Tag Archives: geology

Mar 24 2012

Small earthquake felt in Jerusalem

During friday whilst in bed before getting up, as my alarm is set to go off at 6.15am I felt something I thought might of been a small earthquake, in fact I think I heard some creaks from furniture in my house that moved slightly.

Just seen this today, from a volcanoes group page on Facebook I get alerts from as I got a little bit interested in Geology as a child and in 2005 I went to Iceland and saw the volcanoes there.

http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/growing-seismic-unrest-in-middle-east-earthquake-hits-dead-sea-region-felt-in-jerusalem/

Turns it was an earthquake that happened after all, actually in the Dead Sea area, but could be felt here in Jerusalem.   Doesn’t seem to be any damage anywhere but we are on a fault here.

 

Oct 22 2011

Volcanoes may threaten UK and Europe?

Saw this last week, this seems worrying.

There are active volcanoes in Iceland bigger than the one that went off at the beginning of 2010 which paralyzed Europe’s air traffic, this below article says there is signs of activity:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/icelands-scientists-say-activity-at-katla-volcano-increasing-next-eruption-could-be-huge/2011/10/13/gIQAbt7rgL_story.html?wprss=rss_world

I have been interested in volcanoes since a child, and I visited Iceland in 2005, a country formed by friction between North American and European plates of the earth’s crust.

Read this Wiki article on Katla – from this article; “Following the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruptions, on 20 April 2010 Icelandic President Ólafur Grímsson said “the time for Katla to erupt is coming close … we have prepared … it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over Europe and the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption”.

Historically, Katla fires off every 40-80 years, but hasn’t done so since 1918.

This other live volcano called Laki is more serious.

It has killed 23,000 people in the UK, and possibly SIX MILLION in total in 1783-84!  Given the destructive potential of a volcano, not just from lava flowing and melting a town but also poisonous sulphuric gases causing death to humans and livestock and ultimately a famine.

If you are interested in geology and its potential risks to urban areas, Google Earth is a good tool to study patterns of volcanos around the world, and the tectonic plates that seperate continents, you can use the tick boxes to turn on places with volcanic activity.


Back here in Biblical lands, there is a huge live one close by in Syria, and its called Es-Safa.

In contrast, part of the Golan Heights in between Israel and Syria, is also volcanic, its exact state unknown but probably not erupted in several thousand years.  There is one more probably live one near the Turkish border which doesn’t have a name.   This makes me think Syria doesn’t have very many geologists I reckon! 🙂

(Click above to take you directly into Google Maps)

Es-Safa looks quite significant by its obvious brown crater visible from space though!

By some measuring I have done here, Damascus is less than 100km from this vast looking dark hole, the bible says Damascus will be destroyed one day (heap of ruins Isaiah 17 : 1-3) so maybe it won’t be by war!

To me its phenomenonal to think the most destructive forces in the world are not always man made like nuclear bombs but something natural hidden under the ground, having said that, when I was in Iceland, I got to hear an amazing story about the lava from a volcano stopped dead in front of the gates of a church as the congregation inside prayed to Jesus for safety.   You can see evidence of this there today.

Possible references to volcanoes in the bible:- Deuteronomy 4:11; 5:23; Judges 5:5; Psalms 97:5; 104:32; 144:5; Isaiah 34:9,10; 64:1-3; Jeremiah 51:25; Micah 1:4; Nahum 1:5,6

Apr 19 2010

Explosive geology of volcanos and natural disasters

Just a few days ago, the media reported that Britain told Israel it could not use the Western Wall in tourist marketing material.   Sounded ridiculous.  The next day a Britain and surrounding northern European nations have their airspace completely shutdown in the biggest downtime in international aviation history by an Icelandic volcano.   Whatever you want to make of this, I am praying that Britain and other countries do not attempt actions that could interfere with God’s plan for Israel.

Iceland is an amazing place, its in the top part of the Atlantic Ocean seated right on the split of the earth’s crust between Europe and North America.  Even before this recent event volcanos have fascinated me since I went to Iceland with some friends in 2005.  With 24 hour daylight during the spring that we went and electricity that runs off of heat produced by the water, this is one place like no other.

The volcano that went off in the Westman Islands off of South West coast in 1973, did destroy a fair bit of the town, but only one person died, the place was quickly rebuilt, but the most amazing thing was the people prayed the lava would stop, and it did!  right in front of the church gates.   I visited this place and bits of ruined houses are still left with lava rock wrapped around it.  It serves as a testament to the mostly Christian people of the Westman Islands the power of prayer.

Interestingly enough when volcanoes happen, cartographers have to rewrite the maps as the place will look radically different afterwards.

I am not a endtimes sort of person, but in the five months of this year there has been an awful lot of natural disasters lately, Haiti, China, Turkey and Chile just coming to mind.