" 11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake."-1 Kings 19
Creation?
PROOF of CREATION
"Logical PROOF for creation for Atheists. VIDEO CREDIT: aTHEISTnotanAtheist on YouTube ::::::::::::::::Tags: Earth Science Creation Evolution Natural Selection Physics Darwin Fossils Geology Biology God Bible Atheist Savation Richard Dawkins"
How The Mountains Formed
"This video talks about the theory of Continental Shift. More specifically, the video explains how certain land formations that have traditionally been thought of as taking millions of years to form could have taken only a matter of months or even days if they were formed by a devastating Flood. Did someone say Noah? "
Earthquakes
Experts puzzled by undersea quakes
"There have been over 600 quakes in 10 days 150 miles off the Oregon coast. After this video document was made, a volcano went off in Columbia and an unusual earthquake of a magnitude 5.2 happened in the Midwest which was felt over a large area."
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. [a]
"
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields [b] with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah"
Bible
-Sodom and Gomorrah
ABRAHAM Part 2
"..20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know." ..."-Genesis 18
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
"...23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. ...-Genesis 19
*see GoodnewsEverybody.com Middle Eastern Outreach
"...The Scriptures say that Abraham looked and saw "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace" and does not seem to mention a quaking, but does use the Hebrew term for "overturning" in Deuteronomy 29:23. Possibly this is an indication that the earthquake proposal is valid. Changes of elevation of up to 164 feet have been noted which caused a change in direction of the Wadi Numeria at the site, which is believed to be the event that caused the destruction. Also found were evidences that the residents hastily fled the site and buried skeletons of those who were caught in the destruction..."
"Tubb excavated a site called Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, north of the Dead Sea. He found evidence of an early olive oil factory, showing how sophisticated life had become, even in these ancient times. Tubb believes the early Bronze Age was the only time that towns matching the descriptions of Sodom and Gomorrah could have existed at all.
So were there big earthquakes in the early Bronze Age? According to American forensic anthropologist Professor Mike Finnegan, the answer is yes. He has examined the skeletons of three men discovered at the early Bronze Age site of Numeira near the Dead Sea. From the way their bones were broken, he concluded that they were crushed to death - possibly because an earthquake brought down a stone tower on top of them. Carbon dating put the date of the tower's beams at 2350 BC - the early Bronze Age..."
"..Two geologists think they know how the infamous biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Graham Harris and Tony Beardow argue in the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology that the land near the Dead Sea on which the cities may have stood literally liquefied in an earthquake, swallowing them up ca. 1900 B.C. A similar event, in which loosely packed, waterlogged soils liquefy under seismic force, destroyed an area of nearly 30,000 square miles in China in 1920."
*see California * Homosexuality
10 mins before the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China
" May 13, 2008 (Less info)
Bizarre glowing cloud phenomenon in the sky was observed about 10 mins before the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake took place. This was recorded in Meixian, Shaanxi province ~550km northeast of epicenter. The phenomenon was said to last for about 1 min.
source: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_cb00XMjc..." 30 mins before the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, from youtube.com ". This was recorded in Tianshui, Gansu province ~450km northeast of epicenter, by someone using a cell phone.
source: http://news.qq.com/a/20080513/004283.htm.."
*see China
LOCAL
I've heard earthquake stories of Morris, which really suprised me. In fact, Morris is located an hour from the continental divide, which is the reason for our earthquake prone area. The most recent earthquake was back in June of 1993 and the last one before this was in 1973:
USGS: Earthquake Hazards Program: Largest Earthquake in Minnesota
Western Minnesota
1975 07 09 14:54:21.3 UTC
Magnitude 5.0
Intensity VI .
STATE
"
In the 141 years since 1860, Minnesota has recorded 18 earthquakes, more than half of them during the last 35 years. Most of Minnesota's earthquakes occur along a line that runs from the southwest to the northeast through Ortonville, Morris, Alexandria, Staples and Nisswa. This area is part of the Great Lakes Tectonic Zone, which, along with the Yellow Medicine Shear Zone, was formed more than 2 billion years ago. They are called zones instead of faults because the exact location is hard to pin down, but runs in about a 30-mile wide band situated on the basis of earthquakes that have occurred in the past."-Glaciers, Ecosystems, and Earthquakes-Yellow Pages
"one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in the contiguous United States, occurred on February 7, 1812. It got its name from its primary location in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, near New Madrid, Louisiana Territory (now Missouri).
This earthquake was preceded by three other major quakes: two on December 16, 1811, and one on January 23, 1812. These earthquakes destroyed approximately half the town of New Madrid. There were also numerous aftershocks in the area for the rest of that winter.
There are estimates that the earthquakes were felt strongly over 50,000 square miles (130,000 km²), and moderately across nearly one million square miles. The historic San Francisco earthquake of 1906, by comparison, was felt moderately over 6,000 square miles (16,000 km²)."
"People don’t often think of Illinois and California as two peas in a pod, whether culturally, politically, economically or demographically. But a rattling reminder came early this morning that deep down below the surface (say, six miles deep), they do have something big in common geologically: Both states are earthquake country.
At 4:36 a.m. Central daylight time, a quake of magnitude 5.2 (revised from an initial 5.4) struck the southeastern part of the state, centered five miles from Bellmont, a tiny farm town close to the Wabash River, which marks the border with Indiana. ..
Update | Noon Eastern time
As many people are pointing out in the comment thread below, a second shock struck in almost the same location at 10:14 a.m. Central time. This one was somewhat weaker — 4.6 magnitude — but was still felt over a wide area. Many smaller aftershocks have also been recorded.
On the damage front, the Associated Press has word of a collapsed porch on a house in Mount Carmel and some fallen masonry in West Salem, but no reports of injuries. That’s about what you’d expect from a quake of this size."
5.2 Earthquake strikes Central Illinois????
"A 5.2 earthquake strikes Central Illinois around 4:37am Friday April 18, 2008. This is very rare to happen in the Midwest."
"FREE eNovel -- I would like to send you a free copy of one of my novels. All I ask is that you email your local public or school library and request that they purchase my two mystery novels: The Healing Place by Joe C. Ellis ISBN-13: 978-0979665516 Murder at Whalehead by Joe C. Ellis ISBN-13: 978-0979665509 Just copy and paste the above info into the email you send to the library. Then email me at joecellis@comcast.net and let me know which of the two eNovels you would like me to send you. Thanks for you help! Joe C. Ellis I wrote this song a couple of weeks ago. Joel 2:30-31. "I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke.The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes." "Red Moon on the Rise" -- an original song by Joe C. Ellis copyright 2008. This song is about the end times, which may be during our life time. Here are the lyrics: RED MOON'S ON THE RISE Looking out my window at a world that's gone wrong, Dark clouds passing over, and the night's coming on. Hearts are growing colder, and violence fills our eyes. The Beast is getting bolder, Red moon's on the rise Chorus: Red Moon's on the rise, Earthquakes shake the land. Stars fall from the skies, Tumbling from God's hand. The Devil has his day. That comes as no surprise. So choose the narrow way. Red Moon's on the rise. The blood of a thousand flows from one suicide. In the name of heaven the gates of hell open wide. They say at Armageddon, almost everybody dies. Is that where we are headin'? Red moon's on the rise. Chorus: Red Moon's on the rise, Earthquakes shake the land. Stars fall from the skies, Tumbling from God's hand. The Devil has his day. Don't listen to the lies, And choose the narrow way. Red Moon's on the rise. If you liked the song, please check out my novels at www.amazon.com: 1. The Healing Place--Prequel to Murder at Whalehead"
A co-worker of mine had a dream of an earthquake that may have been caused by bombs (maybe nuclear) along a stretch from Alaska-Minnesota-Pennsylvania-Savanah, Georgia-Arizona. He shared this with me last week (September 2005)
As I write this I remember another co-worker shared an interesting insight with all these oil drilling. Can all this oil drilling directly affect increasing earthquakes?
