I always scratch my head and muse for a minute or two when I see something so plain and palpable and, yet, learned scientists do not know why and are baffled. Some might say that this is because I–or any other like me–rush to judgment without the extrinsic evidence to support our conclusions. I am not making any judgments here about this matter. I simply ‘expect’ the Yellowstone Hotspot to light off before this system is over with. That is something I have come to believe is what “squares” with all factors, including the scriptures.
First the facts. Reports are coming in of 250 small earthquakes in Yellowstone and these small temblors are baffling to scientists–formally known as “seismologists” and “geophysicists” in official parlance. The ones they better start talking to are the “volcanologists” because I got a suspicion and it meets with what has long been expected in precisely this same location. Let’s flush this out a bit and then turn to the potential ramifications, both on the good side and the bad.
AP Writer Mead Gruver wrote, quoting Professor Robert Smith, of the University of Utah, saying …(story link provided above)
“They’re certainly not normal,” Smith said. “We haven’t had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years.”
“… the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.”
“This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to,” Smith said. ”We might be seeing something precursory.”
“Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity? We don’t know.That’s what we’re there to do, to monitor it for public safety.”
Yellowstone is simply a large volcanic caldera. It is a magnificent place of almost haunting beauty. I stayed nearby there the entire Summer of 1981, (about 20 miles away) near Signal Mountain and Lake Jackson. I will never forget that Summer. We rented horses and because I was a horse owner we were able to take them out alone all day, throughout the Teton Wilderness.
Steve Conner, Science Editor of the UK’s Independent wrote it this way, at Rense.com, “Yellowstone’s Slumbering Giant.”
“When the supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming finally awakes from its 640,000-year slumber, it will spew out enough ash and magma to change the world as we know it. This is the prediction of scientists who have calculated that the global risk posed by a supervolcanic eruption somewhere in the world is between five and ten times greater than the probability of being struck by a giant asteroid.”
As I recalled these facts to mind I got up for a fresh cup of Chock-full ‘O nuts, and those who know me know that when I do that it is because I got a feeling about something fairly dramatic. I do that when I think of a guy in Latin America with a Tupolev super bomber and a few smuggled nukes and only a few minutes to the United States borders, as previously proven in the Arctic, possibly below early warning parameters. It makes my spine crawl a bit. I love that New York coffee when I get that feeling. The so-called “Yellowstone Hotspot” is a nightmare in the making and anyone ought to be a continent away if this thing lights off. As it is my brother is near ground zero. He may as well be sitting on a bonfire.
The academic reality is that volcanoes are classified but perhaps inaccurately and the true risks may very well be completely different from what we are being told. (See, for example, Alexandru Szakács, “Redefining Active Volcanoes: A Discussion,” Bulletin of Volcanalogy, Volume 56, Number 5 / November, 1994,0258-8900 (Print) 1432-0819 (Online)) I pay close attention to these things because I, too, live in a volcano field. A very large one, with a stratovolcano as its banner peak.
Jake Lowenstern thinks it “possible but unlikely” that the Yellowstone Hotspot will erupt big time. He thinks it is more likely going to have “smaller eruptions.” (See: GeoTimes, Jake Lowenstern, “Truth, Fiction, And Everything In Between In Yellowstone.” )
Seismologists and Volcanologists are going to watch this thing very closely, as the earthquake swarm under Yellowstone Lake persists, hopefully asking and answering how this may be giving advance warning to get people out of the way of a potentially enormous disaster. In banal terms the USGS Volcano Hazards Program 12/29/2008 5:00 P.M. Press Release states in pertinent part:
“The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that a notable swarm of earthquakes has been underway since December 26 beneath Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, three to six miles south-southeast of Fishing Bridge, Wyoming. This energetic sequence of events was most intense on December 27, when the largest number of events of magnitude 3 and larger occurred.”
The current risks, while completely devoid of any question or answer from a scripturally prophetic prospective, are that an eruption, aside from local or regional infrastructure damage, could result in continent-wide impacts. ( See: Christiansen, R.L., Lowenstern, J.B., Smith, R.B. et al, USGS Open file Report, “Preliminary Assessment Of Volcanic Hazards In Yellowstone National Park & Vicinity,” April 3, 2007, Version 1.1. )
Safety. “Could” helps if it “does” and people say, “you failed to warn.” The reality is this: They simply do not yet know how to predict volcanic eruptions. Sometimes they erupt after earthquakes (Mt. St. Helens) and often times they do not.
Yet sincere students of the scriptures have long asked if Jehovah would restore the cloud canopy over the earth as part of his restoring earth back to paradise, as long promised and for those who love Him know, which will absolutely transpire, right on time. There is an array of scriptures that leads one to seriously ask if this is in store. I will collect them into a small compendium and make them available to my readers upon demand in a Word document.
Pay close attention to Yellowstone. If you know anyone in the area urge them to think: “Safe”. My concern is related to my ongoing hypothesis–that Natural Disaster is one important prong of a series of things which will, in the aggregate–”crush,”– within the meaning of Daniel 2:44, because governments will be called upon by a frightened and injured mass of people and will prove increasingly unable or ill-equipped to respond meaningfully and/or on time. This, in turn, leads to a growing loss of confidence in governments such that people, in growing waves, likely will resort to various and sundry forms of self help. This is rooted in anarchy. Some will act out rage and become belligerent with government officials and actors and agencies. We know the prophecies about the Great Tribulation and they are both real and imminent in terms of their fulfillment. Something has to drive the engine downward. Natural disasters are nothing more than a fuller extension or expression of this important saying about our now reigning King, Jesus Christ:
(Mark 4:41) ”But they felt an unusual fear, and they would say to one another: “Who really is this, because even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Everything and everyone else that (or whom) will survive does as well.
In the final analysis I suspect that the Earthquake Swarm underneath Yellowstone Lake is the seismological equivalent of what will ultimately prove to be a pilot light that perhaps just got lit. You have to hold it for a spell in those older gas heaters, ultimately turning the knob and letting it out, releasing the gas and–that sound of warmth and success–whoooooooop!
Makes one wonder … May Jehovah’s Holy Name become magnified throughout the earth, for great indeed are His Works. The earthquake swam is plainly His Work. Somehow. Someway. It baffled the world’s best seismologists. I am smiling so broadly I am wondering if my face might crack. I love Yellowstone.
Imagine what it will be after …
One has to admit, nonetheless, that as we discussed things like “fiery furnace” and “fiery jealousy,” in next door’s post, this is an amazing coincidence for ambiance, if nothing else. ~
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