With massive earthquakes rocking many of the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean's "ring of fire," Simon Winchester, the author of "A Crack in the Edge of the World," warns that the Golden's State's San Andreas fault could rupture.
In the past year, massive earthquakes have rattled three corners of the Pacific plate — Chile, New Zealand, and Japan. Is the fourth corner of the plate — the west coast of North America — the next to go?
The possibility is getting a serious look — and air time. Journalist Simon Winchester, who often covers geological history, wrote a piece speculating about a major quake along the west coast in the March 13 issue of Newsweek and spoke about it this morning on the Today show.
According to Winchester, there is little doubt that earthquakes happen in clusters — a major event on one side of a tectonic plate is often followed weeks or months later by another major event on the far side of the plate.
"It is as though the earth becomes like a great brass bell, which when struck by an enormous hammer blow on one side sets to vibrating and ringing from all over. Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate — one in the northwest, on Friday; one in the southwest, last month; one in the southeast, last year," he writes in Newsweek.
"That leaves just one corner unaffected — the northeast. And the fault line in the northeast of the Pacific Plate is the San Andreas Fault, underpinning the city of San Francisco."
Speaking with Meredith Vieira on the Today show, Winchester also emphasized the potential of a massive rupture on the Cascadia fault, which runs off the coast from Northern California to British Columbia. If that fault were to rupture, "it would cause not just terrifying problems on land, it would also generate a tsunami and that's a big, big problem," he said.
Earthquake clusters
John Rundle, an expert on earthquake dynamics at the University of California at Davis, said evidence is mounting that major earthquakes do cluster in space and time, but that the New Zealand quakes were too small to count (magnitude 6.3 for Christchurch) in this current spate of events.
Even taking out the New Zealand events, there are still four major earthquakes at least as big as magnitude 8.6 in the last seven years – the two events in Sumatra in 2004 and 2005, the Chilean earthquake in 2010, and Japan. This is unusual, Rundle said.
"The question is, is it so unusual that these things are causal? We don't know that, but we used to believe that these things were independent and you would see random clustering, but this has become so pronounced that you have to think there might be some correlation to it," he told me today. "In fact most of our models that we use do show correlations of earthquake events."
Rundle added that he believes that earthquakes are correlated and these big events are correlated. The question is, are they correlated because there is a surge in plate motion or do these things just align in spurts when looked at over spans of thousands of years?
Regardless, he noted, that statistically speaking, faults along the west coast of North America are ripe to rupture. For example, the Cascadia fault ruptures about every 500 years. It last ruptured in 1700, an earthquake that triggered a tsunami that was felt clear across the ocean in Japan.
The last big event on the San Andreas in southern California was in 1857 and historical analyses show they occur about every 160 years, "which would lead one to think we are pretty much due for one of these magnitude 7 plus events on Carrizo Plain, which could obviously grow into a magnitude 8 if we are unlucky," Rundle said.
In Northern California, the biggest threat is on the Hayward fault, which last ruptured in 1868 and the recurrence interval is about 170 years. "So, we are definitely in the window where we could see a Hayward event," he noted.
Examined in this light, the west coast is due for a major quake whether or not a major event on one side of a tectonic plate can trigger a major event on the other side. Rundle noted that according to his modeling, there is a correlation between the clustering activity and the periodicity of when faults rupture. "There is a definite association," he said.
Aftershock concern
The concept of clustering, however, remains controversial. Andrew Michael, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, addressed the question of whether one major earthquake triggers the next in a summary about the Chile quake. There, he wrote, "probably not … the global rate of earthquake energy release shows little, if any, difference between times when very large earthquakes have been common and when they have not."
In an e-mail to me today, he said "[I] have revisited the calculations and the conclusions remain the same. There is no evidence of global large-earthquake clustering beyond localized aftershock sequences."
These aftershock sequences are what have Rundle the most concerned. The Japan earthquake was a magnitude 9. According to aftershock analyses, there should be one magnitude 8 aftershock and for each magnitude 8 there should be ten magnitude 7 earthquakes. So far, the largest aftershock was 6.8.
