Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Shammu]

This is something, I have given much prayer, and though over. 2nd Timothy, and myself haven't done much in this area.

Luke 21:25 "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth the distress of nations, with great perplexity, over the sea and the roaring of the waves."      

Matthew 24:3-8  "And you will be hearing of wars an rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines, and pestilence's and earthquakes. "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."
___________________________________________________

The storm waves ripping boulders from our shores
By Nic Fleming
(Filed: 18/08/2004)

Giant storm waves already over 65ft high are getting bigger, occurring more frequently and eroding Britain's Atlantic coast, according to new research.
   

Rocks the size of Transit vans are being ripped from cliff faces and transported up to 50 yards inland in exposed areas such as Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.

Piles of large boulders found inland behind cliffs were displaced by storm waves rather than by tsunamis (a series of waves generated by volcanic eruptions or earthquakes), landslides or sea level changes, as previously believed.

Jim Hanson, a coastal geomorphologist at the University of Glasgow, told delegates at the International Geographical Union congress in the city yesterday that the erosion was expected to accelerate because sea levels are rising and the coastline is sinking.

Mr Hanson said: "The distance these large boulders are being moved is spectacular. They are being ripped from cliffs up to 120ft above sea level and thrown about to form boulder beaches.

"These giant storm waves have either been overlooked to date, or interpreted as the products of tsunami.

"But the boulder ridges were formed in recent times and there are no records of recent tsunamis. Because sea levels are continuing to rise and larger waves are hitting the cliffs, the rate of modification of the coastline and creation of these boulder ridges is increasing."

The giant boulder beaches occur only in exposed, remote areas where sea levels are deep because the waves become smaller in shallower depths. The researchers examined sites such as Esha Ness and the Grind of the Navir in Shetland.

In the north Atlantic, waves in excess of 65ft occur more than 100 times a year, and 95ft waves occur on average once every 100 years.

The average winter wave height increased 15 per cent between 1985 and 1995 in the area to the west of the Shetland, and global sea levels have increased by a millimetre per year over the past century.

At 160ft above sea level, two ton rocks are displaced, at 65ft, five ton rocks are seen above the cliffs and 100 ton boulders have been moved at 40ft above sea level.

The research, a joint effort between the universities of Glasgow, St Andrews and Strathclyde, found that many of the boulder beaches have been formed relatively recently because of human debris found below them and lichen patterns on the rocks.

Stone huts on the Aran islands positioned 95ft above sea level were buried by boulders during a storm in 1839 known as the "Night of the Big Wind".

Previous research in Australia and the Caribbean has suggested similar effects there were caused by tsunamis. However, the last known tsunami in the North Atlantic occurred 4,900 years ago and the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 produced only slight waves in Scotland.

The drilling ship Schiehallion based to the west of Shetland has been damaged several times recently by giant waves. It is now being designed with tougher plates.

Mr Hanson's team now plans to place pressure pads at the Grind of the Navir to measure the forces created by the giant waves.

He said: "We aim to install a test cliff with remote recording instruments, but we will not be hanging around there waiting. These places are definitely not the place to be hanging around having a picnic when these giant waves occur."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=0LV2EIZY1KADPQFIQMGSNAGAVCBQWJVC?
xml=/news/2004/08/18/nwave18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/18/ixhome.html
Please C&P the link to your browser window. I didn't like it when I had to move the scroll bar on the bottom.

Bob

[Shammu]

Ship-sinking monster waves revealed by ESA satellites
 
21 July 2004
Once dismissed as a nautical myth, freakish ocean waves that rise as tall as ten-storey apartment blocks have been accepted as a leading cause of large ship sinkings. Results from ESA's ERS satellites helped establish the widespread existence of these 'rogue' waves and are now being used to study their origins.
 
Severe weather has sunk more than 200 supertankers and container ships exceeding 200 metres in length during the last two decades. Rogue waves are believed to be the major cause in many such cases.

Mariners who survived similar encounters have had remarkable stories to tell. In February 1995 the cruiser liner Queen Elizabeth II met a 29-metre high rogue wave during a hurricane in the North Atlantic that Captain Ronald Warwick described as "a great wall of water… it looked as if we were going into the White Cliffs of Dover."

And within the week between February and March 2001 two hardened tourist cruisers – the Bremen and the Caledonian Star – had their bridge windows smashed by 30-metre rogue waves in the South Atlantic, the former ship left drifting without navigation or propulsion for a period of two hours.
 
