Mt. Popocatepetl is one of the most important volcanoes on the entire planet, and yet most Americans are not familiar with it. In ancient Aztec, Popocatepetl means “smoking mountain”, but to the locals the 5,426-meter-high volcano is simply known as “Don Goyo”. A catastrophic eruption of “Don Goyo” would be a nightmare scenario for the more than 20 million people living in the Mexico City metropolitan area, and that is why authorities are watching Mt. Popocatepetl very closely at the moment. In fact, we are being warned that the eruption that just took place could be a precursor to an even larger eruption…
Chilling footage showing the violent eruption emerged online amid fears there could be more.
A huge plume of smoke blasted three kilometres in to the air from the summit of Popocatepetl after a series explosions over the course of 24 hours.
Surrounding towns were blanketed with ash and debris and authorities are now warning a bigger eruption could threaten the 23.6million inhabitants in the Mexican capital, located just 35 miles (56km) away.
This latest eruption actually resulted in what is known as a “volcanotectonic earthquake”. Such quakes are caused by the movement of magma, and scientists are very concerned about what that might mean.
“Don Goyo” has been spewing ash regularly since early this month, and at this point local residents are being told to remain indoors…
Locals have been warned to avoid outdoor activities and to keep doors and windows shut, and it is not yet clear when they can leave their homes.
It has been emitting ash since the beginning of the month, reports suggest, before a string of explosions.
Of course the activity at Mt. Popocatepetl has been ramping up for quite a while. Back on September 19th, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that affected Mexico City also triggered a minor eruption of the volcano.
But minor eruptions can be handled. What we want to avoid is the kind of catastrophic eruption that has given Popocatepetl legendary status. In fact, we are told that at one time enormous mud flows from the volcano buried entire Aztec cities…
Historians tell us that Popocatepetl had a dramatic impact on the ancient Aztecs. Giant mud flows produced by massive eruptions covered entire Aztec cities. In fact, some of these mud flows were so large that they buried entire pyramids in super-heated mud.
But we haven’t witnessed anything like that in any of our lifetimes, so it is hard to even imagine devastation of that magnitude.
In addition to Mexico City’s mammoth population, there are millions of others that live in the surrounding region. Overall, there are about 25 million people that live in the immediate vicinity of Popocatepetl. Thankfully, we haven’t seen a major eruption of the volcano in modern times, but at some point that will change.
Our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, and the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that just hit Iraq is yet more evidence of this fact.
A catastrophic eruption of Mt. Popocatepetl would be a disaster unlike anything North America has seen in centuries, and it would almost instantly collapse Mexico’s economy.
This isn’t getting a lot of attention from the mainstream media in the United States, but this is a major story. Great shaking is taking place all along the “Ring of Fire”, and that potentially has dramatic implications for people living all over the globe – including the west coast of the United States.
Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years.Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream.
The rumblings beneath the formerly dormant supervolcano known as the Yellowstone caldera just won’t quit. And the ongoing earthquake swarm at the Yellowstone National Park supervolcano is now one of the longest ever recorded, having started on June 12.
Over the past three and a half months, almost 2,500 earthquakes have been recorded in the western part of the national park. This is on par with the biggest swarm ever recorded, where more than 3,000 earthquakes took place over three months,Newsweek reports.
In its latest monthly update about activity at Yellowstone, the US Geological Survey said 115 earthquakes had been reported in the park during September. Of these, 78 were part of the ongoing swarm 6 miles north of West Yellowstone. The biggest event in the swarm last month was magnitude 2.3.
“This is the sort of work that will happen in the months to come, as we gather up all of the available data and start crunching numbers,” Poland says. “What we can say now is that through the of September, the University of Utah has located 2,475 earthquakes in the swarm. This puts the 2017 swarm on par with that of 1985, which lasted three months and had over 3,000 located events.
“[This is] certainly a fascinating event and one that we hope to learn more about through some post-swarm analysis,” he adds. “There’s a lot to work on this winter, for sure.”
While scientists at the USGS have brushed off the threat of a supervolcano eruption, scientists at NASA have said it represents a potentially devastating threat to the US population. These same scientists have suggested several risky strategies to prevent an eruption if one appears imminent.
Brian Wilcox, a former member of the NASA Advisory Council on Planetary Defense, and several other NASA researchers over the summer shared a report previously unseen outside the space agency about the threat Yellowstone poses, and what can be done to prevent an eruption.