"Also, the aftershocks, appear to be migrating from the Sendai region down towards Tokyo. So I am extremely concerned that there may be a magnitude 8 earthquake in the relatively near future near Tokyo … and in that case you are talking about massive suffering," he said.
More stories on earthquakes:
- Big quake question: Are they getting worse?
- Could big quake happen here? Yes
- Big Chile quake sparks swarm of faraway quakes
- Massive Chile quake may have set California shaking
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).


To semi-borrow from Robin Williams "Welcome to God's etcha-sketch"
Even as attractive as this hypothesis sounds, and the obvious increase in sales the author will have, there is a fundamentally flawed statement
Chile IS NOT on the Pacific plate but in the convergence of the Nazca and the Antarctica plates; New Zealand IS NOT on the pacific plate but in the convergence of the Indo-Australian and Anctartica plates. So... From the beginning this is not as clear as the author wants it to be, and it is not as real as the author would like it to be, but it will generate profits.
As for the next "Big One" in California, it will happen someday, no doubt, no way to avoid it and no ways up to this day to predict it... Take all possible meassure to protect yourself but DO NOT TRY TO SEE WHAT IS NOT THERE.
RamFla, When one plate moves it can move a different plate, they bump into each other all the time.
True, but the earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand cannot be taken as part of the quakes of the Pacific plate, thus they are not related to the quote (3 corners of the pacific plate) If the hypotheses stated that the movement in Japan could increase the stress on the opposite side of the plate, namely California, the statement could be true. My problem is the obvious misstatement of the movements... What for? Create some more panic? I sincerely doubt the purpose of someone that is a self proclaimed expert.
Not true. The plates do not move in isolation. Release of pressure in one area can shift the plate (didn`t they just come out and say Japan moved 8 ft) which would put pressure elsewhere on the plate which is working against other plates.
What this conjecture let alone the disasters should make us do is think and plan. Where I am at we see blizzards. I have in my basement one gallon of water per person per day to last seven days should we lose power which would shut off our water pump. I have food items in the pantry to last the same seven days. I can light my gas grill to cook on. Will this all prevent my house from falling down if an earthquake struck? No. But for those on the West Coast who lived through the earthquake it would allow them to survive a week without getting in the lines for water or food. Remember the first 3 or 4 days will be focused on search and rescue, and setting up response capability (moving FEMA and crowd (e.g. Red Cross) to set up relief stations..... all of which takes time.
I guess I am surprised that from that standpoint Japan was not more well prepared.
The "expert" lost me when he said the San Andreas Fault is land based from Petrolia down to Palm Springs. Sorry, "expert"...the San Andreas runs offshore (heading northward) at Point Arena, and continues offshore northward through Mendocino County into Humboldt County (near Petrolia), where it turns west and heads back out to sea. In this part of the country, we live with the reality that the San Andreas CAN in fact create a tsunami. Dr. "Expert" needs to do his homework. Or perhaps MSNBC should interview someone who resides on this coast and would hold a little more credibility.
Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, CA took a hit costing millions of dollars in damage, but there is no coverage of that. Sheesh. We're still dealing with the tsunami here and you're already trying to scare us about the next one? No thanks.
This was a simple "be afraid...be very afraid" piece.
How does one prepare for a tsunami of the type that japan endured, They just didnt get an earthquake which I am sure they were prepared for (as much as is possible) but a Tsunami that has wiped out most buildings and entire towns?
So what do you do when you are prepared but all those preparations are swept away by the sea?
You're correct about Chile, but incorrect about New Zealand, which does lie at the convergence of the Indo-Australian plate and the Pacific plate. The Antarctic plate lies further south.
That said, the guy's scaremongering.
While the word "plate" implies a rigid object, you should remember that the pacific plate is several thousands of miles across while the oceanic crust composing it is only 3-5 miles (approx) thick. This approximates the relation between the thickness & the size of a piece of paper. It would be impossible to transfer any meaningful "stress" through such a body. It would buckle rather than push.