GLOBAL
earthquakes are increasing in world
"earthquake here in uk recently was 5.3 (Added: 03-24-2008)
-Sri Lanka
Orphans in Sri Lanka Saved From Tsunami by the Hand of God
"When the tsunamis hit there was much devastation but in the story, reported by CNN, a man talks about how God delivered him and some orphan children from the storm."
Floods
Matthew 7
"This is the classical story of the man, who built his house on the rock, and how he showed great wisdom. Contrasted with the foolish man who built his house on the sand and it did not withstand the storms and the floods, and great was the fall of it."
9th Sunday - Gospel: Matthew 7:21-27 - Ministry Videos
"The house on rock, the house on sand. Act on God’s words."
" There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare [children] to them, the same [became] mighty men which [were] of old, men of renown.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."-Genesis 6:4-8
"[Who] laid the foundations of the earth, [that] it should not be removed for ever.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
Thou coveredst it with the deep as [with] a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, [which] run among the hills.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeConcordance and Hebrew/GreekList Available Commentaries
By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, [which] sing among the branches.
He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works."-Psalm 104 5-13
GLOBAL
Worst Floods in Mexico's History
"80% of the Mexican state of Tabasco is underwater. Streets have become canals. Pastureland has become floodplains. Farmland has become island. In the midst of this unprecedented disaster, Operation Blessing has teamed up with Centro Cristiano, one of the largest churches in Villahermosa. They are distributing survival kits to help flood victims get through the next few days and weeks. More importantly, they have worked to install four water purification systems, delivering up to 10,000 gallons of clean drinking water per day."
UPDATE: According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a 2.5 magnitude rumble at 2:20 a.m. Friday centered near Alexandria. UMM professor said it's not an uncommon for earthquakes to happen in the region. Story includes information about 1975 and 1993 quakes felt in the Morris area "An earthquake shook west central Minnesota early this morning.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a 2.5 magnitude rumble at 2:20 a.m. Friday centered near Alexandria.
The Alexandria Echo Press has received reports from residents who said they felt the earthquake. They described the quake as "loud" and "lasted a couple seconds."
The USGS reports the earthquake hit 39 miles southeast of Fergus Falls and 55 miles northwest of Willmar.
Keith Brugger, a Professor of Geology at the University of Minnesota, Morris, said he hadn't yet reviewed any information regarding Friday's quake, but added that it probably was an event on the Great Lakes Tectonic Zone.
West Central Minnesota sits on a "suture," or boundary, of the GLTZ. About 2.5 billion years ago, rocks of the Minnesota River Valley, which are 3.5 billion years old, collided with the slightly younger volcanic mass represented by granites and "greenstones," Brugger said.
"That event happened so long ago and we're still living with its legacy," Brugger said.
The greenstones were volcanic island arcs -- such as Japan and the Philippines -- that previously collided and contributed to the formation of North America, Brugger stated.
The GLTZ tectonic zone "suture" is a weakness and that any stress transmitted into, or generated within, the interior of present-day North America can cause the crust to fracture slightly.
"Hence the history of earthquake activity here in Minnesota," Brugger stated, recalling earthquakes in 1975 and 1993 in areas around Alexandria, Sauk Centre, Long Prairie and Staples.
On June 4, 1993, a quake measuring 4.1 on the Richter Scale was recorded, with an epicenter 22 miles northwest of Morris.
On July 9, 1975, a quake in the area measuring between 4.6 and 5.0 was recorded by the National Earthquake Center in Colorado.
The epicenter was six to 10 miles west and two to three miles south of Morris. It was felt as far away as Sioux City, Iowa and the Fargo-Moorhead area. It was only the seventh earthquake recorded in the state at that time. Other quakes in the state were in Alexandria in 1950, Detroit Lakes in 1939, Bowstring in 1928, Staples in 1917, LeSueur sometime between 1865 and 1870, and Long Prairie in 1860.
Interesting item: The June 8, 1993 issue of the Morris Sun reported that Dennis Myers, then-manager of the A&W Drive-In, recorded the quake on a home-made seismograph.
Myers built the seismograph when he was in the Navy stationed in California, and he brought it with him to Morris when he was discharged in 1975.
Myers' seismograph featured a coffee can, a clock motor and a 19-cent pen. The machine recorded the 1975 quake at 4.7.
Did you feel the quake? Contact the Sun Tribune via e-mail at news@morrissuntribune.com and let us know about it.
" 2.5 Earthquake Felt In Alexandria , Updated: 04/29/2011 5:41 PM KSAX.com
"MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A small earthquake shook parts of
west-central Minnesota overnight, but there are no reports of
injuries or damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey puts the magnitude at 2.5 and says it
struck at 2:20 a.m.
It was felt in Alexandria. Sgt. Tom Egan of the Douglas County
sheriff's office says staff at the county's 911 center felt it, and
took 25 to 30 calls from the public, mostly from people who were
curious about it. He says callers reported some noise and minor
movement, including slight bouncing of ceiling tiles. But he says
there are no reports of damage or anyone hurt.
When some Minnesotans felt the rumble, an earthquake was the last explanation to come to mind.
"It was almost like a sonic boom,” Alexandria resident Amy Wiener said. “I’m looking around; I go to the window to make sure there is no tornado coming.”
The Geological Survey says the largest earthquake recorded in
Minnesota was a magnitude 4.6 quake that caused minor damage to
walls and foundations in Stevens County around Morris.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)"
"Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Hi - I actually lived in Morris, MN in the early-mid 1990's when there was some earthquake in the area. I also studied Geology at that time at the Univ. of Minnesota in Morris.
There are actually several faults throughout Minnesota. Check out page 3 of this publication for a map: http://www.morris.umn.edu/earthquakes/gl…
There's a larger version here: http://www.morris.umn.edu/earthquakes/ep…
You can also see the faults on this map: http://www.morris.umn.edu/earthquakes/Im…
Both of these came from this site: http://www.morris.umn.edu/earthquakes/in…
Dr. Peter Whelan has passed away, so you won't be able to contact him as the previous poster suggested.
Also check out this site: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/stat…
Most of the Earthquakes in Minnesota occur along an area called the "Great Lakes Tectonic Zone". Here's a map of the zone: http://www.winona.edu/geology/MRW/mrwima…
This zone is the result of two different plates colliding about 2.6 billion years ago (early Pre-Cambrian). One plate was a land mass about 3.6 billion years old and the other was about 2.7 billion years ago. A good explanation is here:
http://www.morris.umn.edu/academic/geolo…
If you need more info try googling "Great Lakes Tectonic Zone"
Good luck"
"A California mother is recovering from second- and third-degree burns after colored rocks her family collected from a southern California beach unexpectedly caught fire while in her shorts pocket.
"We were talking about who was going to pick up the babysitter," Lyn Hiner said today on "Good Morning America." "And all of a sudden something hot on my leg just sort of started to bother me so I started thinking it was a bug bite, so I started slapping it and the next thing I know my pants were on fire."
The harmless-looking, green- and orange-colored rocks, which Hiner's daughters found Saturday on San Onofre State Beach in southern California, are now the subject of an intense scientific investigation.
Hiner, 43, had put the rocks in her pocket after they left the beach. As she and her husband, Rob Hiner, were preparing to go out later that evening, the rocks suddenly erupted in her pants.
Rob Hiner, who appeared on "GMA" alongside his wife at the Santa Ana, Calif., burn center where she is being treated, said the couple had no idea what was happening.
"It was just this bright intense flame," he said. "We didn't know what it was. Our first response was just to try to pat it out.
"But, In trying to pat it out, it wasn't going out so the next thing was just to try and drop and roll and eventually we just tried to tear her shorts off and got them off of her," he said.
Fire authorities responded to smoke alarms in the couple's home that were set off because the flames in Lyn Hiner's pockets were so intense.
"There were actual flames coming off of her cargo shorts," Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Marc Stone told ABC News. "The husband was outside with a garden hose, actually trying to cool her leg down."
The couple were eventually taken to the Grossman Burn Center, where Lyn Hiner continues to recover from the severe burns on her hands and leg.
