From one end of the U.S. to the other, Winter Storm Helena has caused deadly crashes, power outages, flooding, reports of empty grocery shelves and more, and as Helena leaves damage strewn across her path, Winter Storm Ira comes up behind her to add to the misery, but it isn't just winter storms that we should be looking at, but the rise in volcanic activity and massive increase in intensity and frequency of large earthquakes, indicates that something very strange is happening worldwide and it is only going to get worse.
Normally I would start with what is affecting only America first, but to understand the scope of this issue, we will present a set of graphs created by Gary Walton of The Big Wobble, using information from the USGS, which show major earthquakes this century in comparison with major earthquakes in the first 17 years of last century from January 1900 through January 1917.
EARTHQUAKES - THE EARTH IS LITERALLY SHAKING
The images speak for themselves.
While the visual is shocking, the actual numbers show the scope of the extremely dramatic increase, as Walton explains:
But it’s the earthquakes statistics which I find jaw-dropping, this century, from January the 1st in the year 2,000 until January 2017 a total of 2,697 major quakes have been recorded. In the same period, January the 1st 1900 to January 1917 only 97 major quakes were recorded.....
According to the USGS, Monday, January 9, 2017 at 10:00am ET, we see the activity listed for the last 30 days, listed as "Significant Earthquakes," includes the 7.9 magnitude EQ that hit Papua New Guinea on 12/17/16, the 7.6 mag. that hit Chile on 12/25/16, multiple magnitude 6 EQ's in New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Brazil, East Timor, Indonesia and Fiji, with three "significant EQ's listed for Hawthorne Nevada, all on the same day 12/28/16, two of them mag. 5.6 and one 5.5, just to name a few.
Just using Hawthorne, Nevada as an example of what is being noted in just one area, while the USGS had the ones above listed as "significant," a look at how many earthquakes of any size they have suffered over the last 30 days, according to Earthquake Track.com, Hawthorne, Nevada has had 2 earthquakes in the past 24 hours, 66 earthquakes in the past 7 days and 389 earthquakes in the past 30 days.
They list 691 earthquakes in the past 365 days, meaning that over half the earthquakes they have had in a one year period, all occurred in the last 30 days alone.
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY
We'll start here with the big one. Reports from late December 2016 indicate that scientists issued a report in the journal Nature Communications, that Italy's Campi Flegrei, considered "one of Earth's most dangerous Supervolcanoes" is rumbling and may be reawakening. It is important to note that these aren't "fringe" scientist and in fact their warnings were taken so seriously by Italy's government, that they raised the volcano's threat level from green to yellow.
Why should Americans or the rest of the world be disturbed about a volcano in Italy, other than be concerned for the 500,000 people in Italy that live above it?
Campi Flegrei is thought to have formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. A massive eruption 200,000 years ago spewed so much ash that it darkened the skies around the planet, triggering a "volcanic winter." That event is thought to have been the largest volcanic episode in the history of Europe over that time.
While Campi Flegrei has been "slumbering" for the past 500 years, the report indicate scientists believe it "may be waking up and approaching a 'critical state'."
"We propose that magma could be approaching the critical degassing pressure at Campi Flegrei, a volcano in the metropolitan area of Naples, one of the most densely inhabited areas in the world, and where accelerating deformation and heating are currently being observed," the authors wrote.
By January 7, 2016, a report by StrangeSoundsOrg, states that Hydrogen sulfide has killed hundreds of fish at Lake Averno, which is situated in the Campi Flegrei volcanic field. While this type of event has happened there before, on the heels of the news the Supervolcano may be awakening and is rumbling, leads the article linked above to ask "Is that a natural and cyclical phenomenon or are these signs of an imminent eruption of Campi Flegrei?"
The Smithsonian Institute, Global Volcanism Program shows "new" activity has occurred at six volcanoes from December 28, 2016, to January 3, 2017, three in Russia, one in the U.S., Ecuador and Peru. They list 10 more as "ongoing."
They offer the following caveat: This is not a comprehensive list of all of Earth's volcanoes erupting during the week, but rather a summary of activity at volcanoes that meet criteria discussed in detail in the "Criteria and Disclaimers."
According to the Criteria and Disclaimers page, their weekly reports does "not necessarily include all volcanic activity that occurred on Earth during the week."
More than a dozen volcanoes globally have displayed more-or-less continuous eruptive activity for decades or longer, and such routine activity is typically not reported here. Moreover, Earth's sea-floor volcanism is seldom reported even though in theory it represents the single most prolific source of erupted material. The Weekly Volcanic Activity Report summarizes volcanic activity that meets one or more of the following criteria:
- A volcano observatory raises or lowers the alert level at the volcano.; - A volcanic ash advisory has been released by a volcanic ash advisory center (VAAC) stating that an ash cloud has been produced from the volcano.; - A verifiable news report of new activity or a change in activity at the volcano has been issued.; - Observers have reported a significant change in volcanic activity. Such activity can include, but is not restricted to, pyroclastic flows, lahars, lava flows, dome collapse, or increased unrest.
For a more comprehensive list of all the volcanoes across the globe and earthquake activity, either showing signs of unrest (yellow), have a warning/minor activity (orange) or are actively erupting (red), that is provided with details at Volcano Discovery, which provides the following graph of active volcanoes and recent earthquakes worldwide.
The West Coast is now being pummeled by heavy rain that is expected to cause flooding and landslides.
That is just the tip of the iceberg of what is being seen across the U.S. from Winter Storm Helena, and according to CBN News, "Forecasters now warn that Winter Storm Ira is not too far behind. So far, Ira's is impacting the West with snow and ice but could make its way to the Midwest and Northeast by early next week."
Inevitable we see people claim, "it is just winter, happens every year!," but those same people can never explain why each year sees multiple reports using terms like "record breaking," or "historic," and we see them with increasing frequency, which indicates that things are getting worse, more deadly each and every year.
When something is called historic or breaks records, weather-wise, that means it is worse that anything seen before, hence, not just "normal" events, but getting worse and we are seeing those types of descriptors more and more frequently over the years.
It is not just winter storms and those unprepared no matter how much warning they receive beforehand, it is the constant increasing strengthened hurricanes, cyclones, the amount of active volcanoes with scientists warning of an awakening Supervolcano, the increasing frequency and intensity of earthquakes, captured visually by the graphs at the top showing how many more we are now seeing compared to what was seen last century..... it is everything together that leads to the conclusion that something strange is happening worldwide and it is getting worse.