There is also a serious discontinuity, a spreading ridge, between Asia and North America.
"Chile IS NOT on the Pacific Plate but in the convergence of the Nazca and the Antarctica plates; New Zealand IS NOT on the pacific plate but in the convergence of the Indo-Australian and Anctartica plates."
Hmmm, while not actually sitting on the Pacific plate, the plates that Chile' and New Zealand DO rest DO in fact touch the Pacific Plate... just saying.
That's what I keep telling everyone since the Mexicali quake that the San Andreas is about to go. The USGS thinks I'm a quack but they are the quacks--look at the results in Japan based on their analysis of the risks along the fault systems there.
They repeated those risks in America by building two nuclear power plants right on top of the San Andreas fault. They hood winked the builders into thinking the largest quake in the area expected was a 6.5 and that waves from a tsunami worse case would be 25 feet. The same kind of information they provided Japan and look how that turned out!
We all know that San Fran had a 7.8 (earlier reports up to 8.2) and that the Cascadia can produce tsunami's in excess of 60 feet based on soil sediments from recent research. (some by the National Geographic Society).
And yet their data resulted in the building of power plants to withstand 7.0 quake and 30 foot waves and this is clearly BELOW the average expectations of quakes and tsunami's in the area.
California is due for a big wake up call soon as the super quake of 1690 has a cycling period of 180 years from current research done by Stanford and other colleges whereas the USGS says it's 300 years. It's already over 300 years!
It's way over due and it will probably slip along 500 or more miles simply because so many feet of stress have built up.
You Californians better stop trusting the USGS!
The world needs to press for implementation of a 100/100 rule.
What's that?
A promise not to build reactors below an elevation of 100 feet and within 100 miles of a known major fault.
Maybe this is why so many people in San Francisco stay stoned most of the time. This way they won't notice when the Big One hits.
A lot of my views on the true nature of our planet has lead many people to call me a quack also.
Here is the thing common sense alone would make anyone suspect that these events (earthquakes in Ring O' Fire) are related, but beyond that the USGS are the same folks that have ruined their own scientist careers when data they discovered didn't fit orthodox history.
My trust in ANY govt. agency to tell me the truth on any subject is non existent. Does anyone really think that if the govt. knew in advance of a upcoming disaster that could potentially kill millions they would tell us?
Remember this is the same govt. that claimed WMD even though experts were telling them they didn't exist and no one in their right mind is ever going to believe that 9/11 baloney, hell they couldn't even get their lies straight.
Consider the fact that Nibiru exist or that our planet is hollow, scientist say that Earth rings like a bell and vibrates constantly and yet no one believes it is hollow cause they have been told to believe it yet.
FEMA is conducting earthquake drills in eight central states in May of this year, but we shouldn't worry, gimme a break anytime FEMA is involved I'm heading for the hills.
We're all gonna die! Run and hide! Run and hide!
For the people in north east Japan, "Run for the hills" was no joke.
Chile and New Zealand are on plates that are in collision with the pacific plate and are included in the RING OF FIRE ZONE. The ring of fire has the largest amount of earthquakes and volcanoes in the world and boasts mosts of the strongest events.
Connecting these events, or at least researching the recent evidence of the possibility, makes sensible science and deserve further study. We will never understand the earth beneath us and make scientific breakthroughs , if we keep a closed mind.
I would rather have intelligent conversations concerning geology any day than what we usually get from the mainstream media.
Accusing the author of writing this piece to make money and/or sell books is childish while trying to cause a distraction.
I agree with you Jo Ann.
As with all sciences, geology is in a perpetual state of evolution as more data is gathered and studied.
Thanks Jo Ann, please refer to post 2.2 for further explanation
Unfortunately this giy is not a geologist, and his statements are not solidly founded, plate tectonics is still a young science, but at least the geologists are not in it to scare people.
Agreed, seven years ago I had a spiritual awakening of the educational variety and about four years ago I had an educational awakening of the spiritual variety. My views on our planet, the true nature of human existence and the solar system we live in have changed dramatically.