"I've never seen anything like this," her doctor, Dr. Andrea Dunkelman, said today on "GMA." "She has third-degree burns, which means that it's been burned all the way through her skin to her underlying tissue, her fat. We treated her by placing skin grafts from her thigh to that area."
Lynn's husband, Rob, suffered burns on his hands in the incident while trying to come to his wife's aid.
"We're exhausted but we're overwhelmed with love and support," Rob Hiner said. "We're just grateful. We're grateful that things weren't worse and God just continues to provide for us in this situation."
Scientists investigating the mysterious explosion say there were seven rocks in total that the Hiner children took from the beach. Field tests found traces of phosphorus -- the flammable orange chemical used in matches -- on the rocks.
"It'll burn right through flesh, bone and skin. I've never heard of anything like this before," Dr. Michio Kaku, author of "Physics of the Future," an examination of science in the coming century, said.
The beach where the rocks were collected is near Camp Pendleton Marine base. But Marine officials say there's no evidence any military materials were involved.
San Diego State University geologist Pat Abbott says this was not Mother Nature's fault.
"I know the orange is not part of the rock," Abbott said. "It's not natural. It's human made." "
California Mother recovering after rocks from Beach catch fire in her pocket interview with GMA
-South Dakota
"I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."-Luke 19:40
"Washington (CNN) -- A strong earthquake in Virginia shut down a nearby nuclear power plant Tuesday afternoon and sent out seismic waves felt by millions from Georgia to northern New England. Three aftershocks were reported by Tuesday evening.
No major injuries or extensive damage were reported after the 5.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The quake prompted evacuations of office buildings and the precautionary closing of monuments in the nation's capital.
A surge in calls by cell-phone users after the event affected service in many areas, federal officials said.
Aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 2.2 were recorded later in the afternoon, followed by one of 4.2 just after 8 p.m. ET, officials said. More aftershocks are possible in the coming weeks.
"It's one of the largest that we've had there," U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones said of the quake.
Most federal buildings in Washington had reopened by late Tuesday afternoon, but officials were taking all precautions before giving the all-clear to some of its most iconic structures. The U.S. Capitol was cleared for employees to come back to get their belongings, but inspectors asked people to limit their time inside the building while engineers continue to work around the complex.
A helicopter inspected the Washington Monument, and it was found to be structurally sound, the National Park Service said.
But a secondary inspection revealed cracking in the stones at the top of the monument. Structural engineers on Wednesday will determine the best way to repair the monument before it is reopened, the agency said. The grounds have been reopened except for an area about 100 feet outside the plaza.
U.S. Park Police spokesman David Schlosser said to his eye, the monument was "clearly not leaning. It's standing tall and proud."
The Lincoln and Jefferson memorials reopened Tuesday evening.
Witnesses reported a number of buildings were evacuated as far away as North Carolina and New York, where a 5.8 earthquake struck in 1944.
The quake, which was recorded at 1:51 p.m., was shallow -- just 3.7 miles deep -- and located 88 miles southwest of Washington near the town of Mineral, Virginia. The magnitude was initially reported as 5.8, then revised to 5.9, and then revised again back to 5.8.
With so many on the East Coast unaccustomed to earthquakes, many people were left wondering whether all that rumbling could have been caused by a truck, helicopter, an explosion or some other force.
Kate Duddy was in an office building elevator in Manhattan, alone, when the shaking started.
"I have never felt a quake before. It was scary having no idea what the cause was," she said. "I felt the vibrations and the elevator stopped for a period of about five minutes."
The earthquake triggered the automatic shutdown of a nuclear power plant less than 20 miles from the epicenter after it lost electricity. The quake signaled "unusual events" at 12 other nuclear facilities across the East Coast and Michigan, U.S. authorities reported.
Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant shut down after the first tremors. Reidelbach said the plant vented steam, but there was no release of radioactive material. Dan Stoddard, senior vice president of nuclear operations for Dominion, said there was no damage to the spent fuel pool.
Officials were restoring full power to the site, which was operating on diesel generators. Stoddard said that might happen by late Tuesday, but that was before the evening aftershock. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was monitoring the plant.
Relatively minor damage was reported in a few Virginia counties, including Louisa, nearest to the epicenter.
Several school buildings had damage, as did town hall buildings, Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach told CNN. An unspecified number of minor injuries were reported in the county.
Desi Fleming, a resident of Mineral in Louisa County, said the quake arrived with a rumbling "that sounded like a train coming to a stop." It knocked down two chimneys on the converted 1900-vintage home that now houses her parcel-shipping business.
Tuesday's incident occurred in a known seismic zone in central Virginia, said Dave Russ of the U.S. Geological Survey. But the strength of the earthquake was a bit surprising. A 5.9 event occurred in 1897 near Blacksburg, he said.
At Washington's National Cathedral, spokesman Richard Weinberg said three 5- to 8-foot pinnacles had broken from the central tower. He said stone masons and engineers would assess the damage, which also included other pieces that broke and fell on the surrounding lawn.
The building was evacuated and closed to the public.
Wayne Clough, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, said the national museum's landmark castle on the Mall had cracks in interior walls. There was no immediate indication of structural damage, but the 150-year-old building will need closer examination, he said.
"You want to do an inspection to be sure about that," Clough said.
Clough, who's also an earthquake engineer, said the geography of the Eastern Seaboard helped transmit the shock from the Carolinas to New England. The underlying bedrock is largely a solid sheet, "so you get a lot more travel out of earthquake waves than you would in California," he said.
Those waves extended to downtown New York, where court buildings were evacuated.
"I was trying to figure out what was going on, like everyone else," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who said he had been through many earthquakes when he lived in California.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at an afternoon news conference that the earthquake was felt "across the five boroughs" of the city, but there were no reports of injuries and "virtually no reports of damage."
The quake was also reported to have been felt on the island of Martha's Vineyard, where President Barack Obama was playing golf. He did not feel the earthquake, according to the White House.
The earthquake slowed but didn't halt major transportation services.
Service at major airports throughout the region was disrupted, but all were reported to have resumed normal operations about 75 minutes after the earthquake struck.
At John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark-Liberty International Airport, control towers were evacuated, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
Amtrak on Tuesday evening said service between Washington and Baltimore had returned to normal speeds following inspections.
In Spotsylvania, Virginia, Tish Walker said she was spooked and staying outside for the moment.
"I used to live in California, so I know shaking and this felt big," she said. "I grabbed my dog and raced outside; my first thought is always that the furnace might explode or a cabinet crashes down on top of us."
CNN's Vito Maggiolo, Chris Lawrence, Susan Candiotti, Dan Lothian, Joe Sutton, Jim Acosta, Larry Shaughnessy, Matt Smith, Sarah Aarthun, Carol Cratty, Phil Gast, Brian Todd, Dana Ford, Catherine Shoichet and Tom Watkins contributed to this report."
"An unfounded scientific assertion by a nonscientist has swept across the Web like a tsunami over the past few days. In an article in Newsweek, writer Simon Winchester claimed that the 9.0-magnitude Japan earthquake, following close on the heels of recent quakes in New Zealand and Chile, has ratcheted up the chances of a catastrophic seismic event striking in California.
In his article, "The Scariest Earthquake Is Yet to Come," Winchester pointed out that all three of those recent earthquakes occurred along faults on the edge of the Pacific Plate — the giant tectonic puzzle piece under the Pacific Ocean — and that this also butts up against the North American plate along the San Andreas Fault.
"[A] significant event on one side of a major tectonic plate is often … followed some weeks or months later by another on the plate’s far side," he wrote. "Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate — one in the northwest, on Friday; one in the southwest, last month; one in the southeast, last year. That leaves just one corner unaffected — the northeast. And the fault line in the northeast of the Pacific Plate is the San Andreas Fault, underpinning the city of San Francisco."
Winchester claimed that the geological community is "very apprehensive" about these earthquakes triggering a massive California quake. Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience, checked that claim with a panel of geophysicists.
