Articles in Earthquakes
Harold Camping / Christchurch Quake
Sad news today – 89-year-old Harold Camping the failed doomsday prophet, has suffered a mild stroke. He is recovering but not making any radio broadcasts, the future of which are unknown.
More heartache for Christchurch folk, with a 6.0 earthquake causing more damage but thankfully no fatalities – although dozens were injured. As the NZ prime minister said, they “are over it”. With the eclipse less than two days away, a much larger quake somewhere in the world could occur. It has been a month since the last 6.5+ earthquake.
Central Lunar Eclipse in 5 Days
Obviously the Earth is much bigger than the Moon, so a lunar eclipse doesn’t require a precise alignment. When the moon passes in front of the center of the Earth’s shadow, it is called a central total lunar eclipse. The last of these was on August 28 2007, the one of interest to us is on June 15 2011, and the next will be on July 27, 2018.
Could we be building up to a big quake? Quakes of magnitude 6.5+ occur on average once a week, yet the last was more than 3 weeks ago. Combined with the knowledge that within 4 days of a lunar eclipse we are almost twice as likely to receive a 7.5+ quake, it sounds ominous… However there are no certainties. Just like rolling a pair of dice – even though the most likely resulting total is a 7, that doesn’t mean it will happen.
A …
Deathly Quiet
This month there have been just two 6.5+ earthquakes worldwide:
PDE-Q 2011 05 10 085509.11 -20.24 168.26 11 6.9 MwUCMT 2FM …….
PDE-Q 2011 05 15 183710.39 -6.13 154.41 40 6.5 MwUCMT ..M …….
http://neic.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/epic/epic.cgi?SEARCHMETHOD=1&FILEFORMAT=4&SEARCHRANGE=HH&SYEAR=2011&SMONTH=5&SDAY=1&EYEAR=2011&EMONTH=5&EDAY=27&LMAG=6.5&UMAG=&NDEP1=&NDEP2=&IO1=&IO2=&CLAT=0.0&CLON=0.0&CRAD=0.0&SUBMIT=Submit+Search
Normally, on average, there is one every 6.8 days. Statistically this isn’t so strange – next month we might have seven, and it all balances out.
However, with solar eclipses due on June 1 and July 1, and a lunar eclipse in-between (June 15), there is an eerie feeling of calm before the storm.
Speaking of storm, many scientists have concluded that some earthquakes do arrive in clusters, or earthquake storms. A mega-quake in 2012 could set off a series of storms. I’ve mentioned this in my new article Eclipses and Earthquakes, where I reiterate that during a lunar eclipse strong earthquakes are twice as likely …
May 2011 Doomsday Predictions
May 11, 2011: Planetary alignment to cause catastrophic earthquakes. Story is big in Italy. Prediction supposedly made by Raffaele Bendandi (who died in 1979), but has been denied. Science says that the gravitational effects of alignment cannot cause earthquakes, and this is correct.
May 21, 2011: Judgement Day according to Harold Camping of FamilyRadio.
…the group’s billboards have been erected in more than 40 countries, including Turkey, Iraq, Mexico, Zimbabwe, India, Poland and Russia. In Canada, the ads have appeared in 17 cities from Halifax to Vancouver…Caravans of volunteers are also handing out pamphlets, mostly in the United States. A small contingent is scheduled to arrive in Calgary this Friday and Vancouver next Tuesday.
…Mr. Camping has been wrong before. He wrote a book predicting the world would end in 1994. Family Radio now says that “important subsequent biblical information” was not known at the time.
Of course all these stories do is the …
100 Days of Disaster
I’m one of the interviewees for an Australian documentary, 100 Days of Disaster, screening tomorrow (Monday) on Channel 10 at 10pm. Patrick Geryl was also interviewed, plus I believe a few orthodox scientists, some religion experts and I think an astrologer. All being asked if we should expect the rise in natural disasters to continue.
To promote the show I am doing 11 (!) radio interviews during Monday – here are the times.
Could Earthquakes Cause a Pole Shift?
It has become a common feature when the media reports major earthquakes these days – our planet slowed down and was knocked off its axis. While it sounds dramatic, the numbers are minuscule and make no difference in the greater scheme of things:
NASA geophysicist Richard Gross said that the recent Chilean earthquake “sped up the rotation of the earth enough to shorten the day by an estimated 1.26 millionths of a second”, and moved the Earth’s axis by 8 centimetres. And that the 2004 Sumatra quake, which generated the Boxing Day tsunami, would have shortened every day by 6.8 microseconds, with a 5 or 6 centimetre movement.
And now Japan’s megaquake:
The earthquake moved Honshu 2.4 m (7.9 ft) east and shifted the Earth on its axis by almost 10 cm (3.9 in).
These movements, on their own, a curiosity at best. But what if we have multiple huge quakes at once? I’m …
California Fault Map & New Madrid Fault
I am currently researching the safest places in California (not that I plan on being there…) and this map has really helped. If you are in California, acquaint yourself with the fault-lines and perhaps plan an escape route. It is called the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zone Maps and it utilizes Google Maps, so you can zoom in and out, which is very useful.
If you like that, Holly Deyo has a product called Prudent Places USA, which is a $30 computer CD-ROM with 80 high-resolution maps on it, covering all the things that might matter when the SHTF. Check out the table of contents. Or for free check out the earthquake probability maps from USGS.
BTW, people often forget that California is not the only US region prone to earthquakes. The other region that could suffer is between Memphis and the southern border of Illinois, known as the New Madrid Fault. Back …
New Christchurch Quake Predicted
Popular long-range weather forecaster Ken Ring is warning that a second jolt will hit the already-devastated South Island city on March 20.