Everyone seems to think Simon W. is trying to scare them, well if it wakes you up to the FACT that our own Govt. has been lying to the public for decades then perhaps he is, but I submit to you that he is just trying to warn people of possibilities that our own Govt. is unwilling to do.
FEMA, the DoD and the US Navy all have maps of what the USA will look like after the Mega Quake hits, do they know something we don't? Perhaps now we know why all the DUMB's (Deep Underground Military Bases) have been built.
Trust no one and be prepared, when Nemesis becomes visible to all then the truth will be revealed.
We, as humans, always tend to see parts of the picture opposed to the whole picture, when thinking about the activity of our nurturing and life sustaining home, Mother Earth. The reality is much more complex than most of us are able to comprehend, and even worse of all, it's all based on mere chances or anomalies as others might choose to call them. One thing is certain, there are an overwhelming amount of changes in the patterns of volcanic, tectonic, atmospheric and human activities, so much so the Earth must be given a chance to compensate for our movements and the movements of the environment it which it lives. Any changes in the Pacific Ring of Fire is sure to also cause a change and uptick in activity in places such as Yellowstone. We are all living on one large globe, any change to one part of the globe will most definitely affect the other side of the globe as well.
Regardless of all this, what we always seem to overlook is the fact that we just cannot control our environment, hell we can't even put our minds together to conquer poverty, what makes us think we can predict or much less control its processes. My idea on the make-up of our Earth, how H2O came into play and how living creature DNA had laid dormant in the newly created mother Earth for hundreds of millions of years, and how they all came into play is beyond the scope of what has ever been proposed on that theory. Never mind trying to factor something as mundane as Religion into that, it just doesn't work.
Anyway, I picture a distant galaxy imploding out of existence and exploding its children, including a number earth-like planets, out into the vastness of space. And by mere chance one of these earth-like planet collided with a a newly formed planet in our solar system, say at around the outer range of Uranus, and like with the physics of objects in a gravitationally controlled environment will tend to crash into themselves time and time again, and finally resting in the spot close to where mercury lies at this time, then over billions of years Earth gradually comes to a position in our solar system in which life can finally start taking shape based on it's pre-existence. If we know anything at all, we do know life is resilient, and based on that knowledge I wouldn't be so ignorant as to claim extreme heat and radiation will kill all living DNA under all circumstances, for we just cant certify this assumption should even be made.
Long story short, life existed before Humans on earth, life will continue to exist without Humans in our galaxy, and Humans or Highly Advanced Humans might have or do currently exist in our universe. Yet, the thing we should be thinking more about that anything else in our meager little 100 year lifespans, is how to further the extent and reach of the human race, as we know it, into the distances of our unfathomably vast universe.
First off, we can't seem to be able to put our privates away enough to help curb the rampant overpopulation of the Earth's surfaces and life sustaining resources. And with overpopulation comes disease, famine and numerous other calamities, there just isn't any real way around it. So we must stop the infighting over ridiculous thoughts of religion, greed or self promotion and look to the future with a collective understanding of our position in the grand scheme of things. After all, it truly is just us Humans against the will of our universe, in case you haven't yet noticed.
Since the Japan earthquake, the Yellowstone area is still very much nominal on earthquake activity. In fact, there hasn't been even one minor earthquake in Yellowstone since this earthquake in Japan occurred. There were 3 less than magnitude 2 the day before.
It's something I keep constant track of because I live 85 miles away from the center of the cauldera.
I'll be the first one to say something if that changes.
the universe is in control - there, I said it in only five words!
The Earth's geologic processes are something we'll never have control of.
We slightly influence it when we move entire mountains around and drain billions of tons of oil out of the ground in certain areas, but we can't calculate with any accuracy where and how those relatively slight changes that we make to Earth's crust will alter the natural course of geologic events.
Has there been any real research done correlating solar flare activity and plate tectonics.........The earth is a giant magnet and has to absorb massive amounts of energy during these events.......