"There is no evidence for a connection between all of the Pacific Rim earthquakes," Nathan Bangs, a geophysicist who studies tectonic processes at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, told Life's Little Mysteries. "I don't know what the basis is for the statements and implications in the Newsweek article, but there is no evidence that there is a link."
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) earthquake geologist David Schwartz, who heads the San Francisco Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project, concurred. "Simon Winchester is a popular science writer, not a scientist," Schwartz said. "I'm not saying we won't have an earthquake here in California at some point in the future, but there really is no physical connection between these earthquakes."
Schwartz explained that earthquakes can indeed cascade, with one setting off another — but only locally. "When an earthquake happens, it changes the stress in the vicinity around it, and if there are other faults nearby, this increase in stress can trigger them and produce more earthquakes. In other places, it relaxes the crust and puts earthquakes off," he said.
In New Zealand, for example, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that rumbled 20 miles northwest of the city of Christchurch in September triggered the much smaller 6.3-magnitude that occurred closer to the city in February. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, on the other hand, relaxed nearby faults, which has placed the region in a relatively quake-free "stress shadow" for the past 100 years. "But these static stress changes occur in a relatively restricted region," Schwartz said. The effects of the stress changes aren't just anybody's guess, either: Scientists can produce very accurate computer models of the local stress transfer.
Rich Briggs, a USGS geologist whose work focuses on how earthquakes happen, explained another way in which earthquakes can cascade. "The other way earthquakes affect their neighbors is that when a fault ruptures, it sends out seismic waves that in the case of large earthquakes can even circle the globe. In some cases, this 'dynamic stress transfer' increases seismicity," Briggs told Life's Little Mysteries. "But that only happens as waves go by, in the minutes that it takes the waves to travel out from the fault zone."
The dynamic stress transfer induces aftershocks immediately after the initial seismic event — not days, months, or years after. Because the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan can only alter regional faults, the dynamic stress transfer process is the only way to set off a similar reaction in California. If that were the case, though, the earthquake would have hit already."
So when will a major earthquake strike California? "Based on models taking into account the long-term rate of slip on the San Andreas fault and the amount of offset that occurred on the fault in 1906, the best guess is that 1906-type earthquakes occur at intervals of about 200 years," Robert Williams, USGS seismologist, wrote in an email. "Because of the time needed to accumulate slip equal to a 20-foot offset, there is only a small chance (about 2 percent) that such an earthquake could occur in the next 30 years."
"The real threat to the San Francisco Bay region over the next 30 years comes not from a 1906-type earthquake, but from smaller (magnitude about 7) earthquakes occurring on the Hayward fault, the Peninsula segment of the San Andreas fault, or the Rodgers Creek fault," Williams wrote.
Schwartz agreed that the Hayward fault, located just east of the San Francisco Bay, is more likely to slip than the San Andreas. But the bottom line is that, "if a fault slips, it will do so on its own, not because of something 5,000 miles away."
"I think the idea of saying the earthquake hazard is real is good, because it hopefully gets people to prepare. It's hard to get people to prepare," Schwartz said. "But to scare people by saying the earthquakes are jumping around and the next place one will jump is here – that's just bad science."
This article was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover"
-Yellowstone National Park
West Thumb Geyser Basin Pt. 2 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 2008
"West Thumb Geyser Basin Pt. 2 in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK July 2008 "
"We who live along Montana's Yellowstone River are downstream from a simmering volcanic caldera, a geologic hot spot that has become especially active recently. Indeed, Yellowstone National Park contains the floor of a gigantic volcanic cauldron, one that rises and sinks with the forces that lie beneath — hence the picturesque geysers and steam holes. But a wave of recent earthquake activity is raising fears that have their origins 642,000 years ago — when a Yellowstone "supervolcano" exploded so violently that it created the caldera itself. Such an explosion — 1,000 times more powerful than the explosion of Mount St. Helens in 1980 — today would not only cover most of the United States with ash but throw so much dust into the atmosphere that the world's climate could change.
Could the current activity be the warning signs of another such apocalypse? Or just a large, but not world-ending earthquake, like the 7.5 on the Richter scale temblor that happened on a summer night in 1959, causing a mountain to slide down into a campground, killing 28 people and damming the Madison river?
Last week, geologists at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) annouced that they had recorded "a notable swarm of earthquakes underway since Dec. 26 beneath Yellowstone Lake." The strongest tremor among the hundreds in the last week measured 3.9 on Dec. 27; most of the readings above 2.8 were felt by park employees and visitors around the lake area. The activity relaxed in magnitude early this week but then flexed upward again to top the 3.0 scale by early New Year's eve. "This December 2008 earthquake sequence is the most intense in this area for some years," YVO reported, "and is centered on the east side of the Yellowstone caldera," the ancient collapsed volcano beneath Yellowstone Lake. The scientists said they cannot immediately "identify any causative fault or other feature without further analysis." (See a gallery of recent volcanic eruptions.)
This activity could have a whole range of consequences. In a study released last year, the United States Geological Survey said possible hazards could include hydrothermal explosions, when steam breaks through the surface and forms a crater. That has happened 26 times in the park's 127 years of record-keeping. The USGS discounted chances for cataclysmic eruption of the caldera, noting that the hot, active magma chamber below Yellowstone has turned into "largely crystallized mush." But the same study also said: "Depending on the nature and magnitude of a particular hazardous event and the particular time and season when it might occur, 70,000 to more than 100,000 persons could be affected; the most violent events could affect a broader region or even continent-wide areas."
Jake Lowenstern, Ph.D.,YVO's chief scientist, who also is part of the USGS Volcano Hazards Team, told TIME that it doesn't appear a supervolcano event is imminent. "We don't think the amount of magma exists that would create one of these large eruptions of the past," he said. "It is still possible to have a volcanic eruption comparable to other volcanoes. But we would expect to see more and larger quakes, deformation and precursory explosions out of the lake. We don't believe that anything strange is happening right now." Last summer, YVO installed new instrumentation in boreholes 500 to 600 feet deep to better detect ground deformation. Says Lowenstern: "We have a lot more ability to look at all the data now." (See an interactive graphic depicting how scientists monitor volcanoes.)
The Yellowstone Caldera — formed by the massive upheaval 642,000 years ago that spread airborne debris all the way to the Gulf of Mexico — is nowhere close to being extinct. Areas of the park's topography inflate like a bellows because of magma infusing into volcanic chambers about six miles below the surface. About 1,000 to 2,000 tremors a year — mostly small — have been recorded since 2004, when interpretation of satellite imagery with GPS readings indicated the caldera has been rising as much as three inches a year. The past week's number of tremors — about 400 — is considered unusual.
The 1991 explosion of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines was the largest eruption in recent memory and its effects on the atmosphere are still being measured. The 1883 eruption of Indonesia's Krakatoa led to a global cooling and the deadly winter of 1886-87 that wiped out the short-lived, open-range cattle bonanza of Montana Territory. In 2000, Ken Wohletz, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, postulated that an even bigger Krakatoa eruption in sixth-century A.D. may have sent a tall plume of vaporized seawater into the atmosphere, causing formation of stratospheric ice clouds with superfine hydrovolcanic ash, which literally cast a pall over much of the world at the beginning of what became known as the Dark Ages.
YVO's alert code for the Yellowstone caldera stands at green, but if it ever elevates to yellow or red based on seismic readings, Lowenstern says, "ultimately it's my reponsibility to put out alerts. The National Park Service and local officials would be reponsible for civil defense measures and evacuation plans. For now, life goes on. The system is generally automated, and a seismologist at the University of Utah is on call to make sure it's a real event, should it be anything unusual."
This time of year, Yellowstone is a land of dramatic, fire-and-ice contrasts, with hissing, boiling water heated in chambers far below shooting clouds of steam out over a sub-zero, snowy alpine landscape, where bison and elk find warm patches of open ground to browse. We who live here, it has been said, do so at the mercy of geology. In much of the West, with its long seismic faults and Yellowstone-centered hot spots, it is for humans a sublimely tenuous co-existence with the Earth's fickle tectonic temperaments.
