Scientists Explain Why It Is Inevitable That America Will Be Hit by Absolutely Monstrous Earthquakes - By Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/scientists-explain-why-it-is-inevitable-that-america-will-be-hit-by-absolutely-monstrous-earthquakes
Have you noticed that the crust of the Earth is starting to become a lot more unstable? Over the past couple of months, major earthquakes have shaken areas all over the planet and major volcanoes have been erupting with a frequency that is more than just a little bit startling. Here in the United States, the state of Oklahoma absolutely shattered their yearly record for quakes last year, we just saw a very disturbing earthquake right along the New Madrid fault just recently, and as you will see below one scientist is telling us that the San Andreas fault in southern California "looks like it's locked, loaded and ready to go".
The name of the scientist that issued that very ominous warning is Thomas Jordan, and he is the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center. The following quote from Jordan comes from a Los Angeles Times article that was published this week that is getting a huge amount of attention right now...
"The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight. And the southern San Andreas fault, in particular, looks like it's locked, loaded and ready to go," Jordan said in the opening keynote talk.
Other sections of the San Andreas fault also are far overdue for a big quake. Further southeast of the Cajon Pass, such as in San Bernardino County, the fault has not moved substantially since an earthquake in 1812, and further southeast toward the Salton Sea, it has been relatively quiet since about 1680 to 1690.
Here's the problem: Scientists have observed that based on the movement of tectonic plates, with the Pacific plate moving northwest of the North American plate, earthquakes should be relieving about 16 feet of accumulated plate movement every 100 years. Yet the San Andreas has not relieved stress that has been building up for more than a century.
Jordan went on to say that when the tension that has been building along the San Andreas fault is finally relieved, it could potentially produce a magnitude 8 earthquake.
Back in 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that just a magnitude 7.8 earthquake along the southern San Andreas fault would cause more than 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries and 200 billion dollars in damage.
So we are talking about a truly historic event.
Many people out there believe that someday large portions of California will fall into the ocean as the result of an absolutely massive earthquake, but the USGS is convinced that is not likely to happen. However, they do openly admit that someday the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco will be located right next to one another...
Will California eventually fall into the ocean?
No. The San Andreas Fault System, which crosses California from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north, is the boundary between the Pacific Plate and North American Plate. The Pacific Plate is moving northwest with respect to the North American Plate at approximately 46 millimeters per year (the rate your fingernails grow). The strike-slip earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault are a result of this plate motion. The plates are moving horizontally past one another, so California is not going to fall into the ocean. However, Los Angeles and San Francisco will one day be adjacent to one another!
But of course it isn't just California that we need to be concerned about.
According to the Daily Mail, one team of scientists has concluded that giant chunks of the Earth's mantle are "breaking off and sinking into the planet" under the North American plate, and that this is what has caused some of the unusual earthquakes in the eastern part of the country in recent years...
The southeastern United States has been hit by a series of strange unexplained quakes - most recently, the 2011 magnitude-5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia that shook the nation's capital.
Researchers have been baffled, believing the areas should be relatively quiet in terms of seismic activity, as it is located in the interior of the North American Plate, far away from plate boundaries where earthquakes usually occur.
Now, they believe the quakes could be caused by pieces of the Earth's mantle breaking off and sinking into the planet.
I don't know about you, but that sounds rather ominous to me.
The crust of our planet already somewhat resembles a giant cracked egg, and to hear that pieces may be breaking off and sinking into the interior is not exactly comforting.
And those same scientists are telling us that the process that has been causing this is ongoing and will continue to produce more earthquakes...
The study authors conclude this process is ongoing and likely to produce more earthquakes in the future.
'Our idea supports the view that this seismicity will continue due to unbalanced stresses in the plate,' said Berk Biryol, a seismologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lead author of the new study.
'The [seismic] zones that are active will continue to be active for some time.'
Those that follow my work closely know that I have been writing about seismic activity a lot lately, and that I believe that major earth changes are coming to the North American continent. I am deeply concerned about the New Madrid fault, the Cascadia Subduction zone, the major faults in southern California and Mt. Rainier up in Washington state.
In the end, I don't believe that we will see just one or two major seismic events in the years ahead.
For those of us that are fortunate enough to live long enough, I believe that all of those areas that I just mentioned will experience major events.
Foreshock? A Significant Earthquake Just Hit The New Madrid Fault Seismic Zone
image: http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/images/recent/madridmay032016.jpg
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Could the earthquake that just struck the New Madrid fault seismic zone near the town of La Center, Kentucky be a "foreshock" for a much bigger quake yet to come?