Chad
Oh Hell, if Yellowstones cauldera goes humanity as a whole is in store for a hellava lot of hurt. You will not be safe anywhere from its effects. Every disaster prior will seem like a mouse fart compared to what humanity will be in for.
I think I need to start stocking up water, food, gasoline, medical supplies, just in case some where other then where I live, 12 blocks from the ocean and roughly forty minutes from a nuclear power plant. And tools so I can come back and help. Its strange that the emergency response center is eight blocks from the ocean and at sea level.
I do have my little stockpiles of stuff. You can go to http://www.fema.gov/plan/index.shtm to get ideas for planning for various types of disasters and what to store. Not everyone has the space but you can at least store a few days worth of stuff. Water can go on the floors of closets. Boxes of food items under beds.
Just saying. Better to store a bit so you don`t have to stand in long lines.
The ante will be upped as the moon's approach to the earth nears, peaking March 19th and coming closer to us than in many many years. It's effect on the earth is scientifically documented. Could Japan be a result of this and will the earths' crust rupture again? Predicting the likely movement of plates and their association to each other is exhausting. Yeah, if the plate in question is close enough to another plate then it must be affected by each others movement - not rocket science. I am more concerned about the trigger that has the plates moving so violently in a quake 7.0 and above to begin with. What we seem to forget is how the earth is part of the universe and that it's influence is hard to detect or see but is immense...
I've been waiting for "the Big One" to happen in Kalifornia for years. Then we Ohioans can visit the new island, or see our friends in Nevada get a seacoast. Either way, it's a dream within a dream.
Southern California will never drop into the ocean or become an island. It's a lateral strike-slip fault.
In a few million years, Los Angeles and part of the San Fransisco Bay Area will be right next to each other. Some day, a large earthquake will tear the Golden Gate Bridge apart.
randy,
your 'dream within a dream' will affect many millions of lives negatively, and your callousness is appalling. many lives will be lost, and more will be forever changed, likely for the worse.
this is your dream?
are all Ohioans as morbid as yourself? or could it just be you?
congratulations on the most pathetic and inhumane post i've ever come across. and on newsvine, that is saying a lot.
Obviously you're completely ignorant of the fact that the Mississippi valley is a major fault line and there are small earthquakes along it all the time.
The earth is simply shrugging off a destructive and parasitic species. And none too soon.
I sometimes feel that the USGS is populated by the same kind of people who laughingly dismissed Alfred Wegener's theory of continenatl drift and plate tectonics. "It's rock, for pete's sake! How could it possibly move?!?" Then the US Navy did a long research project using sonar to map the ocean floor and all of a sudden, the laughter died. Wegener was right, the other guys were wrong.
It doesn't matter to me if someone misnames plate boundaries or something like that. Real issue is that the plate boundary that slipped last year off BioBio, Chile runs directly north along the South American coast, up past Central America and Mexico, through the Baja -- remember THAT quake? -- northward through southern California, then out to the Pacific and northward along the California/Oregon/ Washington coast all the way up to Alaska. The Juan de Fuca plate abuts the western edge of the Cascadia plate. It has seen a lot of activity in the past few weeks, all in one spot. Whether you agree with Winchester or not, it appears to be in the process of getting ready to snap.
I certainly would not dismiss someone's intuition. I know someone who predicted the Japanese quake back in January. She's quite shaken up about it, because she had hoped she would be wrong. She is now telling me that she believes there WILL be a quake, a big one, off the northern California coast, and frankly, I believe she's right.
What part of the northern CA coast (I live way north on the CA coast)???
Cascadian area, near Petrolia and general area around there.
Well, folks we are all going to die, no way around it. The earth will contine to change as it always has. If we learn to live as if each day is the last, you ll die with few regrets. Im truly sorry for the loss of life in Japan. God bless
I wonder how much of a role, if any, Precession plays in this phenomena?
cloverdale california has had clusters of quakes everyday for a long time now so it may be ready to go or all the small ones may have relieved/adjusted the stress.........we may never know or we may know soon......if i lived there i would sleep in running clothes.