"
Old Faithful Geyser Eruption YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 2008
"Old Faithful Geyser Full 5 Minute Eruption at the Upper Geyser Basin in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK July 2008 "
Crystal Geyser - Healing, Wealth-Giving Water
"The "super-eruption"... Crystal Geyser - Near Green River, UT... a rare, cold, carbon dioxide powered geyser. This eruption went on to last approximately 2 hours. We were told that every thir eruption lasts for two hours. The ones in-between last for twenty minutes. "
"Based on the classic Jules Verne novel of the same name, Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Mummy actor Brendan Fraser as a science professor whose untraditional hypotheses have made him the laughing stock of the academic community. But on an expedition in Iceland, he and his nephew stumble on a major discovery that launches them on a thrilling journey deep beneath the Earth's surface, where they travel through never-before-seen worlds and encounter a variety of unusual creatures.
"
"...In one of the worst cases of flooding since the Great Depression, the bulging, swollen Mississippi River is overflowing in record proportions, blanketing thousands of square miles across Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, negatively impacting the environment, and causing billions of dollars in damage.
After weeks of intense rainfall, the water level is breaking records across Mississippi. In Natchez, Miss., the water now stands at 58.3 feet, shattering the 1937 watermark of 53.04 feet. And the National Weather Service says that the flooding is just getting started.
While residents scramble to reach higher ground, the rest of the country has focused on the economic and environmental impacts of this last round of severe weather, which comes in the wake the devastating tornadoes that swept the Southeast two weeks ago.
The water is flooding some of the most fertile areas in the country, so damages to agriculture alone could easily top $2 billion, according to estimates by economist John Michael Riley, a professor in the department of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University.
"Crop lost estimates are definitely around $800 million for Mississippi alone,” Riley said. To that $800 million, Riley added another $500 million in estimated losses in Arkansas, and several hundred million more caused by flooding in Louisiana, Missouri and farmland north of Memphis in Tennessee.
But agricultural losses could just be the tip of the iceberg.
"Homes and business are being damaged, and there are all the industries that feed into agriculture. There are going to be far reaching losses,” Riley said. “So $2 billion is probably just a starting point in terms of overall, everything put together.”
River casinos in Mississippi are also being closed, which could cost the state $12 million a month in state and local tax revenue, according to Jon Moen, chair of the economics department at the University of Mississippi.
While it is too early to estimate the economic impact of structural losses, Sally Williams from the Mississippi Development Authority said the overall cost will depend heavily on whether the levees ultimately hold.
"It totally depends on what areas might be affected,” Williams said. “The levees could breach and we could have more flooding as a result of that, but the levees haven’t been breached yet." Even with the majority of the levees intact, about 1,300 homes in Memphis were affected, and between 600-800 homes in Mississippi may be at risk, said Moen.
The total damages of the Mississippi flood of 1927, known simply as the “Great Flood”, cost a total of $230 million -- the equivalent of $2.8 billion today -- although there was far less infrastructure and agriculture in place at the time.
In anticipation of increased flooding, health officials are quick to emphasize the obvious, but important, point: Stay away from the water for environmental reasons.
The river is slowly spreading across millions of acres of farmlands that contain pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals. The sheer amount of water is diluting the concentration of these toxic chemicals, but the Mississippi State Department of Health still note that the water could carry disease, especially tetanus.
Increased levels of E. coli are also of concern, because the bacteria can be an indicator for harmful pathogens that may cause illness. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is monitoring the levels weekly. So far, the agency has found that the state’s lakes do not have dangerously elevated concentrations of E. coli, except in Cypress Creek, which has a history of pollution.
The long-term environmental impacts of the flooding are more unpredictable, both for the region and its citizens. The stream of river water pouring into the Gulf of Mexico is filled with nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants, and scientists are concerned that the increased concentration of these mineral nutrients in the Gulf could contribute to the growing ecological disturbance known as “the dead zone.”
The dead zone is a lifeless band of ocean water off the coast, larger than the state of Massachusetts, in which shrimp and fish are unable to survive due to the lack of available oxygen in the water. Scientists expect that historic amounts of water cascading down the Mississippi this spring could lead to one of the largest-ever dead zones this summer, which could stretch the already massive area all the way to the Texas coast.
Donald Boesch, President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, said the increased size of the dead zone was "clearly a record."
Because the dead zone leaves a vast swath of the water off the Louisiana coast uninhabitable for fish and other sea life, it has a direct impact on local fisheries. Shrimpers are hit hard in particular, because the dead zone has the largest effect on bottom feeders like shrimp and other crustaceans.
"The shrimpers have already had a hard time because of the oil spill last year,” said Eugene Turner, professor at the Coastal Ecology Institute at Louisiana State University. As the size of the dead zone increases, Turner projects that shrimpers will need to travel farther to find the sea life, meaning sustaining higher fuel costs.
"They’re on a marginal economic lifestyle as it is,” he said. “And now they’re getting hammered.”
Yet the long-term effects aren’t all negative, scientists stress. Historically, the region has relied on flooding to replenish the soil with nutrient-rich sediment.
“In muddy delta systems, mud is a good thing,” said Boesch. The installation of levees decreased the amount of flooding, which in turn meant the soil was replenished less frequently.
“The whole region is sinking, and if it doesn’t get nourishment it'll dry out and break off, which is what’s happening,” Boesch said. “So, yes, flooding can muck up people’s houses, but it’s actually necessary and important."..
"....Meanwhile, in the Arkansas town of Helena, the river crested at 56.5 feet -- 12.5 feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service.
The river's slow pace has given emergency responders more time to prepare, forecasters said. But while the slow-moving water gives residents extra time to get ready, it also means that land could remain under water for some time.
Jindal urged southeastern Louisiana residents to evacuate.
"Now is the time to take action," he said. ...
"Butte La Rose, Louisiana (CNN) -- On a two-lane road that cuts through a dense forest of Louisiana cypress trees, intermingled with narrow, dark creeks, sits a small community trapped in the path of a looming disaster.
Hundreds of people packed into the Butte La Rose firehouse to learn about the flood projections from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Col. Ed Fleming delivered the dire news.
"Listen to me, listen to me, OK," he said. "I'm telling yo u the depth of water from right here will be 15 feet."
The number stunned the crowd.
Pierre Watermeyer turned to friends and said, "It's over with, it's over with."...
"WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — The Susquehanna River, swollen by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, spilled into downtown Binghamton on Thursday and threatened riverfront towns in Pennsylvania, and nearly 100,000 people were ordered to pack up and leave their homes.
The storm's rains continued to pelt the Northeast, which has been saturated since Hurricane Irene roared through in August as it became a tropical storm. Rivers and streams passed or approached flood stage from Maryland to Massachusetts and experts said more flooding was coming.
River water coursed into the streets of Binghamton, a city of about 45,000, and climbed halfway up lampposts at a downtown plaza. Buses and then boats were used to evacuate residents, and National Guard helicopters were on standby. Streets were closed to non-emergency traffic.
"It's going to get worse," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Rainfall totals topped 8 inches in some areas around Binghamton.
In Wilkes-Barre, Pa., the mayor told residents to pack food, clothing and medicine and plan for a three-day evacuation. The river was projected to crest later Thursday at 41 feet — the same height as the levee system."
"In areas unprotected by levees, however, flood stage is just 23 feet and officials said they expect the river to crest above rooftops. Luzerne County officials called for a mandatory evacuation of all communities on the river that were flooded by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 — tens of thousands of people.
Between 5 and 9 inches of rain fell in some parts of Pennsylvania.
Donna MacLeod of Hummelstown, Pa., who was rescued from her home Thursday, said, "I'm heartsick. I know I lost two cars and everything that was in my basement and everything that was on the first floor. But I have my life and I have my dog so that's good."
In Harrisburg, where 6,000 to 10,000 residents were being evacuated, crews put sandbags around the governor's mansion and the first lady moved furnishings from the first floor as the river spilled over its banks.
Flooding and a rock slide closed the eastbound lanes of the Schuylkill Expressway, a major artery into Philadelphia.