“If I lived in Christchurch, I’d get out for a few days over that time, go camping, visit friends, just get out and keep safe,” he said. “And if you don’t live there, stay away.”
Typically Mr Ring prefaces such information with a disclaimer such as “these are opinions and not predictions, based on observation of repeating lunar patterns”. He rose to fame after this post on his website seemed to predict the devastating earthquake of last month:
It means ths area of the sun that corresponds to NZ is again seeing some activation. The window of 15-25 February should be potent for all types of tidal action, not only kingtides but cyclone development and ground movement. The 18th may be especially prone. The possible earthquake risk …
Deadly 6.3 Quake in ChristChurch NZ
Looks like dozens of people have died during an earthquake that struck Christchurch during their lunch hour. Several large office buildings have collapsed, as well as the cathedral.
Another deadly earthquake occurring within 3 days of the full moon. I have written recently of the new pattern emerging where quakes have become more likely during an eclipse. A lunar eclipse only happens during a full moon (likewise solar eclipses happen during the new moon). I’m really hoping that the trio of eclipses between June 1 and July 1 of this year don’t set off earthquakes as well.
Sun-Moon-Earth Magnetic Relationship
For most people, the moon is a lump of barren rock that provides us with moonlight, and is the cause of tides. Along with that, we know that gravity is less on the moon, allowing astronauts to take floating steps. Few people know that our moon has a magnetic field, just like the Sun and Earth have – meaning it isn’t as dead as it appears. These snippets are from Wikipedia, which states that the information is still speculative:
Roughly once every Lunar orbit, the Moon passes through Earth’s magnetotail for approximately 6 days around full moon. More here.
Interaction with the plasma sheet causes the Moon’s surface to become negatively charged.
The moon’s dayside is lightly charged, while the nightside is strongly charged
The relationship is interesting. We have the Sun which has a magnetic reversal every 11 years or so, and in-between cycles the magnetic field varies quite a lot. We have …
Keeping an Eye on Earthquakes
I’m not a fan of “Earth Changes”, because in the last decade I have not seen a year in which any forces of nature have occurred outside the range of probability. But because of the recent eclipse/earthquake connection, which I was alerted to by Mitch Battros (and which I refined from 2 weeks either side of an eclipse to 5 days), I am checking quakes each day.
For me the easiest way is to just bookmark this page and load it whenever I want:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php
The above web page shows all 5+ earthquakes of the last few days. I’m just looking at those that are 7+. They are rare enough to notice an increase, and they tend to be the ones that have a dramatic effect on local lives. For the last week there are two:
Jan 2, 7.1 ARAUCANIA, CHILE
Jan 1, 7.0 SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA
If you look at the last few years, …
New Year Earthquake?
The two earthquakes which had the most fatalities in the last 5 years occurred within 5 days of a solar eclipse:
Haiti Earthquake
January 12, 2010
230,000 deaths
Solar Eclipse
January 15, 2010
Kashmir Earthquake
October 8, 2005
79,000 deaths
Solar Eclipse
October 3, 2005
The next (partial) eclipse is on January 4, 2011. I’m not predicting a terrible earthquake, just saying that in the next 10 days it is statistically more likely, based on the last 5 years.
Lunar Eclipse = Quakes?
The evidence is (perhaps) stacking up. Mitch Battros of Earth Changes Media, as well as many other researchers (even my Facebook status!) suggested that yesterday’s lunar eclipse could cause an earthquake. And it looks like it did:
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the quake occurred about 130 kilometers (80.6 miles) off the southern coast of Chichi Island in the Pacific Ocean. The offshore quake struck at around 2:20 a.m. (1720 GMT) at the depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).
The U.S. Geological Survey also put the quake’s magnitude at 7.4.
Now, I disagree with most of Mitch’s predictions, primarily because he tends to predict things that are statistically quite likely anyway. And I have problems with his methodology regarding lunar eclipses. He believes that a major earthquake should occur within 2 weeks (before or after) of a lunar eclipse. Take a look at what happened around the time of the 8 other full lunar …
Latest Earth Changes: Update
Devastating earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China this year have many new age and end-of-the-world commentators suggesting that such events are on the rise, “earth changes” leading up to a cataclysm in 2012. Last month the Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Trevor Allen and Dan Clark, who are seismologists at Geoscience Australia. They explained that the enormous death toll from recent quakes does not indicate an increase in tremor activity, but is due to rapid population growth in susceptible areas.
“I guess a very important part to remember is that globalisation is a big part in this and as time goes by and population becomes more dense and there is more urbanisation … there are going to be a lot more fatalities from these large events,” Mr Allen said.
Another theory for the extra attention earthquakes are receiving is the increase in technologies monitoring the quakes. According to the United States Geological Society …
Latest Earth Changes: Not!
I’ve received numerous queries regarding the recent earthquakes and volcanoes, from people concerned that they are signs of “earth changes” leading up to 2012…
We humans have a tendency to assign more importance to what is happening right now – from a sports commentator stating that this is the “best game in years”, to gasoline has never been so scarce, to “we’ve never had so much human-to-human violence worldwide”. The reality is that every week there is a “best game in years”, in the 70s we had genuine gasoline rationing, and our nastiest era for humans being violent towards their fellow man was WW2.
And so it is with earthquakes. If we have learned anything from quakes of recent weeks, it is that they have a tendency to cluster. Either one sparks another, or an outside force sparks many.
Here’s a list of the recent quakes above 7.0:
January 3, 2010 Solomon Islands 7.1
January …