 
   
Damage done by a rogue wave
   
"The incidents occurred less than a thousand kilometres apart from each other," said Wolfgang Rosenthal - Senior Scientist with the GKSS Forschungszentrum GmbH research centre, located in Geesthacht in Germany - who has studied rogue waves for years. "All the electronics were switched off on the Bremen as they drifted parallel to the waves, and until they were turned on again the crew were thinking it could have been their last day alive.

"The same phenomenon could have sunk many less lucky vessels: two large ships sink every week on average, but the cause is never studied to the same detail as an air crash. It simply gets put down to 'bad weather'."

Offshore platforms have also been struck: on 1 January 1995 the Draupner oil rig in the North Sea was hit by a wave whose height was measured by an onboard laser device at 26 metres, with the highest waves around it reaching 12 metres.
 
 
Merchant ship
   
Giant wave in Bay of Biscay
   
Objective radar evidence from this and other platforms – radar data from the North Sea's Goma oilfield recorded 466 rogue wave encounters in 12 years - helped convert previously sceptical scientists, whose statistics showed such large deviations from the surrounding sea state should occur only once every 10000 years.

The fact that rogue waves actually take place relatively frequently had major safety and economic implications, since current ships and offshore platforms are built to withstand maximum wave heights of only 15 metres.

In December 2000 the European Union initiated a scientific project called MaxWave to confirm the widespread occurrence of rogue waves, model how they occur and consider their implications for ship and offshore structure design criteria. And as part of MaxWave, data from ESA's ERS radar satellites were first used to carry out a global rogue wave census.
 
 
ERS-1 and 2
   
ERS satellite
   
"Without aerial coverage from radar sensors we had no chance of finding anything," added Rosenthal, who headed the three-year MaxWave project. "All we had to go on was radar data collected from oil platforms. So we were interested in using ERS from the start."

ESA's twin spacecraft ERS-1 and 2 – launched in July 1991 and April 1995 respectively – both have a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) as their main instrument.

The SAR works in several different modes; while over the ocean it works in wave mode, acquiring 10 by 5 km 'imagettes' of the sea surface every 200 km.
 
 
   
Example of an imagette from ERS-2
   
These small imagettes are then mathematically transformed into averaged-out breakdowns of wave energy and direction, called ocean-wave spectra. ESA makes these spectra publicly available; they are useful for weather centres to improve the accuracy of their sea forecast models.

"The raw imagettes are not made available, but with their resolution of ten metres we believed they contained a wealth of useful information by themselves," said Rosenthal. "Ocean wave spectra provide mean sea state data but imagettes depict the individual wave heights including the extremes we were interested in.

"ESA provided us with three weeks' worth of data – around 30,000 separate imagettes – selected around the time that the Bremen and Caledonian Star were struck. The images were processed and automatically searched for extreme waves at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR)."
 
 
   
Giant wave detected in ERS-2 imagette data
   
Despite the relatively brief length of time the data covered, the MaxWave team identified more than ten individual giant waves around the globe above 25 metres in height.

"Having proved they existed, in higher numbers than anyone expected, the next step is to analyse if they can be forecasted," Rosenthal added. "MaxWave formally concluded at the end of last year although two lines of work are carrying on from it – one is to improve ship design by learning how ships are sunk, and the other is to examine more satellite data with a view to analysing if forecasting is possible."

A new research project called WaveAtlas will use two years worth of ERS imagettes to create a worldwide atlas of rogue wave events and carry out statistical analyses. The Principal Investigator is Susanne Lehner, Associate Professor in the Division of Applied Marine Physics at the University of Miami, who also worked on MaxWave while at DLR, with Rosental a co-investigator on the project.
 
 
"Looking through the imagettes ends up feeling like flying, because you can follow the sea state along the track of the satellite," Lehner said. "Other features like ice floes, oil slicks and ships are also visible on them, and so there's interest in using them for additional fields of study.

"Only radar satellites can provide the truly global data sampling needed for statistical analysis of the oceans, because they can see through clouds and darkness, unlike their optical counterparts. In stormy weather, radar images are thus the only relevant information available."

So far some patterns have already been found. Rogue waves are often associated with sites where ordinary waves encounter ocean currents and eddies. The strength of the current concentrates the wave energy, forming larger waves – Lehner compares it to an optical lens, concentrating energy in a small area.
 
 
   
Giant wave in a wave tank
   
This is especially true in the case of the notoriously dangerous Agulhas current off the east coast of South Africa, but rogue wave associations are also found with other currents such as the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, interacting with waves coming down from the Labrador Sea.

However the data show rogue waves also occur well away from currents, often occurring in the vicinity of weather fronts and lows. Sustained winds from long-lived storms exceeding 12 hours may enlarge waves moving at an optimum speed in sync with the wind – too quickly and they'd move ahead of the storm and dissipate, too slowly and they would fall behind.