In Port Deposit, Md., downstream on the Susquehanna, about 600 people were urged to evacuate as a dam's flood gates were opened. A dam in Annapolis overflowed.
Across the Northeast, many college campuses and public schools were closed. Commuters and other travelers searched for detours as interstate highways and other roads were flooded out in the densely populated states.
Amtrak passenger service was cancelled on New York's east-west corridor.
Edith Rodriguez, her mother and her sister spent Wednesday night at a high school outside Schenectady, N.Y., when the latest storm chased them from their home near the Mohawk River.
"We just finished cleaning up after the flood from Irene," the 19-year-old said. "Now we have to start all over again."
The evacuations come as the remnants of Lee, which has caused flooding and power outages across the South since hitting the Gulf Coast last week, slogged northward. At least nine deaths have been blamed on Lee and its aftermath.
Forecasters warned that the dispiriting summer soaking wasn't over and flooding would last four days or more.
"I really feel sorry for people because the sun will be out next week but the water will still be rising in rivers and streams," said Mark Wysocki of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University.
Tom Graziano, chief of the Hydrologic Services Division at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, said many streams in the Northeast were showing the highest flows ever recorded for the date.
Irene "really primed the pump" in terms of saturating the ground, he said, "and now we're adding this tremendous amount of rainfall."
The evacuation in New York and Pennsylvania is among the largest for an American flood, although similar-sized evacuations were ordered in the area in 1996 and 2006 and during the remnants of Hurricane Agnes in 1972. About 11,000 people were evacuated from flood-threatened neighborhoods in Minot, N.D., in July.
Millions are often evacuated in front of hurricanes, where there is generally more warning.
Though the storm was a remnant of Lee, Wysocki also blamed Hurricane Katia, far out in the Atlantic, for the lingering downpour.
He said Katia and a slow-moving high pressure over Ohio "acted as blockers" producing a narrow corridor for the storm as it came north.
"The rain was funneled into a very narrow region, from eastern Virginia to Central Pennsylvania and south-central New York," he said. "It was a conveyor belt of warm, moist air being lifted up, condensed in the clouds, forming the precipitation and then just continuing to rain."
Wysocki said the long-lasting rainstorm is the latest in a 10-month series of stagnant weather periods in the United States.
"There was the extreme drought from Texas to Arizona, and you had the extreme rainfall in March-April-May in the Northeast with 100-year records falling, and they were setting records for extreme dryness down in the desert Southwest, and then the snow from a very snowy winter in the Great Lakes region didn't melt until May and we had all that flooding," he said.
"A lot of people were stuck with the same weather for weeks on end rather than everything changing every four days," he said."
"...Moving the Obelisk
The formidable task of moving the Obelisk from Alexandria to New York was given to Henry Honychurch Gorringe, a lieutenant commander on leave from the U.S. Navy. Cleopatra’s Needle is a 240-ton, 68 foot 10 inch, single shaft of red granite from the Assuân (formerly Syene) Quarries at the 1st Cataract of the Nile. The 220-ton granite needle was first shifted from vertical to horizontal, nearly crashing to ground in the process, then put into the hold of the steamship Dessoug which set sail June 12th, 1880.[8]
Placing the Obelisk in the Hold of the Steamship Dessoug
It took 32 horses hitched in pairs to bring it from the banks of the Hudson River to Central Park, finally arriving on July 20th, 1880. The final leg of the journey was made across a specially built trestle bridge from Fifth Avenue to its new home on Greywacke Knoll, just across the drive from the then recently built Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Most Worshipful Jesse B. Anthony, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, presided as the cornerstone for the obelisk was laid in place with full Masonic ceremony on October 2, 1880. Over nine thousand Masons paraded up Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 82nd Street and it was estimated that over fifty thousand spectators lined the parade route. The benediction was presented by R.W. Louis C. Gerstein...
911 Occult Ritual: The Geomancy and Ley lines of New York City
"He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble."-Job 9:6
Bible
(Silent Movie) The King of Kings (1927) - [14/16]
"he King of Kings 1927 Cecil de Mille Silent Movie
Mary Magdalene becomes angry when Judas, now a follower of Jesus, won't come to her feast. She goes to see Jesus and becomes repentant. From there the Bible story unfolds through the Crucifixion and Resurrection."
*see GoodnewsEverybody.com Movies: The Passion, Crucification, Easter, Resurrection, etc..
"...The historian Eusebius quoted Phlegon directly in his chronicles:
Indeed Phlegon, who is an excellent calculator of olympiads, also writes about this, in his 13th book writing thus:
However in the fourth year of the 202nd olympiad, an eclipse of the sun happened, greater and more excellent than any that had happened before it; at the sixth hour, day turned into dark night, so that the stars were seen in the sky, and an earthquake in Bithynia toppled many buildings of the city of Nicaea.[7]
..
*see GoodnewsEverybody.com Movies: The Passion, Crucification, Easter, Resurrection, etc..
"
45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[c] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).[d]
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[e] went into the holy city and appeared to many people. ....
"Uploaded by jparkstrio7 on Dec 11, 2009
In the country of Peru during the 1960s, after the collapse of a cave during a flood, some surprisingly strange stones were found. Carved on the stones are depictions of advanced technology, medical procedures and dinosaurs. Are these stones depicting the truth or is it a hoax? What would it mean if dinosaurs and men lived at the same time?
"
Discovered Ica stones 1/5 photos
"
The Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano continues to produce spectacular visual effects. Photographers have captured images of lightning, seemingly erupting directly from the volcano. The bolts may look like Hollywood special effects, but they're very much the real deal. No CGI required. But as LiveScience reports, they're also still a "bit of a mystery."...
Iceland Evauates Hundreds, Volcano Erupts Again
"April 14, 2010 — Hundreds of people in southern Iceland had to be evacuated as a volcano erupted under a glacier again, triggering floods. No lives or property were in immediate danger, but authorities feared another eruption in the future could be worse. (April 14)"
'Survivors of the Haiti earthquake - measuring seven on the richter scale - are struggling to save those still trapped under the rubble. An estimated three million people will need emergency relief as aid organisations make their way to the scene. The Haitian Red Cross predicts an horrific death toll of around 50,000. The global community is doing everything possible to help the survivors. "
History
-2010
Earthquakes Are Frequent in 2010,
Janey Falk
Published March 03, 2010 by: associatedcontent.com "...There is speculation by some that due to the frequency of earthquakes this year combined with the Chilean quake, Mexico, California and Alaska with be hit by serious earthquakes in the near future. Earthquake prediction is nowhere near an exact science but Newsblaze.com has seen fit to issue their own warnings of impending disaster.....
-Earthquake Alert for Mexico, California and Alaska
By Ian Brockwell Published: February 28, 2010
"...If the three plates in the Chile region have moved in an easterly direction, this could allow the Pacific plate to do the same. If this is the case, pressure can be expected along the eastern Pacific and create further quakes in traditionally suspect areas: Mexico, California and Alaska.
Earthquake Alert
Historically, this has happened many times before, although the magnitude of the quakes will probably be less than that seen in Chile.
Whilst there is no guarantee that the Chile quake will trigger others, there is a good chance this will occur within a matter of days, if it happens at all.
Although experts have informed us that earthquake activity is no higher than usual, we only have to look at the quakes recorded in the Pacific area in the last few weeks to see that this is not entirely true. Not all of these are of a dangerous level, but the numbers are very high.
Earthquakes, large and small, are something we have to live with all the time, but it is worrying when the frequency and size of them increase over a short period of time. One can't help feeling that something much worse is imminent. ...
"Amethyst is the purple variety of quartz and is a popular gemstone. If it were not for its widespread availability, amethyst would be very expensive. The name "amethyst" comes from the Greek and means "not drunken." This was maybe due to a belief that amethyst would ward off the effects of alcohol, but most likely the Greeks were referring to the almost wine-like color of some stones that they may have encountered. Its color is unparalleled, and even other, more expensive purple gemstones are often compared to its color and beauty. Although it must always be purple to be amethyst, it can and does have a wide range of purple shades."