From my back door, to the NNE, I can see 1 volcano, Mt. Baker. From my front door, to the SSE, I can see a second volcano, Mt. Rainier. In between them, and to the East ( more or less ) there is Glacier Peak. And that's just 3 of the 5 volcanoes that are in Washington State. As for the Cascadia Subduction Zone, it's due West about 100 miles ( quick guess ).
According to the dnr.wa.gov site ... " More than 1,000 earthquakes occur in the state annually. "
Our new State Matto is .... " Washington State. It's not just the rain."
If you are leaving California to get away from earth quakes, this is not the place to move to.
No one has mentioned the Volcanic activity in Hawaii. Could this not be a pressure release under the Pacific Plate and buffer the west coast from movement on the other side of the plate???
I'm waiting for the next new end of the world prediction.
im going out on a limb here, but i predict the end of the world is coming.
at some point in time.
in all seriousness, the catastrophe in Japan is serious and i pray for all who have been impacted. hope for the best in all possible quake zones.
stay well people.
Rather a selfish attitude, randy. No concern for your fellow-man.........just about you, is it?
God is warning all peoples - get ready for our Lord's return. The end-times events predicted thousands of years ago are coming true. Repent now before it is too late. I pray for each and every one of you reading this.
m, please do not pray for me since the whole thing about end-of-days was written by man to scare him and her into giving the church money. This god you speak of is ready to do mankind the death blow. When has he/she/it given anything good....never. Oh, that's right the Flood, where god watered the lawns for us.
The people of Japan need a little more than this being called a warning and the rest of us getting ready for end-of-days. Why not spend more time seeing what you can do for your fellow man instead of believing in a childs story book. Since it was written by man and rewritten over and over until each translator got it right for their own masses. What bible did they read before the King James Version? Someone elses version and it continues throughout history. Why it took the church, Catholic Church, hundreds of years to come up with the idea of immaculate conception.
But, on the subject of Japan, they are in a world of hurt and this could be a defining moment in mans history. With all that is going on in the world we need to work together and help those in need. This could be one of those step changes that requires a rethinking of the way we as a people do things such as energy.
frank,
i cant let this one go.
King James version is the same as was read in the day Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross for human sin. if you doubt, check the dead sea scrolls. they all pre-date Christ, yet are the same as we have today.
the Catholic church is a conglomeration of ancient roman beliefs combined with Christianity. there is no 'infallible man' (pope is man)
the Bible is far from a childs storybook, perhaps if you actually read it, you would understand. since you havent, leave "m" and "m's" post alone. it required no response from you, it caused you no pain, nor heartache, and obviously you dont feel it pertains to you.
man has provided the deathblow for man, God gave all of us freewill. we make our own choices and live with the consequences. dont like them? change your choices. if the end is indeed near (and spoken of in the book of Revelation) shouldnt you consider with some seriousness what choices you have been making? if not, dont worry about what someone else does, you are only responsible for yourself.
if you dont believe, no problem. but there is absolutely no need for a response such as yours. m believes, let it go.
you speak of working together to help those in Japan (and elsewhere i presume) and you are correct. are you aware that Christians are typically 'first responders' to most any crisis?
lastly, you are correct that we need to rethink a great number of things we do, including energy. after all, we have the freewill to do such.
free speech is wonderful, dont attempt to limit someone elses because you disagree with it.
Nonsense. The King James Bible contains gospels written long after Jesus. Not to mention that many gospels were never apart of the official canon. It was translated from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English, and it contains many mistranslations and errors...
correction,
the septuagint (Old Testament) is the same now as was in the day Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross.
no mistranslations nor errors.
hello old friend hippocrite. taken to following me now?
So now that you know you were wrong about the King James Bible having existed in Jesus' time, now you change your claim to the Greek Septuagint and state it has no mistranslations nor errors. Do you really want to state that as fact or as your opinion.