According to NASA, an eruption at Yellowstone could plunge the earth into a volcanic winter and destroy crops and livestock, precipitating widespread famines. Food reserves would only last about 74 days, according to the UN, after an eruption of a super volcano, like that under Yellowstone.
With an eruption long overdue, NASA has devised a plan to drill into the caldera and try to artificially cool it – a strategy that researchers say comes with its own risks.
Scientists at the USGS say the monthslong earthquake storm at the caldera has ended; however, they played down the risks posed by the swarm shortly after it started over the summer, only for the rumbling to continue. Others maintain that an eruption is long overdue.
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Author: Tyler Durden Views: Read by 474 people Date: October 6th, 2017 Website:http://www.zerohedge.com/
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Over just the past few months, we’ve seen unprecedented disasters, not just in the United States, but all over the world.
Wildfires.
Floods.
Hurricanes.
Drought.
Earthquakes.
Volcanoes.
Everyone is quick to theorize about the cause of such a season of catastrophe. Some blame manmade climate change. There are groups who suspect a rogue planet is wreaking havoc. Others point the finger at geoengineering and weather manipulation. Still others believe we are watching the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Personally, I have no pet theory except one.
These events are growing more and more frequent. Your life can change and you can lose everything in the blink of an eye. There has never been more evidence that we need to prepare than what we’re seeing happening right now. And preparing isn’t just stocking up, although that is extremely important. It’s learning the skills you need to survive when the material things have been washed away, burned up, or otherwise destroyed.
The video below blames manmade climate change for our catastrophic circumstances, and I am skeptical of that, so for the love of all things cute and fluffy, please don’t email me and tell me I’ve gone to the dark side of climate change activists. But… I believe in the value of watching the things that have happened on our planet over the past few months all in one video. I believe in the importance of paying attention to current events.
If this does not convince you that you need to be prepared and that you need to have a survival mindset, nothing will.
Resources:
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The IEVPC is a non-profit science research organization made up of scientists and contractors from around the world with a Mission and Objectives as described below:
The Mission of the International Earthquake and Volcano Prediction Center, Inc. (IEVPC) is to develop the best possible means for protection of the people on Earth through early prediction of catastrophic geophysical events (CGE) such as earthquakes, associated tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.
According to the LA Times story the Drudge Report linked to on Wednesday, fear of earthquakes is a normal part of life in California so people deal with it in different ways – some prepare by retrofitting homes and apartments while for others, that fear prompts denial and a willful ignorance of the dangers which they face the Times reports.
Despite the denial, the dangers people face are very real and the LA Times story is a perfect example of stressing the need for preparation for an event which we pray never comes yet, as scientists and experts warn in this particular case, WILL come one day no matter how much people want to deny it. And as we detail below, there are several very good reasons why scientists believe ‘the big one’ is a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’, as more and more evidence indicates an ‘upheaval’ in the future.
Seismologist Lucy Jones has spent her career trying to understand public attitudes about earthquakes, with a focus on moving people past paralysis and denial.
Jones said the way experts like her used to talk about earthquakes wasn’t very effective. They tended to focus on the probability of a major earthquake striking in the next 30 years — the length of a typical home mortgage. They also took pains to say what they didn’t know, which she now believes allowed the public to tune out and hope for the best.
Now she is making a dramatically different point. She said that in a keynote speech to international scientists in Japan on May 21, she emphasized that a devastating earthquake will definitely happen, and that there is much the public can do to protect themselves.
Denial may getting a bit harder these days. Over the last several years, a few California cities have taken dramatic steps to require retrofits of thousands of vulnerable buildings. And next year, scientists and the U.S. Geological Survey are expected to unveil the first limited public phase of an earthquake early-warning system that would eventually offer seconds and perhaps more than a minute of warning through smartphones and computers.
While California and the San Andreas fault understandably grab much of the attention that’s given to possible devastating earthquakes in the future along the west coast, as we’ve previously reported on ANP, what could be a much more dangerous geophysical hazard to the US lies further north and several hundred miles off of the coast in what is known as the Juan de Fuca Plate.
As we read in this story and hear in the 2nd video below, scientists are interested in Juan de Fuca because the miniature plate is the single greatest geophysical threat to the United States. Researchers believe Juan de Fuca’s subduction beneath North America’s continental plate could yield megaquakes several orders of magnitude more powerful than the San Andreas Fault’s largest tremors.