"We know some of the reasons for the rogue waves, but we do not know them all," Rosenthal concluded. The WaveAtlas project is scheduled to continue until the first quarter of 2005.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOKQL26WD_index_0.html

[Shammu]

Toll in Philippine Floods Tops 1,000
Thu Dec 2, 2004 07:42 AM ET

By Erik de Castro

REAL, Philippines (Reuters) - More than 1,000 people have been killed or are missing after mudslides and flash floods devastated three coastal towns in the Philippines, a military spokesman said Thursday.

Residents of towns hit by floods have now fled to higher ground to escape an approaching powerful typhoon whipping them with rain and wind and threatening more destruction.

"Based on reports from our troops in the field, they have listed 479 dead and 560 missing in three towns in Quezon province," said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Buenaventura Pascual.

Typhoon Nanmadol had gained strength and was expected to make landfall close to the worst flood-affected areas on the eastern coast late Thursday, packing winds of 115 mph and on course to sweep through the main northern island of Luzon.

With flying conditions treacherous and roads cut off, disaster officials said they could do little to protect thousands of people made homeless by this week's floods and who were running short of food and drinking water.

"We are very concerned and we are not sure how we can avoid further casualties in these areas," Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told Reuters.

"If you go on the slopes, the ground is very loose. If you go on (lower) ground, the water can rise and you might have mudslides."

Airlines canceled several domestic and international flights and thousands were stranded at ports after ferries halted services. Schools, government offices and Manila's foreign exchange market closed early.

Officials say at least 421 people have died and nearly 200 are missing after landslides and floods hit several areas of Luzon Monday. Illegal logging was blamed for exacerbating the disaster in which three coastal towns were devastated by a torrent of mud and logs in the wake of heavy rains.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said 37,400 families, or 168,000 people, had been affected.

The agriculture department said this week's storm and two others that hit the northern and central Philippines last month had caused an estimated 830 million pesos ($14.7 million) in damage to crops, livestock and fisheries.

Soliman said the government, deep in debt and struggling to cut its budget deficit, would have to spend 90 percent of the 1 billion pesos it sets aside annually for disaster relief.

APPEAL FOR HELP

Hundreds of people from the town of Real, where more than 100 people died, trudged through deep mud to try to reach higher ground before the typhoon hit.

Swathes of Real and two nearby towns, mostly inhabited by fishermen and farmers, were buried under chocolate-colored mud.

"We are very scared, that's why we are walking again to a higher area," said Lolita Serrano, 53, from the coastal area in Quezon province east of Manila.

"We haven't eaten in two days and haven't received anything from the government."

The government said it could not cope alone with the disaster and appealed for international assistance.

Japan said it would provide 15 million pesos worth of aid in the form of tents, generators, water tanks and other items. The U.S. Embassy announced it would give $100,000 to the Philippine Red Cross to provide assistance to flood victims.

Elma Aldea, an official at the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), said the U.S. military had promised to provide engineers to help to clear roads and build bridges.

"There is no potable water in these areas and we are afraid there will be an epidemic," she said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Restituto Padilla told Reuters that air force pilots had seen dozens of bodies floating in swollen rivers or buried in waist-deep mud.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a nationwide crackdown Wednesday on illegal logging, blamed for several landslide disasters in recent years.

But many were skeptical, given that previous crackdowns had failed to stamp out the practice, which experts say is worth millions of dollars a year to smugglers and corrupt politicians.

"The problem is that after the public weeping and gnashing of teeth, everyone goes back to sleep," the Philippine Daily Inquirer said in an editorial.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6977413

[Shammu]

Avoiding a Mideast Water War
By Mark Zeitoun
Wednesday, February 4, 2004; Page A23

JERUSALEM -- Last summer was long and hot in the West Bank. It was also very dry. Palestinian summers typically are dry, and water for crops and drinking has always been scarce. But for Palestinians suffering under a double yoke of drought-level rainfall and the Israeli occupation, these years are drier and thirstier than ever. The only permanent surface watercourses in the area are the Jordan River and the Lake of Tiberias. The waters are allocated, under the terms of a 1996 agreement, between Jordan and Israel. The Palestinians living along the Jordan River's west bank are entitled to not a drop of it.

