“The Anabro (Nabro) volcano in the Northern Red Sea Region of Eritrea in Africa has erupted sending an ash plume more than 15 kilometres into the sky. Part of the Afar Triangle, the stratovolcano is one of many volcanic caldera complexes in the north easternmost part of the East African Rift valley region. It is located in the Danakil Depression, close to Eritrea’s border with Ethiopia and north of Djibouti, and has not erupted in at least 150 years.”

“The volcano erupted at 2103 GMT Sunday evening. The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) said Monday that the 5,331 ft volcano has resulted in a large ash plume of up to 8 miles high. The eruption was preceded by seven moderate earthquakes yesterday afternoon. A 5.6 magnitude quake at 9.03 signalled the start of the eruption. The quake was centred 48 km south of the town of Edd (pop 11,259) and 199 km southwest of the city of Al-h’udaydah (pop 617,871). A 4.6 magnitude quake followed less than 35 minutes later.”

“The ash cloud from the volcano could potentially cause some disruption to air traffic in the region. According to Irish Weather Online senior forecaster Peter O’Donnell, the ash cloud is heading west towards Sudan. “The eruption happened in Nabro, a stratovolcano that has not erupted in historic times. (some early reports mention Dubbi or Dubbo to the north but satellite imagery confirms the source as Nabro). Potentially, there could be impacts on visibility and optics over at least parts of southern Europe and west Africa, the Middle East … but there would be no direct impacts on Ireland from present information.” The largest known historical eruption in Africa occurred on May 1861 when the Dubbi volcano, also located in Eritrea, showered maritime traffic in the Red Sea with pumice and plunged coastal settlements into darkness.”

The volcanism blog has the more scientific facts–

Ash cloud from Eritrean volcano Dubbi, erupted June 12

Volcanism blog: plume picture
A significant eruption is evidently under way at Dubbi volcano (although there is still some doubt about the precise identity of the volcano involved) in Eritrea, north-east Africa. An earthquake swarm occurred during during the evening of 12 June, with moderate quakes followed by two strong quakes of magnitude 5.7, all around 10 km depth:
12 June 2011 15:37UTC: mag 5.1 Eritrea-Ethiopia region (USGS info)
12 June 2011 19:21UTC: mag 5.0 Ethiopia (USGS info)
12 June 2011 20:32UTC: mag 5.7 Eritrea-Ethiopia region (USGS info)
12 June 2011 21:03UTC: mag 5.7 Eritrea-Ethiopia region (USGS info)

“A volcanic eruption appears to have begun around the time of the last 5.7M earthquake, at about 21:00 UTC. Toulouse VAAC identified the volcano as Dubbi and issued two Volcanic Ash Advisories so far for this eruption today: at 04:00 UTC the eruption was reported to have started at 23:00 UTC on 12 June 2011, and to have produced a plume between FL150/300 (15,000-30,000 feet/4,500-9,000 metres altitude), while at 06:00 UTC the volcano was described as being in ‘continuous emission’ with ash at FL300 (30,000 feet/9,000 metres altitude) and trending W/WNW.”

“Dubbi was responsible for the largest known volcanic eruption in Africa in historical time, in 1861: more than 100 people were killed, ash fell more than 300 km from the volcano and the lava flows travelled 22 km and reached the Red Sea. Other possible candidates for the current eruption include Nabro and Mallahle.  UPDATE. Thanks to Clive Oppenheimer of Cambridge University (via Earthquake-Reports) we have a useful news report from the Cambridge Geography Department site related to Clive’s Eruptions that Shook the World book: Eruption in Eritrea, 12 June 2011. ‘Loud explosions were heard in Afdera, across the border in Ethiopia, and ashfall is reported as far as Mekele in Tigray province’ … the identity of the volcano is still to be confirmed – Nabro or Dubbi?”

That is the news, and those are the scientific facts. Here is the biblical fact: Jesus said that the time between His ascension and the time He came back would be like birth pangs. We know that birth pains grow from almost unnoticed, to very frequent and painful. Then the rapture would happen and the Tribulation would begin. Jesus still has 7 years in the Decree stated in Daniel to work with His people the Jews. In that 7 year period he would punish them for their transgressions, and do 5 other things. Here is the link to the passage in Daniel 9:20-27 which explains the Lord’s purpose for the Tribulation.

We, the Church, have had our sins wiped away, they are remembered no more (Colossians 1:22; Colossians 2:14). Therefore we are not to be punished (Acts 3:19), nor are we appointed to wrath. The Tribulation’s wrath is stated to begin in Revelation 6 with the opening of the seals.

In explaining all this, Jesus sat down with His disciples at the Mount of Olives and answered their questions about the signs of the end of the age. Jesus said that one of those signs would be earthquakes in diverse places. I think a sudden and powerful volcanic eruption coming out of nowhere and the first in recent history qualifies as diverse.

Even more prophetically, the nations in that area are part of coming events. In Ezekiel 38-39 it is explained that an alliance of nations attack Israel- and almost win. This alliance includes Iran, Russia, Turkey, Armenia, and the northern tier of Africa, where these quakes were and eruption was. Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, are all mentioned. The larger context is that Cush and Put are the regions that will join with Iran to attack Israel, and those include larger territories than the nations’ borders of today. In effect, the northern tier of Africa decides to join with Russia and Iran and go against God’s people in an evil attempt to wipe them out and steal their riches. This is known as the Gog-Magog battle and though the timing of it is not stated n the bible from other events that occur before and after, we can put it in a general time of this battle being the gateway to the Tribulation.

While I was watching the Eritrea event occur last night, there was a powerful quake at Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Chilean volcano erupted again, sending the lower part of the world into a frenzy due to airplane flight cancellations because of ash. The birth pangs are occurring so frequently now that they overlap, and their increasing impact on the world is incredible. I feel that the time is so short that we may even hear the trumpet and the call to “Come up here!” any moment. Surely the time is near. Please repent, please seek Jesus as your savior and your Lord. Your eternal destiny depends on it.

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