I Find it fun to show how crazy about the bible you are and how little of it you understand.
hippocrite,
i realized my error prior to your post. i had no clue you would be stalking me.
point out an error.
show me how little i understand. i am patient.
only a small, insecure little boy would behave as you do.
Your claim that the Greek Septuagint has no mistranslations nor errors. I challenge that presumption.
1. Which Sea did G-d part allowing Moses to escape from Egypt? It is the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds? From the Tanahk Yam Suph, Septuagint's translation is ἐρυθρά θάλασσα. It is now being heavily debated that the Red Sea was not the correct translation. This is a mistranslation from the Greek Septuagint, and Hebrew suph which never meant "red" but rather "reeds"... Thus all books based on that translation contain errors...
2. The sources of the many differences between the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate and the Masoretic text have long been discussed by scholars. Following the Renaissance, a common opinion among some humanists was that the LXX (Septuagint) translators bungled the translation from the Hebrew and that the LXX became more corrupt with time. The most widely accepted view today is that the original Septuagint provided a reasonably accurate record of an early Hebrew textual variant that differed from the ancestor of the Masoretic text as well as those of the Latin Vulgate, where both of the latter seem to have a more similar textual heritage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint#The_Septuagint.2C_the_Latin_Vulgate_and_the_Masoretic_text
hippocrite,
who is alive now that was around during the time of the OT? who decided it was 'reed' instead of 'red'? and who decided that was some 'major flaw' that proves the entire scripture is flawed?
Encyclopaedia Judaica states "RED SEA (Heb. PBs My, yam suf; lit. "Sea of Reeds")" (see related link - 'Where is the Red Sea'). Whilst the "Reed Sea" may be considered to be different to the "Red Sea" now, in fact the two were one and the same. The Red Sea still remains clearly defined as the place of the Israelites' crossing. The miracle of the parting of the waters for the Israelites and the drowning of the Egyptians remains the same. Archaeological research has discovered ancient coral-encrusted chariot wheels and other evidence in what is now known as the Red Sea to suggest that the Biblical account of the crossing of the Sea is historical fact.
reprinted from one of my prior posts. there is nothing definite as far as 'mistranslations'.
the rest of your post is OPINION, not fact.
I agree, our Golden State is next in line. My theory isn't exactly like Simon's, though. As the author of The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes, today I was back on The Mancow Show (on his show Jan. 3, I predicted great quakes in the Ring of Fire with tsunamis).
Asked for my latest forecast, I said (again, dished it out on in Jan. this yr.), CA. Potential epis: Offshore NorCal (Eureka/Petrolia); SF Bay Area (South Bay/East Bay); SoCal (SFV/San Bernardino--to SAF). I sense a trigger effect will happen after the Japan quakes.
Also, back in mid June of 2005, we had a ping pong of 7.2, 6.7 Offshore NorCal and then down in SoCal moderate/strong quakes. So, this type of activity certainly could occur again. Many people believe the SuperMoon coming on the 19th could spawn quakes, but I'm giving this CA eq prediction through April since March (great AK 1964 quake) and April (1906 SF quake/1984 Morgan Hill 6.2) are known shaky months. Also, I say major not the Big One yet. Probability 60% by Apr 30; 100% by the end of 2011.
www.calorey.com
I'm not sure that anyone should take a natural disaster warning from a journalist seriously... The fact that a journalist "often covers geological history" does not make them an expert in the field of seismology or geophysics. Even so, experts can only give the probability, not a prediction, of an earthquake occurring at a certain location.
Very sobering...
aluicious,
Personally, I'm not just an author but an earthquake sensitive/intuitive who has a proven track record for accurate quake, weather, etc., forecasts; and that is why I end up on national shows. Nobody has a 100% accuracy rate for sensing oncoming temblors, but countless intuitives have done this time and time again.
I have no words for your lame response.
Whole lot of misinformation in the article and comments. The fact is: you'd better be very far away when it happens.
Are we sure that testing in north korea is not the cause for the problems in japan.They say they have the A-Bomb.The tsunami could be from testing!!!!! I`m just saying it could a possible cause for this.......