Apart from springs, the only source of water available to Palestinians is the water in underground reservoirs (aquifers) directly under their feet. These aquifers also are a prime water source for Israel -- providing 40 percent of its groundwater requirements. The groundwater of the Gaza Strip is shallow and easy to pump but increasingly contaminated by untreated sewage and seawater. The groundwater in the West Bank is relatively "sweet" (of good quality) but -- as it is often located as deep as 1,500 feet below the earth's surface -- an enormous amount of energy is required to drill and pump it out. Of the aquifers that lie mainly under Israel, Israel draws 100 percent. Of those that lie mainly under the West Bank, Palestinians draw 20 percent, Israel 80 percent. The average Israeli uses roughly 350 cubic meters of water per year -- four times the amount used by the average Palestinian.

Most of this water is consumed for agricultural purposes. The agricultural sector represents 2 percent to 3 percent of the Israeli gross domestic product but 24 percent to 30 percent of the Palestinian GDP. A critical natural resource that is both scarce and unfairly distributed is a catalyst for conflict. And while the root of the conflict here has been over land, water is playing a growing role. The establishment of the Joint Water Committee (JWC) between Palestinian and Israeli technicians under the Oslo Accords seemed a step toward cooperation. But the power asymmetries between the two sides reflected in the JWC's structure contributed to the ineffectiveness of the JWC, and well before the Oslo Accords were dead, unregulated pumping and crippling destruction of the aquifers were underway. The "separation barrier" being built inside the West Bank is testament to just how bad things have become. The wall's effective annexation of the land in this prime water territory has put at least 50 wells out of service, so that about a third of the water once available to Palestinians from the Western Aquifer is now in Israeli hands. The result is felt both by the farmers who lose their crops and by all concerned about the viability of a future Palestinian state.

The illegal settlements, so costly to maintain and scorned by the mainstream Israeli public, make things worse. The construction of settlements and the deep wells necessary to sustain them continues. Private (Palestinian) water-tankers lumber up to the settlements every summer, looking for water to take back to villagers who are immobile in their sealed-off villages -- and thirsty. At a price between five and 15 times that charged by the Israeli government, there is always a settler willing to make the deal. The irony of this lucrative, illegal business is not lost on the Palestinian farmer: Not only is the water "stolen" from under his feet, he is then actually forced to buy it back from the "thief." Many farmers have reverted, in turn, to digging their own unregulated shallow wells. The end result: The aquifers are being pierced and overpumped at rates unparalleled in history. Meanwhile, Palestinian water infrastructure continues to suffer targeted destruction in various Israeli military operations.

While the situation is not sustainable, there is a way out. Israel's great advantage in political, military and economic power actually offers it the opportunity and responsibility to avoid more conflict. Water in this tiny, dry land must be managed by all parties concerned and can no longer be held hostage to destructive military, political or religious interests. Both sides must have rights to their resources, and a reformed cooperating institution must be established to allow for equitable joint water management. The situation could change from one of theft and finger-pointing to one of equal use and responsibility. Unless this happens, a technically resolvable issue will continue toward the sphere of unavoidable conflict.

http://www.genocidewatch.org/Avoiding%20a%20Mideast%20Water%20War.htm

[Shammu]

EarthQuakes from my own study, show the average, has gone up. From http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?board=4;action=display;
threadid=3762
Post number 7

I am still keeping track, of earthquakes. The site I use is,
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/

Most earthquake activeity is centered around the "Ring of Fire" area. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/

Right as I checked, they have had an earthquake in Mexico. Less then 1 hour ago, so I guess you will hear, about it in the morning.
________________________________________________
Northern Japan hit by new powerful quake
Mon Dec 6, 2:11 PM ET
Science - AFP

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido was jolted by a new powerful earthquake registering 6.9 on the Richter scale, lightly injuring four people, days after a tremor of similar magnitude.

The quake struck a relatively deep 46 kilometers (28 miles) below sea level in the ocean just east of the island's tip, the Japan Meteorological Agency said in revised measurements.

The agency issued a warning for tsunami tidal waves which it called off 40 minutes later at 11:55 pm (1455 GMT).

Two men, a nine-year-old boy and a 77-year-old woman suffered minor injuries from the impact felt in towns in Hokkaido, Kyodo News agency reported, quoting local rescue and hospital authorities.

Train services were temporarily called off as inspectors looked to see if the rail lines sustained any damage, Kyodo News said.

An earthquake of 7.1 on the Richter scale hit Hokkaido on November 29, injuring 17 people in a new sign of seismic activity in tremor-prone Japan.

On October 23, the central region of Niigata was rocked by a temblor registering 6.8 on the Richter scale followed by hundreds of aftershocks, killing 40 people in Japan's deadliest quake in a decade.

The Niigata quake caused so much devastation because it struck a shallow 13 kilometers (nine miles) under the surface near population centers.

Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the earthquake in the western city of Kobe, which killed 6,433 people and prompted Japan to re-examine the way it conducts relief operations for major disasters.

Experts said Japan had a quicker response time after the Niigata quake, with relief supplies expedited and temporary shelters set up.

Tokyo, which felt the impact of the Niigata quake, has set up a computer program that will automatically identify areas to halt trains and vehicular traffic in the event of any tremor of 4.0 on the Richter scale or higher.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1540&ncid=1540&e=6&u=/
afp/20041206/sc_afp/japan_quake_041206191113

[Shammu]

THREE VOLCANOES STIRRING
11.9.2004 17:02:43
No less than three of Icelands most active volcanoes seem to be winding up for action. The three sites are Mt. Hekla, probably Icelands most famous, Katla and Grímsvötn, which are both subglacial, the former under Mýrdalsjökull and the latter under Vatnajökull, and when they blow their tops vast flooding sweeps all before it over the vast black sands on the south coast.

According to geologists, all the sites show distictive details that point to looming outbursts, all have had the usual consistent tremors, all have had the usual "landris" as we call it, when the earths surface creeps upward, pointing to great pressure from lava beneath. And, as far as Hekla is concerned, streams at the foot of the mountain that usually dry up before eruptions, have been dry all summer.

The geologists are not saying that the volcanoes will erupt tomorrow or even in half an hour, but they are not saying either that they will not. But something is brewing, no doubt about that.

http://www.lax-a.is/news/default.asp?id=138

Also, to keep up on volcanic eruptions.
www.swvrc.org/

Has several different links, on site useful for beginners.

[Shammu]

Global warming induces more typhoons
By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

The four typhoons - Unding, Violeta, Winnie and Yoyong - that stormed the Philippines recently were just a foretaste of forthcoming disasters. Some experts claim the typhoons could be clear signs of the effects of global warming.

"I believe that the weather-related disasters we are having are due to global climate change," says Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, the executive director of the Laguna-based Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development. "The unusual heavy rains we are experiencing are an indication of this."

Elisea Gozon, former environment secretary, also blamed global warming for the series of landslides and floods that wrought death and destruction in the central and southern Philippines shortly before Christmas last year.

"One should, however, point out that this unusually heavy rain is one concrete manifestation of climate change," Gozun said. "Indeed, weather patterns all over the world have been changing - brought about by man's excessive release of greenhouse gases."

Climate change has been blamed for the increasingly erratic weather patterns being seen around the world. "The recent typhoons should serve as a wake-up call for everyone to prepare for the impact of climate change," Dr. Guerrero said.

Dr. Ute Collier, head of the climate change program of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, said the evidence to show recent extreme weather events are the result of global warming was overwhelming.

"We got leading scientists to investigate (the evidence) - we wanted scientists because they're often reluctant to link events such as more floods and the disappearance of Arctic ice to climate change - and they've said that climate change is clearly having an impact on the frequency and intensity of natural disasters," Collier said.

Climate change is indeed bad news for the Philippines. A humid tropical country, it is highly dependent on rainfall and its distribution for agricultural production. "The present day variability of rainfall is very high with projected increase in the frequency of severe weather distortions like typhoons, floods, storm surges, and expected sea level rise," says the Tata Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

According to the New Delhi-based TERI, rich rice- and corn-producing plains of several major river basins of the country, like Cagayan, the Ango, and Pampanga, are now becoming highly vulnerable to floods. Equally vulnerable are the multi-purpose water reservoirs where sedimentation would be accelerated, thus escalating the cost of hydroelectric and irrigation dam management.

"Flooding in the Philippines is brought about by intense precipitation," says TERI, a developing-country institution deeply committed to every aspect of sustainable development.

Extreme dry conditions in the country prevail during the dry season, especially, during El Niño Southern Oscillation episodes. Scientists claim that global warming also triggers the El Niño phenomenon.

During the first half of 2005, the country will experience "a weak but still substantially disruptive" El Niño, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

"(This) El Niño is considerably weaker than the 1997-1998 episode, hence the impact is expected to be lesser," said Prisco D. Nilo, of the weather bureau's Operations and Services.

Scientists say worldwide impacts of global warming - rising sea levels, volatile climate changes with increased El Niños and La Niñas, flooding and droughts, coral bleaching, and shifts in crop productivity - are now unstoppable even if greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically cut.

"It's not a pretty picture," said Steve Sawyer, climate policy adviser with Greenpeace in Amsterdam.

Already, scientists are predicting more extreme rainfall and greater flooding in this century. To substantiate this claim, a research reviewed data on 100-year floods that occurred in the last century for 29 major river basins around the world.