Early on Sunday morning, a magnitude 3.5 earthquake hit western Kentucky, and it was felt in parts of three other states as well. In fact, it is being reported that the quake could be felt all the way over in Miller, Missouri, which is 267 miles away.
The New Madrid fault seismic zone is six times larger than the more famous San Andreas fault zone in California, and it covers portions of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Scientists tell us that the New Madrid fault is about 30 years overdue for a major event, and because of the nature of the Earth's crust in that part of the country, a major earthquake would do significant damage all the way to the east coast.
A big Hollywood blockbuster was named after the San Andreas fault, but the truth is that the New Madrid fault has the potential to do vastly more damage. That is why what happened in a remote section of western Kentucky very early this morning was so alarming...
An earthquake near La Center, Kentucky was felt in parts of Illinois and Missouri early on Sunday morning.
According to the National Weather Service in Paducah and the USGS, a magnitude 3.5 was recorded about 8.7 miles north of La Center and 24.2 miles west of Paducah. It happened around 1:12 a.m. and had a depth of about 8.3 miles.
Quite often, there are "foreshocks" that warn us that a major earthquake is coming to a particular area, and many are wondering if this event qualifies.
Most Americans don't tend to think of the middle of the country as an area that is in danger from earthquakes, but the truth is that some of the worst earthquakes in U.S. history have taken place along the New Madrid fault. The following comes from the USGS...
The New Madrid seismic zone of southeast Missouri and adjacent States is the most seismically active in North America east of the Rockies. During the winter of 1811-1812 three very large earthquakes devastated the area and were felt throughout most of the Nation. They occurred a few weeks apart on December 16, January 23, and February 7. Hundreds of aftershocks, some severely damaging by themselves, continued for years. Prehistoric earthquakes similar in size to those of 1811-1812 occurred in the middle 1400's and around 900 A.D. Strong, damaging earthquakes struck the southwestern end of the seismic zone near Marked Tree, Arkansas in 1843 (magnitude 6.3), and the northeastern end near Charleston, Missouri in 1895 (magnitude 6.6). Since 1900, moderately damaging earthquakes have struck the seismic zone every few decades.
Those earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 tore thousands of very deep fissures in the ground, they caused the Mississippi River to actually run backwards in some places, and they caused sidewalks to crack in Washington D.C. and church bells to ring in Boston.
In our time, the U.S. Geological Survey has admitted that the New Madrid fault zone has the "potential for larger and more powerful quakes than previously thought", and we have seen the number of significant earthquakes in the middle part of the country more than quintuple in recent years.
If a magnitude 7 or magnitude 8 earthquake were to strike along the New Madrid fault today, the damage that would be done would be absolutely unimaginable because of the nature of the Earth's crust in this region. According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, earthquakes along the New Madrid fault "shake and damage an area approximately 20 times larger than earthquakes in California"...
Due to the harder, colder, drier and less fractured nature of the rocks in the earth's crust in the central United States, earthquakes in this region shake and damage an area approximately 20 times larger than earthquakes in California and most other active seismic areas. Even though large earthquakes occur much less frequently in the NMSZ than in California, the long term average quake threat, in terms of square miles affected per century, is about the same because of the approximately 20 times larger area affected in the central United States.
Are you starting to get an idea of just how devastating this kind of disaster could be?
Once upon a time, our continent almost divided along the New Madrid fault. Of course that didn't happen, but a massive scar formed deep underground, and this area of weakness has remained ever since. The following comes from Wikipedia...
The faults responsible for the New Madrid Seismic Zone are embedded in a subsurface geological feature known as the Reelfoot Rift that formed during the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia in the Neoproterozoic Era. The resulting rift system failed to split the continent, but has remained as an aulacogen (a scar or zone of weakness) deep underground, and its ancient faults appear to have made the Earth's crust in the New Madrid area mechanically weaker than much of the rest of North America.
This relative weakness is important, because it would allow the relatively small east-west compressive forces associated with the continuing continental drift of the North American plate to reactivate old faults around New Madrid, making the area unusually prone to earthquakes in spite of it being far from the nearest tectonic plate boundary.
One day, I believe that a major seismic event in the area of this deep scar will literally divide the United States in half.
What that will do to our country is the kind of stuff that apocalyptic novels are written about.
And it is also important to keep in mind that there are 15 nuclear reactors along the New Madrid fault zone, so if a massive earthquake did strike the region we could be looking at Fukushima times 15.
So yes, I am always concerned whenever a significant earthquake hits the New Madrid fault.
In Matthew 24, Jesus warned us that the time just prior to His return would be marked by earthquakes in diverse places, and right now we are witnessing a dramatic rise in seismic activity all over the planet.
A great shaking is coming to this nation, and the majority of Americans are completely unprepared for it.
Are you?
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