As we see in the image below, the Juan de Fuca Plate lies between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate and is ever so slowly pushing up on the North American Plate, with the potential to cause quakes MUCH more powerful than the San Andreas Fault according to scientists. From Phys.org:
Several hundred miles off the Pacific Northwest coast, a small tectonic plate called the Juan de Fuca is slowly sliding under the North American continent. This subduction has created a collision zone with the potential to generate huge earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis, which happen when faulted rock abruptly shoves the ocean out of its way.
In fact, this region represents the single greatest geophysical hazard to the continental United States; quakes centered here could register as hundreds of times more damaging than even a big temblor on the San Andreas Fault. Not surprisingly, scientists are interested in understanding as much as they can about the Juan de Fuca Plate.
With the Juan de Fuca Plate helping to create the ‘Cascadia Subduction Zone’, we remind you of the 2016 Cascadia Rising earthquake and tsunami drills that simulated a 9.0 magnitude quake pummeling the region and the resultant tsunami leaving devastation in its path that could be felt all the way to the East coast with possible cascading utility outages while leaving up to or more than 10,000 dead and possibly millions more displaced.
As we also read from Temblor and see in their ‘hazard map’ below, there are numerous faults along the West coast just ready to pop, making the entire West coast region the most hazardous for earthquakes in America by far. As this May 19th story from Temblor reported, the Gulf of California had recently been the home to a series of ‘rapid rupture’ quakes that portend more danger ahead.
Any examination of possibly catastrophic earthquakes in America cannot be complete without looking at the New Madrid fault zone, a region which has been home to some of the most devastating quakes ever recorded in US history and while the 1811 and 1812 quakes covered over a million square miles and were felt as far away as the East coast, the population in that region then was nothing compared to what it is now.
The 150-mile long New Madrid Seismic Zone in New Madrid, Missouri, is the source of the concern, and is also thought to be overdue for a massive tremor, which would impact seven states – Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.
It has not seen significant earthquakes for more than 200 years. In the winter of 1811 and 1812 there were three earthquakes of magnitude 7 – as high as 7.7 – and a series of aftershocks across the American Midwest. The results were catastrophic, with the course of the Mississippi being diverted, chasms ripping open, and volcanoes of sand and water bursting through the ground.
The Mid-America Earthquake Center at the University of Illinois released a report in 2009, which suggested the effects of a force seven or stronger quake from the fault line. Amr Elnashai, the study’s lead author, wrote “All hell will break loose.”
The predicted scenario saw close to 715,000 buildings, including 130 hospitals, and 3,500 bridges damaged. Deaths and injuries were estimated at 86,000 with a combined loss of $300billion.
The Central US Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) is based next to Memphis Airport. James Wilkinson, its director, fears the Mississippi would be released from an engineered prison of levees, causing maximum damage. He told The Atlantic: “The thing that, to me, makes the river scary is how much industry we have along it: there’s power plants, there’s chemical plants, there’s ports.
“And the river might change course altogether. “I mean if we’re at flood stage, it’s kind of the worst-of-the-worst case scenario. “We’ve had earthquakes, we’ve had damage, but nothing like what we’ve seen in other parts of the world. So the clock’s ticking.”
In the 1st video below, Joe from the Daily Sheeple breaks down the recent viral LA Times story for us and shares some practically prepping tips and knowledge that anybody living in an earthquake-prone zone should know. Of course, many aspects of ‘earthquake prepping’ can be used in prepping for other emergencies and disasters as well.
And while we’re not into the ‘earthquake prediction business’, studies have shown time and again that creatures in the ocean and animals living upon the planet can tell in advance such devastation is coming being much more in touch with the ‘cycle’s of nature’ than most people living in ‘concrete and steel’ jungles across America, many with their heads permanently attached to their cell phones.
As the National Geographic has reported, the belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries. In 373 B.C., historians recorded that animals, including rats, snakes and weasels, deserted the Greek city of Helice in droves just days before a quake devastated the place. As we reported on ANP back on May 9th, it’s been shown time and again, deep sea creatures often ‘sense’ way ahead of an earthquake that something is about to happen and research has shown that some will often come to the surface before one.
As this Wikipedia entry on ‘electroperception’ reports, electroreception is the biological ability to perceive natural electrical stimuli and it has been proposed that sharks can use their acute electric sense to detect the earth’s magnetic field by detecting the weak electric currents induced by their swimming or by the flow of ocean currents. How many other animals have such abilities? It’s also been reported that dogs can sense earthquakes ahead of time and it’s well known in the medical field, some dogs can sense a seizure in a person before one begins. So up for discussion, since we’re also officially ‘mammals’, shouldn’t we have such ‘abilities’ as well?