"By definition, a 100-year flood is really extreme and rare," said Dr. Christopher Milly, an atmospheric scientist at the US Geological Survey, who headed the study. "What we can observe when we look at those records is that the number of these extreme flooding events occurred disproportionately in the last decades of the 20th century. The difference is large enough to make you raise your eyebrows. It's hard to believe it could happen by chance, enough that it's worth looking for other reasons why there were so many floods in the last few decades."

Scientists use computer models to predict possible changes in climate. The models use a variety of data on various conditions, such as atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and ocean circulation patterns. By changing these variable conditions, scientists can simulate what might happen in the real world when climate conditions change.

"Our models suggest that instead of the chances of a 100-year flood occurring once every 100 years, which is what you would expect, the risk will increase in the 21st century to somewhere between 3 to 6 chances in 100, which is a manifold increase," said Dr. Milly.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/dec11/envi1.htm

I can see the Hand of God, using mankinds inventions. Can you?

[Shammu]

Wars

Just look whats happening right now. Theres a war in Iraq, Afghanistan. The EU is involved in Bosnia
(CNN) -- The European Union has formally taken over peacekeeping duties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, replacing NATO's Stabilization Force.

A new force called EUFOR that numbers about 7,000 troops will enforce the Dayton peace agreement that ended the bloody Bosnian war in 1995.

The change from NATO to EU on Thursday begins nearly nine years after NATO deployed 60,000 forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in what was the alliance's first peacekeeping operation.

British Maj. Gen. David Leakey, the EUFOR commander, said the situation in Bosnia remained "volatile" despite the fact that the environment had stabilized and the number of peacekeepers in the area had declined greatly.

"There are the ingredients which could cause inter-ethnic tensions and so there needs to be a military force here to deter anybody from resurrecting the war," he said.

"My job here with EUFOR is to make sure that we never, never again have a war in Bosnia."

Leakey is taking over from U.S. Brig. Gen. Steven Schook, the last commander of the NATO-led mission, but the alliance will continue its presence in Bosnia through a NATO headquarters in Sarajevo.

The takeover ceremony in Sarajevo was attended by dignitaries including the Bosnian three-member presidency, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, Javier Solana.

During their time in Bosnia NATO peacekeepers seized 28 people indicted for war crimes by The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

However, they failed to catch the most wanted war crimes suspects, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander General Ratko Mladic.

NATO's failure to arrest the two was often strongly criticized by the ICTY.

About 150 NATO troops will stay to help EUFOR capture war-crimes suspects and help the government build its military force.

NATO leaders, meeting this summer in Istanbul, agreed to end the operation because of the "improved security situation in the country."

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously authorized the establishment of the force.

Before that the UN.
http://www.debate-central.org/topics/2004/LINKS/Peacekeeping_Operations/Operations_in_Europe/

[Soldier4Christ]

EarthQuakes from my own study, show the average, has gone up. From http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?board=4;action=display;
threadid=3762
Post number 7

I am still keeping track, of earthquakes. The site I use is,
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/

Most earthquake activeity is centered around the "Ring of Fire" area. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/

Right as I checked, they have had an earthquake in Mexico. Less then 1 hour ago, so I guess you will hear, about it in the morning.
________________________________________________
Northern Japan hit by new powerful quake
Mon Dec 6, 2:11 PM ET
Science - AFP

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido was jolted by a new powerful earthquake registering 6.9 on the Richter scale, lightly injuring four people, days after a tremor of similar magnitude.

The quake struck a relatively deep 46 kilometers (28 miles) below sea level in the ocean just east of the island's tip, the Japan Meteorological Agency said in revised measurements.

The agency issued a warning for tsunami tidal waves which it called off 40 minutes later at 11:55 pm (1455 GMT).

Two men, a nine-year-old boy and a 77-year-old woman suffered minor injuries from the impact felt in towns in Hokkaido, Kyodo News agency reported, quoting local rescue and hospital authorities.

Train services were temporarily called off as inspectors looked to see if the rail lines sustained any damage, Kyodo News said.

An earthquake of 7.1 on the Richter scale hit Hokkaido on November 29, injuring 17 people in a new sign of seismic activity in tremor-prone Japan.

On October 23, the central region of Niigata was rocked by a temblor registering 6.8 on the Richter scale followed by hundreds of aftershocks, killing 40 people in Japan's deadliest quake in a decade.

The Niigata quake caused so much devastation because it struck a shallow 13 kilometers (nine miles) under the surface near population centers.

Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the earthquake in the western city of Kobe, which killed 6,433 people and prompted Japan to re-examine the way it conducts relief operations for major disasters.