*got a sample rock from Black Hills Institute of Geological Research Shoppes
" is the science and study of the solid matter that constitutes the Earth. Encompassing such things as rocks, soil, and gemstones, geology studies the composition, structure, physical properties, history, and the processes that shape Earth's components. It is one of the Earth sciences...."
Matthew 24:7-"
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."
Mark 13:8-"
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains."
Luke 21:11-"
There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven."
Countdown To Eternity - Biblical Last Days And The End Times Part 1
"The Bible lays out mankinds destiny in the last days! Are you prepared?"
'The 'wholesale' appearance of menhirs began in Neolithic Europe, at around 4,000 BC, the same time as the first Egyptian obelisks (See Nabta Playa). While the Egyptian obelisks were later carved with flattened faces, the European menhirs were shaped and smoothed so that with a few exceptions, the builders retained and even emphasised the natural qualities of the stones they used.
Although there are suggestions of astronomical significance at many of the larger menhirs, it by no way means that that this was true for all menhirs. There are several examples of prominent stones being border markers, although this is most likely to have been a secondary usage. For example, the stone at Champs Dolent, in France (right), defines the border between Brittany and Normandy, but is also part of an older (solar) landscape alignment including nearby Mont St. Michel. ...
*see GoodnewsEverybody.com European: French of France Outreach" "The Egyptian obsession with obelisk building led them to produce several of the largest standing stones from the ancient world.
The largest known Egyptian obelisk is the 'unfinished obelisk', which was left in-situ, attached to the living rock, following the discovery of a natural fissure in the rock. The stone was carved to 120-feet (36m) in length and would have weighed over 1000 tons when complete...
*see Egypt
'They stretch from Syria to Saudi Arabia, can be seen from the air but not the ground, and are virtually unknown to the public.
They are the Middle East's own version of the Nazca Lines — ancient "geolyphs," or drawings, that span deserts in southern Peru — and now, thanks to new satellite-mapping technologies, and an aerial photography program in Jordan, researchers are discovering more of them than ever before. They number well into the thousands.
Referred to by archaeologists as "wheels," these stone structures have a wide variety of designs, with a common one being a circle with spokes radiating inside. Researchers believe that they date back to antiquity, at least 2,000 years ago. They are often found on lava fields and range from 82 feet to 230 feet (25 meters to 70 meters) across. [See gallery of wheel structures]
"In Jordan alone we've got stone-built structures that are far more numerous than (the) Nazca Lines, far more extensive in the area that they cover, and far older," said David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia.
Kennedy's new research, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, reveals that these wheels form part of a variety of stone landscapes. These include kites (stone structures used for funnelling and killing animals); pendants (lines of stone cairns that run from burials); and walls, mysterious structures that meander across the landscape for up to several hundred feet and have no apparent practical use.
His team's studies are part of a long-term aerial reconnaissance project that is looking at archaeological sites across Jordan. As of now, Kennedy and his colleagues are puzzled as to what the structures may have been used for or what meaning they held. [History's Most Overlooked Mysteries]
Fascinating structures
Kennedy's main area of expertise is in Roman archaeology, but he became fascinated by these structures when, as a student, he read accounts of Royal Air Force pilots flying over them in the 1920s on airmail routes across Jordan. "You can't not be fascinated by these things," Kennedy said.
Indeed, in 1927 RAF Flight Lt. Percy Maitland published an account of the ruins in the journal Antiquity. He reported encountering them over "lava country" and said that they, along with the other stone structures, are known to the Bedouin as the "works of the old men."
Kennedy and his team have been studying the structures using aerial photography and Google Earth, as the wheels are hard to pick up from the ground, Kennedy said.
"Sometimes when you're actually there on the site you can make out something of a pattern but not very easily," he said. "Whereas if you go up just a hundred feet or so it, for me, comes sharply into focus what the shape is."
The designs must have been clearer when they were originally built. "People have probably walked over them, walked past them, for centuries, millennia, without having any clear idea what the shape was."
(The team has created an archive of images of the wheels from various sites in the Middle East.)
What were they used for?
So far, none of the wheels appears to have been excavated, something that makes dating them, and finding out their purpose, more difficult. Archaeologists studying them in the pre-Google Earth era speculated that they could be the remains of houses or cemeteries. Kennedy said that neither of these explanations seems to work out well.
"There seems to be some overarching cultural continuum in this area in which people felt there was a need to build structures that were circular."
Some of the wheels are found in isolation while others are clustered together. At one location, near the Azraq Oasis, hundreds of them can be found clustered into a dozen groups. "Some of these collections around Azraq are really quite remarkable," Kennedy said.
In Saudi Arabia, Kennedy's team has found wheel styles that are quite different: Some are rectangular and are not wheels at all; others are circular but contain two spokes forming a bar often aligned in the same direction that the sun rises and sets in the Middle East.
The ones in Jordan and Syria, on the other hand, have numerous spokes and do not seem to be aligned with any astronomical phenomena. "On looking at large numbers of these, over a number of years, I wasn't struck by any pattern in the way in which the spokes were laid out," Kennedy said.
Cairns are often found associated with the wheels. Sometimes they circle the perimeter of the wheel, other times they are in among the spokes. In Saudi Arabia some of the cairns look, from the air, like they are associated with ancient burials.
Dating the wheels is difficult, since they appear to be prehistoric, but could date to as recently as 2,000 years ago. The researchers have noted that the wheels are often found on top of kites, which date as far back as 9,000 years, but never vice versa. "That suggests that wheels are more recent than the kites," Kennedy said.
Amelia Sparavigna, a physics professor at Politecnico di Torino in Italy, told Live Science in an email that she agrees these structures can be referred to as geoglyphs in the same way as the Nazca Lines are. "If we define a 'geoglyph' as a wide sign on the ground of artificial origin, the stone circles are geoglyphs," Sparavignawrote in her email.
The function of the wheels may also have been similar to the enigmatic drawings in the Nazca desert. [Science as Art: A Gallery]
"If we consider, more generally, the stone circles as worship places of ancestors, or places for rituals connected with astronomical events or with seasons, they could have the same function of [the] geoglyphs of South America, the Nazca Lines for instance. The design is different, but the function could be the same," she wrote in her email.
Kennedy said that for now the meaning of the wheels remains a mystery. "The question is what was the purpose?""
"Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near the Bay of Naples in Italy, is hundreds of thousands of years old and has erupted more than 50 times. Its most famous eruption took place in the year 79 A.D., when the volcano buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under a thick carpet of volcanic ash. The dust “poured across the land” like a flood, one witness wrote, and shrouded the city in “a darkness…like the black of closed and unlighted rooms.” Two thousand people died, and the city was abandoned for almost as many years. When a group of explorers rediscovered the site in 1748, they were surprised to find that–underneath a thick layer of dust and debris–Pompeii was mostly intact. The buildings, artifacts and skeletons left behind in the buried city have taught us a great deal about everyday life in the ancient world."
A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation
"www.zerooneanimation.com
A Day in Pompeii, a Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, was held at Melbourne Museum from 26 June to 25 October 2009. Over 330,000 people visited the exhibition -- an average of more than 2,700 per day -- making it the most popular traveling exhibition ever staged by an Australian museum.
Zero One created the animation for an immersive 3D theatre installation which gave visitors a chance to feel the same drama and terror of the town's citizens long ago, and witness how a series of eruptions wiped out Pompeii over 48 hours.
This video is available in full HD stereo. Please get in touch with Zero One through their website for licensing information for exhibitions, television and other media or to discuss 3D Visualisation solutions. Copyright 2010 Zero One Animation and Melbourne Museum."
Waterfalls
=>NORTH AMERICA
Niagara Falls,
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"...is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls. Located on the Niagara River which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 165 feet (50 m). Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall (vertical height along with flow rate) in North America.[2] Niagara Falls straddles the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York, also forming the southern end of the Niagara Gorge. The falls are located 17 miles (27 km) north-northwest of Buffalo, New York and 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Toronto, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York...
