END TIMES SIGNS ABOUND

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A magnitude 7.8 earthquake kills up to 5,000 people across Turkey and Syria

The most powerful earthquake in nearly a century struck Turkey and Syria on Monday morning (afternoon AEDT), levelling buildings and causing tremors felt as far away as Greenland. It was quickly followed by a powerful 7.6 quake and dozens of after-shocks that wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a region filled with millions who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

What did Jesus tell us would be the signs prior to His second coming?

“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Matthew 24:3

“There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences.” Luke 21:11

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” Matthew 24:7

“A national mourning period has been declared for seven days. Our flag will be hoisted at half-mast until sunset on Sunday, February 12, 2023, in all our national and foreign representative offices,” Mr Erdogan said in a tweet.

The earthquake’s epicentre was 11 miles (17.6km) below ground between the cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep in southwest Turkey. It struck at 4.17am local time as many victims were asleep. For those whose houses and apartments were brought down immediately, there was little chance to escape.

Gaziantep has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the country in the past three decades, an economic hub of two million people for a developing region that has become home to millions of refugees from the war in nearby Syria.

There were fears about the quality of construction in the thousands of new apartment blocks built in the 1990s and early 2000s to host the new population. “Panic is everywhere and the number of victims is rising. So many buildings have collapsed,” Ahmed al-Mohammed, a Syrian living in the city, said.

After a major earthquake in Turkey in 1999 building standards improved, and the destruction in Gaziantep could have been worse. By contrast, in older cities across southern Turkey the situation was catastrophic. The government estimated that 3,400 buildings had been destroyed.

In Kahramanmaras, Iskenderun, Osmaniye, and Antakya – historic Antioch – whole neighborhoods were flattened. Deaths were reported more than 200 miles away in Diyarbakir, the main city of Kurdish southeast Turkey. Across the border in Syria, cities that had been pulverised by bombing in the civil war were partially levelled again.

SCIENTISTS ARE PREDICTING AN INCREASE IN BIG EARTHQUAKES

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More than 150 tremors hit Vancouver Island in last 24 hours, Cascadia fault line monitored.

Kilauea shooting lava 180ft into air and showing no sign of stopping

Kilauea shooting lava 180ft into air and showing no sign of stopping

Earthquake swarm under Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano, alert level raised, Chile

6.1 magnitude earthquake 33 km from Port Vila, Shefa, Vanuatu

5.5 magnitude earthquake 1 km from Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

The volcanic unrest continues: Eruptions at Anak-Krakatau and Sinabung in Indonesia, Shinmoedake in Japan and Telica in Nicaragua

Upsurge in big earthquakes predicted for 2018 as Earth rotation slows

Scientists say number of severe quakes is likely to rise strongly next year because of a periodic slowing of the Earth’s rotation

The link between Earth’s rotation and seismic activity was highlighted last month in a paper by Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado in Boulder and Rebecca Bendick of the University of Montana in Missoula presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

“The correlation between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year,” Bilham told the Observer last week.

In their study, Bilham and Bendick looked at earthquakes of magnitude 7 and greater that had occurred since 1900. “Major earthquakes have been well recorded for more than a century and that gives us a good record to study,” said Bilham.

They found five periods when there had been significantly higher numbers of large earthquakes compared with other times. “In these periods, there were between 25 to 30 intense earthquakes a year,” said Bilham. “The rest of the time the average figure was around 15 major earthquakes a year.”

Bilham and Bendick found that there had been periods of around five years when Earth’s rotation slowed by such an amount several times over the past century and a half. Crucially, these periods were followed by periods when the numbers of intense earthquakes increased.

“It is straightforward,” said Bilham. “The Earth is offering us a five-year heads-up on future earthquakes.”

This link is particularly important because Earth’s rotation began one of its periodic slowdowns more than four years ago. “The inference is clear,” said Bilham. “Next year we should see a significant increase in numbers of severe earthquakes. We have had it easy this year. So far we have only had about six severe earthquakes. We could easily have 20 a year starting in 2018.”

In addition, it is difficult to predict where these extra earthquakes will occur – although Bilham said they found that most of the intense earthquakes that responded to changes in day length seemed to occur near the equator. About one billion people live in the Earth’s tropical regions.