Experts said Japan had a quicker response time after the Niigata quake, with relief supplies expedited and temporary shelters set up.

Tokyo, which felt the impact of the Niigata quake, has set up a computer program that will automatically identify areas to halt trains and vehicular traffic in the event of any tremor of 4.0 on the Richter scale or higher.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1540&ncid=1540&e=6&u=/
afp/20041206/sc_afp/japan_quake_041206191113

Your first link here says it doesn't exist on th boards?

One of the least known volcanoes in the U. S. is in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. It is a Super Volcano. The caldera of this volcano has shown significant activitiy in the last several decades.

This area is also dotted with swarms of earthquakes. These earthquakes have an effect on the volcano activity. Scientists  believe that these eartquakes could either set off the volcano or if fissures are opened in the right area could relieve pressure on the caldera. Scientists do not fully understand the network under Yellowstone Park but they do believe that earthquakes occuring in Alaska have caused earthquakes to increase in the Yellowstone area.

If and when this volcano goes off it could effect an area up to 600 miles away and create a dust cloud that would darken Americas skies for years.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs100-03/

[Shammu]

Pastor, some of the links, I broke down. Look underneath, the link, you have to C&P the whole link. A few of the links streached the messgae board window. So it should read link this,
http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=3762
When you C&P. By the way, this is the link you were refuring to.

Oh I was going to post about Yellowstone. I have more information about it. I finally got to sleep this morning about 6:30.

As of the 4th of December, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), reported that during the month of November 2004, 42 earthquakes were located in the Yellowstone region. The largest of these shocks was a magnitude 1.9 on November 27, 2004 at 1202 AM MDT, located about 21.7 miles east northeast of Fishing Bridge, Wyoming. No earthquakes in this period were reportedly felt. Earthquake activity in the Yellowstone region is at relatively low background levels.

SWVRC wishes to inpress that it is important that everyone understand that current geologic activity at Yellowstone has remained relatively constant since earth scientists first started monitoring some 30 years ago. Prospects of renewed volcanism are still far away. Although another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely to occur in the next thousand or even 10,000 years. Smaller eruptions are more likely, but even so, we see no signals of any impending volcanic unrest. YVO maintains an array of instruments that monitor activities at Yellowstone around the clock.
http://www.swvrc.org/restless.htm

Praising God, for he is worthy.
Bob

[Shammu]

Alaska Weather Stymies Oil Spill Cleanup
Sun Dec 12,12:12 PM ET
U.S. National - AP
By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - With 24-foot seas and 50-knot winds continuing to pound the Aleutian island where a soybean freighter cracked in half, officials Saturday could take only a few small steps toward cleaning up the massive oil spill left behind.

Three days after the 738-foot Selendang Ayu wrecked on the west side of Unalaska Island, Coast Guard officials still didn't know how much of the more than 400,000 gallons of thick oil had spilled because they hadn't been able to board either half of the wreck.

The agency's first priority is avoiding more casualties. Six crew members from the ship were lost when a helicopter crashed after lifting them off the vessel Wednesday; four other people were rescued. A search for the missing crew — five from India and one from the Philippines — was suspended Friday night.

Capt. Ron Morris, the Coast Guard's incident commander, said salvage efforts Saturday were limited to just three missions, including a flight by a Coast Guard helicopter to survey the broken freighter.

A private vessel was to attempt to lay more protective boom in front of streams within Makushin Bay, and a ship hired by the Selendang Ayu's owner was to leave Dutch Harbor, on the other side of Unalaska Island, to bring wildlife experts to the island Sunday to survey and rescue oiled birds.

The Coast Guard had brought in a cutter, the Sycamore, that carries equipment to skim oil in open water. However, oil released so far already has been pushed into surf where contractors will perform the cleanup.

Oil has reached the headlands east of the wreck. Northwest winds also have pushed oil into Skan Bay a few miles north of the wreck. The Coast Guard has unconfirmed reports of a sheen about 10 miles north of the wreck in the much larger Makushin Bay.

The freighter lost power in its main engine Tuesday. Tugs and Coast Guard cutters were unable to halt its drift to Unalaska Island, where it grounded Wednesday and broke apart.

The ship was carrying 440,000 gallons of heavy bunker oil and about 30,000 gallons of fuel. It split in two over the No. 2 tank, which had a capacity of 140,000 gallons. Coast Guard officials say that is the oil that apparently flowed out of the ship.

Morris said incident commanders were planning for one catastrophic release. However, since the initial surge when the ship broke up, oil streaming from the wreck has diminished.