"I believe God has opened many doors for me in my life, and this is one of them." -- Nik Wallenda "NIAGARA FALLS (ANS) -- Nik Wallenda, who belongs to a celebrated family of professional daredevils, has completed a tightrope walk across Niagara Falls in a televised stunt which he said he did "to inspire the world."
Wallenda braved wind and heavy spray to make the 1,800ft (550m) walk from the US to Canada on a 2-inch (61mm) wire.
Thousands watched from Goat Island, where he began the crossing, suspended 150 feet (46 metres) above the falls, according to the BBC www.bbc.co.uk.
Wallenda crosses Niagara Falls
(Credit: Frank Gunn,The Canadian Press/AP Photo via ABC News website)
The BBC said on its website that it is the first such feat over Niagara Falls in over a century. Wallenda is the seventh generation of the famed Flying Wallendas.
The BBC said the family has performed for more than 200 years, including the signature act that gave the group their name, where two pairs of performers walk the wire, each supporting another aerialist on a pole.
Those two aerialists, in turn, carry a pole upon which the seventh member of the troupe balances in a chair.
The family has suffered two deaths from falls while performing, including Nik Wallenda's great-grandfather in 1978.
The BBC said Wallenda wore a safety harness attaching him to the wire, a precaution insisted on by ABC, the US broadcaster which sponsored the live broadcast of his walk.
Prior to the walk, he said he had not performed with a harness before, but that it would not take away from the event, the BBC reported.
After he arrived, Wallenda was asked to hand over his US passport to officially enter Canada.
Wallenda wore a headset so the audience could hear his commentary as he crossed the falls
(Credit: GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/GettyImages via ABC Bews website)
The BBC said the 33-year-old had estimated the total cost of the walk would be around $1.3m USD (£830,000GBP), including creating and installing the steel wire, as well as permits and security on both sides of the border.
Legal liability had prevented ABC from funding all of Wallenda's costs and materials, so he had taken to online site IndieGoGo to raise further funds.
As of Friday afternoon, he was 45 percent of the way towards his goal of $50,000.
Nik Wallenda's Walk on Wire "to Inspire" over Niagara Falls
Aimee Herd, writing for www.breakingchristiannews.com , says that once you've been to Niagara, and have stood so close to the 700,000 gallons of water rushing over the top of Horseshoe Falls, that you could almost reach out and touch it, you really don't forget that feeling of awe.
“I never have, even though I was just a child when I visited there—I can close my eyes and almost hear that roar in my ears,” Herd recalls.
Herd reports that “no doubt the same is now true for Nik Wallenda, except in an extraordinarily unique way,” as he became the first person to successfully walk over Niagara Falls, Friday night -- from the American side to the Canadian -- on a high wire.
This was the fulfillment of a 27-year-dream of Nik's, now 33, and one he's trained, planned for and petitioned the Canadian and American authorities to temporarily lift the current ban on stunts involving Niagara Falls, which they finally agreed to for his walk only.
When he completed his incredible feat, he had crossed into Canada, and was met on the other side by a border agent who asked him, "What is the purpose of your trip sir?"
Nik replied, "To inspire people around the world."
ABC carried the broadcast of the historic event, and equipped Wallenda with a headset so the entire television audience could hear his comments and conversation with his father from the broadcast booth, Herd reports.
However, viewers weren't expecting the stirring commentary from Nik as he took step after step in the shoes his mother had made him specifically for the high wire.
"It's an unbelievable view! I'm so blessed to be in the position I am; to be the first person in the world to be right here. …Praise You, Father God, Praise You, Jesus," Nik said as he praised and thanked the Lord throughout his entire walk.
Newsgraphic showing Nik Wallenda's planned tightrope walk
(Courtesy BBC website)
Herd reported that as the famed mists enveloped him his steps seemed to slow, and after passing that point the 7th generation high wire walker admitted, "You know the mists were thick, and it was hard to see at times."
"This is what dreams are made of people," encouraged Nik to everyone listening at one point, "pursue your dreams and never give up. Mine might seem strange but anyone dealing with any battle; focus on that other side."
The walk that began with the Wallenda's traditional family prayer, ended with Nik's promised phone call to his grandmother who was "too nervous to watch," Herd reported.
In a post-walk news conference, Nik noted that "Faith plays a huge roll in what I do. I believe God has opened many doors for me in my life and this is one of them. …To inspire people around the world; let them know the impossible is not so impossible if you set your mind to it."
What doors Nik feels God is opening to him next?
"I have permits to be the first person in the world to walk across the Grand Canyon," Nik Wallenda told reporters.
Millions watch daredevil crossing of the falls on TV
Alice Gomstyn and Michael S. James, writing for ABC News (www.abcnewsgo.com ), say tens of thousands of people gathered at the falls Friday night and millions more were believed to be watching on television as Wallenda crossed some 200 feet in the air on a two-inch-wide wire strung over the raging waters of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls that make up Niagara Falls.
Wallenda trotted in his final steps across the wire and stepped into Canada, barely 25 minutes after he started.
After he greeted his wife and family, Wallenda was approached by customs agents, who asked him for his passport, which he presented.
"No, I'm not carrying anything over. I promise," he said.
"What is the purpose of your trip sir?" the agent asked.
"To inspire people around the world," Wallenda said.
Wallenda said the mist and the winds midway across the walk were the biggest challenge.
"It's all about the concentration, the focus, and it all goes back to the training," he said, adding: "I'm grinning from ear to ear because I can see I'm here. I made it."
Walk Across Niagara: By the Numbers
Others have crossed the Niagara River itself, but never over the falls, the ABC reporters said.
Wallenda said that Friday night's feat was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream as well as a chance to honor his great-grandfather, legendary funambilist Karl Wallenda, who died after falling from a tightrope in Puerto Rico in 1978, ABC News reported.
According to the ABC News report, Wallenda, 33, has called his great-grandfather his "biggest inspiration" and said he was thinking of him during the stunt. The 1,500-foot walk between Goat Island in the U.S. side to Table Rock in Canada was fraught with unforgiving natural conditions: blinding mist and drafts created by the force of the waterfalls crashing down on the Niagara River.
Those obstacles notwithstanding, Wallenda told reporters Thursday that he hoped the walk will be "peaceful and relaxing."
"Often, I'm very relaxed when I'm walking on a cable like that," he said, but he added that the historic nature of the event could also mean "there'll be some tears involved."
ABC News said preparing for the walk took months. In addition to actually practicing for the walk, Wallenda had to secure permission from both U.S. and Canadian authorities.
On the Canadian side, giving Wallenda the go-ahead meant granting a one-time exemption on a 128-year ban on stunts. Wallenda's team also had to devise and implement measures to steady the wire and guarantee that, should Wallenda stumble, safety equipment would keep him from plunging down into the gorge.
Wallenda Family Legacy: Nik Wallenda's Long Line of Amazing Ancestors
Friday's event was expected to bring a major boost to tourism in the Niagara Falls region, which sees 13 million visitors at the falls each year, ABC News reported.
"Over a billion people by Monday will have known the story of Nik Wallenda over Niagara Falls," Tim Clark, of the Buffalo-Niagara Film Board, told ABC News affiliate WKBW, "and I think that's just fantastic reinforcement for our tourism industry here in western New York."
According to preliminary Nielsen ratings, when Wallenda finished his walk from 10:30 to 11 p.m., 13.1 million viewers were watching, and during the 9-11 p.m. two-hour broadcast, an average of 10.1 million people were tuned in, ABC News reported.
As for Wallenda's next megastunt, he already has the permits to become the first man to ever walk a wire across the Grand Canyon.
Watch clips from Wallenda’s famous walk across Nigara Falls: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/megastunts-canada-16583080 "
"Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake."-Revelations 16
Thank you for visiting GoodnewsEverybody!Please feel free to e-mail me (Sal) at info@goodnewseverybody.com on any comments, suggestions (e.g. any new websites),complaints, or anytype of feedback to improve this website or leave a comment on my blog
