EARTHQUAKES & DISASTERS!
"And there shall be earthquakes in various places ..." (Matthew 24:7)

EARTHQUAKES INCREASE!
March 27th, 1964. Alaska is devastated by a massive earthquake measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale. Amazingly, in the 30 years since the great Alaska quake, there have been as many major earthquakes as in the entire previous 2000 years of world history!


The Universal Almanac tells us that there were only 21 earthquakes of major strength between the years 1000 and 1800. But between 1800 and 1900 there were 18 major earthquakes. In the next 50 years, between 1900 and 1950, there were 33 major quakes--almost as many as the number in the preceding 850 years! [24]


Between 1950 and 1991 there were 93 major earthquakes--almost triple the number of the previous half century--which claimed the lives of 1.3 million people around the world.

1976 alone experienced 18 major quakes with an intensity of over seven on the Richter scale, & an estimated 695,000 quake-related deaths, the highest in modern history, were reported that year by the U.S. Geological Survey.

This dramatic increase of severe quakes has led many scientists to predict that we are entering a new period of great seismic disturbances.

A top-level meeting of geologists and seismologists recently warned that the rise of big cities along seismic fault lines will cause unprecedented catastrophes in the near future:

"It's virtually certain there will be catastrophes in the coming decades, the likes of which we have never seen," Roger Bilham told an International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) meeting. "Fatality counts exceeding 1 million are not an unreasonable projection given that 50 percent of an urban population can be lost in a single earthquake." While major earthquakes "have generally spared the world's urban centers in recent decades, this trend will not persist indefinitely," Bilham said. [25]

The Biblical prophet Isaiah also envisioned monster quakes in the last days, saying, "The foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is ... shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut ... in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall" (Isaiah 24:18-20; 30:25, NKJV).

IN MANY PLACES
January 17, 1994, an earthquake measurisng 6.6 on the Richter scale causes $30 billion worth of damage in Los Angeles. Seismologists predict that California's imminent "big one" could be 50 times more powerful.

January 17, 1995, Over 5000 people are killed and 26,000 injured in the Great Hanshin quake in Japan. The port city of Kobe was devasted, its infrastructure destroyed, and over 300,000 people made homeless. Japanese scientists at the Earthquake center in Tsukuba predict a much stronger quake measuring over 8 on the richter scale could hit the Tokyo area in the very near future.

When either the California or the Tokyo quakes inevitably occur, the death toll, the devastation, as well as the impact on the World economy, will be unimaginable!

In August 1999 a violent earthquake measuring 7.4 struck the western Turkish city of Izmit, killing 17,118. In September a giant earthquake measuring 7.6 struck Taiwan, killing at least 2,321 people. (End25 Reuters)

(The Taiwan earthquake disrupted the semiconductor supply that caused a rise in prices for personal computers in December 99. Most of Taiwan's semiconductor plants were spared serious structural damage, when the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Sept. 21. But the jolt knocked out power for more than a week, and some sensitive equipment used in etching circuits onto silicon wafers was damaged or thrown out of alignment.(1)

In November 99, another major earthquake struck northwest Turkey, still suffering from August's massive quake, with hundreds more casualties. (End 25 Rueters)

The world experienced more major earthquakes in 1999, and deaths caused by them were double the annual average, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. More than 22,000 people were killed by earthquakes last year, with 17,000 killed by the 7.4 earthquake that hit Izmit, Turkey, in August. An average 10,000 annual deaths occur worldwide from earthquakes. Fatalities totaled 8,928 in 1998, while 2,907 people were killed in 1997, the USGS said. (END27-Reuters)

Besides earthquakes the world suffered a new disaster record in 1999. ( Nature plagued the world with a record number of disasters in 1999. Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurers, said that about 70,000 people were killed in well over 700 disasters this year, including up to 30,000 who died in floods and mudslides in Venezuela recently. More than 15 million people died in over 100,000 natural catastrophes over the last thousand years, with some 3.5 million deaths this century alone, Munich Re said. The total amounts to less than half the fatalities of World War II but excludes the uncountable millions who died of drought and famine. Earthquakes are the biggest killers, accounting for 47 percent of deaths. Windstorms claim 45 percent, followed by floods with seven percent. (Reuters)


IZMIT TURKEY

EARTHQUAKES IN THE LAST 50 YEARS
Recently, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a retrospective survey of worldwide earthquakes, dating back to the 1950s. Unlike the figures used by the national information center, this study looked at tremblors rated at 6.0 or better on the Richter scale. In the most obvious and graphic way, they show that the earth is experiencing a continual, rapid increase in seismic activity. Here's the way the numbers stack up, at Richter 6.0 or greater:

1950s - 9 worldwide

1960s - 13 worldwide

1970s - 51 worldwide

1980s - 86 worldwide

1990s - 100 plus, worldwide

 

(1)Quake disrupts semiconductor supply 9/30


LOS ANGELES (AP) - The earthquake that devastated areas of Taiwan is sending tremors through the toy and personal computer industries, which both rely on Taiwanese semiconductors for products ranging from personal computers to interactive Furby dolls. For the most part, Christmas sales are unlikely to be affected because most retailers already have stocked holiday goods. Personal computers might be an exception, analysts said. A prolonged disruption in the supply of memory chips and other computer circuitry could push PC prices up or force manufacturers to give shoppers less for their money. Most of Taiwan's semiconductor plants were spared serious structural damage when the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Sept. 21. But the jolt knocked out power for more than a week, and some sensitive equipment used in etching circuits onto silicon wafers was damaged or thrown out of alignment.

When these data are presented in graphic form, we see a continuous straight-line increase in the number of earthquakes.