That could mean other tanks on the Selendang Ayu remain intact, but no one will know until the bow and stern pieces are reboarded, said Howard Hile of Gallagher Marine Services, the incident commander for the vessel's owners.

"There is no way to determine what is still there," Hile said.

As of Friday, the two parts of the ship remained upright a couple of hundred yards apart off the rugged island beach, Hile said.

In other developments Saturday, the cutter Alex Haley returned the final 10 survivors rescued from the freighter to Dutch Harbor. Morris said representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board had begun questioning crew about the cause of the wreck.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041212/ap_on_re_us/freighter_aground

[Soldier4Christ]

Pastor, some of the links, I broke down. Look underneath, the link, you have to C&P the whole link. A few of the links streached the messgae board window. So it should read link this,
http://forums.christiansunite.com/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=3762
When you C&P. By the way, this is the link you were refuring to.

Oh I was going to post about Yellowstone. I have more information about it. I finally got to sleep this morning about 6:30.

As of the 4th of December, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), reported that during the month of November 2004, 42 earthquakes were located in the Yellowstone region. The largest of these shocks was a magnitude 1.9 on November 27, 2004 at 1202 AM MDT, located about 21.7 miles east northeast of Fishing Bridge, Wyoming. No earthquakes in this period were reportedly felt. Earthquake activity in the Yellowstone region is at relatively low background levels.

SWVRC wishes to inpress that it is important that everyone understand that current geologic activity at Yellowstone has remained relatively constant since earth scientists first started monitoring some 30 years ago. Prospects of renewed volcanism are still far away. Although another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely to occur in the next thousand or even 10,000 years. Smaller eruptions are more likely, but even so, we see no signals of any impending volcanic unrest. YVO maintains an array of instruments that monitor activities at Yellowstone around the clock.
http://www.swvrc.org/restless.htm

Praising God, for he is worthy.
Bob

Tks DW. I see what I did wrong on that link now. Tks also for the update on yellowstone. I don't agree with their estimated timeframes though because the same people estimated three major blasts by it at 650,000 years apart and that it is overdue for another one by their own estimates.

As with all, it is in the hands of the Lord.

 

[Shammu]

Earthquake Shakes Caribbean Territories

Sat Dec 11,10:52 PM ET
   
Add to My Yahoo!    World - AP Latin America

ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake jolted the British Virgin Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Saturday, the Puerto Rico Seismic Network said.

   

Police and rescue officials in all three Caribbean territories said there were no reports of injuries or damage.

The epicenter was 27 miles northwest of the main British Virgin Island of Tortola and 70 miles east of Puerto Rico.

A magnitude 5 quake can cause considerable damage in populated areas.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=734&e=1&u=/ap/20041212/
ap_on_re_la_am_ca/british_virgin_islands_earthquake

Please C&P the whole link above.

Resting in the Lord's arms.
Bob

Tks DW. I see what I did wrong on that link now. Tks also for the update on yellowstone. I don't agree with their estimated timeframes though because the same people estimated three major blasts by it at 650,000 years apart and that it is overdue for another one by their own estimates.

As with all, it is in the hands of the Lord.

I don't agree with their time table either. If Yellowstone did blow, that would make the USA inpotent for Israel. meaning that, the USA wouldn't be able to help herself.

One earthquake would finally break the layer of rock that holds the magma in and all the pressure the Earth. Has builded up in the past years would be unleashed in a destavetion event.
Magma would be flung 30 miles into the sky. Within a 600 miles, virtually all life would be killed by falling ash, lava flows and the sheer explosive force of the eruption. Volcanic ash would coat places as far away as Iowa and the Gulf of Mexico. 600 cubic yards of lava would pour out of the volcano, enough to coat the whole of the USA with a layer 5 inches thick. The explosion would have a force 2,500 times that of Mount St. Helens. Within minutes of the eruption tens of thousands would be dead.

The long-term effects would be even more devastating. The ash that would shoot into the atmosphere could block out light from the sun, making global temperatures plummet. This is called a nuclear winter. As during the Sumatra eruption a large percentage of the world's plant life would be killed by the ash and drop in temperature. Also, virtually the entire of the grain harvest of the Great Plains would disappear in hours, as it would be coated in ash. Similar effects around the world would cause massive food shortages. If the temperatures plummet by the 21 degrees they did after the Sumatra eruption the Yellowstone super volcano eruption could truly be an extinction level event.

Sounds Biblical I would say, Pastor Roger...........

[Soldier4Christ]

A reason the U.S. is not mentioned in the end times??

[Shammu]

A reason the U.S. is not mentioned in the end times??

My own opinion, is yes. But we will see what God has planned. When that happens, I doubt we will be here.