New York Earthquake: City of the Sixth Seal (Revelation 6:12)

New York earthquake: City at risk of ‚dangerous shaking from far away‘
Joshua Nevett
Published 30th April 2018
SOME of New York City’s tallest skyscrapers are at risk of being shaken by seismic waves triggered by powerful earthquakes from miles outside the city, a natural disaster expert has warned.
Researchers believe that a powerful earthquake, magnitude 5 or greater, could cause significant damage to large swathes of NYC, a densely populated area dominated by tall buildings.
A series of large fault lines that run underneath NYC’s five boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island, are capable of triggering large earthquakes.
Some experts have suggested that NYC is susceptible to at least a magnitude 5 earthquake once every 100 years.
The last major earthquake measuring over magnitude 5.0 struck NYC in 1884 – meaning another one of equal size is “overdue” by 34 years, according their prediction model.
Natural disaster researcher Simon Day, of University College London, agrees with the conclusion that NYC may be more at risk from earthquakes than is usually thought.
EARTHQUAKE RISK: New York is susceptible to seismic shaking from far-away tremors
But the idea of NYC being “overdue” for an earthquake is “invalid”, not least because the “very large number of faults” in the city have individually low rates of activity, he said.
The model that predicts strong earthquakes based on timescale and stress build-up on a given fault has been “discredited”, he said.
What scientists should be focusing on, he said, is the threat of large and potentially destructive earthquakes from “much greater distances”.
The dangerous effects of powerful earthquakes from further away should be an “important feature” of any seismic risk assessment of NYC, Dr Day said.

GETTY
THE BIG APPLE: An aerial view of Lower Manhattan at dusk in New York City

USGS
RISK: A seismic hazard map of New York produced by USGS
“New York is susceptible to seismic shaking from earthquakes at much greater distances” Dr Simon Day, natural disaster researcher
This is because the bedrock underneath parts of NYC, including Long Island and Staten Island, cannot effectively absorb the seismic waves produced by earthquakes.
“An important feature of the central and eastern United States is, because the crust there is old and cold, and contains few recent fractures that can absorb seismic waves, the rate of seismic reduction is low.
Central regions of NYC, including Manhattan, are built upon solid granite bedrock; therefore the amplification of seismic waves that can shake buildings is low.
But more peripheral areas, such as Staten Island and Long Island, are formed by weak sediments, meaning seismic hazard in these areas is “very likely to be higher”, Dr Day said.
“Thus, like other cities in the eastern US, New York is susceptible to seismic shaking from earthquakes at much greater distances than is the case for cities on plate boundaries such as Tokyo or San Francisco, where the crustal rocks are more fractured and absorb seismic waves more efficiently over long distances,” Dr Day said.
In the event of a large earthquake, dozens of skyscrapers, including Chrysler Building, the Woolworth Building and 40 Wall Street, could be at risk of shaking.
“The felt shaking in New York from the Virginia earthquake in 2011 is one example,” Dr Day said.
On that occasion, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered 340 miles south of New York sent thousands of people running out of swaying office buildings.

USGS
FISSURES: Fault lines in New York City have low rates of activity, Dr Day said
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city was “lucky to avoid any major harm” as a result of the quake, whose epicenter was near Louisa, Virginia, about 40 miles from Richmond.
“But an even more impressive one is the felt shaking from the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes in the central Mississippi valley, which was felt in many places across a region, including cities as far apart as Detroit, Washington DC and New Orleans, and in a few places even further afield including,” Dr Day added.
“So, if one was to attempt to do a proper seismic hazard assessment for NYC, one would have to include potential earthquake sources over a wide region, including at least the Appalachian mountains to the southwest and the St Lawrence valley to the north and east.”

Israel hits Gaza after rocket attack outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11

Israel hits Gaza after rocket attack as Jerusalem tensions spike

Issued on: 19/04/2022 – 11:28Modified: 19/04/2022 – 11:26

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel carried out its first air strike on the Gaza Strip in months early Tuesday, in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave after a weekend of violence around a Jerusalem holy site.

The army also said its special forces had made five arrests overnight in the occupied West Bank, which has seen a string of deadly Israeli raids since an uptick in attacks and demonstrations four weeks ago.

Tensions have focused on the highly contested Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Israeli-annexed Old City.

Palestinian worshippers gathering there for Ramadan prayers have been outraged by visits by religious Jewish under heavy Israeli police protection — as well as restrictions on their own access.

Jews are allowed to visit the site at certain times but prohibited from praying there.

The violence, coinciding with the Jewish Passover festival as well as the Muslim holy month, has sparked fears of a repeat of last year’s events, when similar circumstances sparked an 11-day war that levelled parts of Gaza.

On Monday, warning sirens sounded after a rocket was fired into southern Israel from the blockaded enclave, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, in the first such incident since early January.

The Israeli military said that the rocket had been intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system.

Hours later, the Israeli air force said it had hit a Hamas weapons factory in retaliation.

Hamas claimed to have used its “anti-aircraft defences” to counter the raid, which caused no casualties, according to witnesses and security sources in Gaza.

No faction in the crowded enclave of 2.3 million inhabitants immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket.

But it comes after weeks of mounting violence, with a total of 23 Palestinians and Arab-Israelis killed, including assailants who targeted Israelis in four deadly attacks.

Those attacks claimed 14 lives, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Diplomatic sources said the United Nations Security Council was to meet Tuesday to discuss the spike in violence.

Israeli police said they had refused to authorise a march Jewish nationalists had planned around the walls of the Old City.

A similar parade last year, following a similar wave of violence, was interrupted by rocket fire from Gaza which in turn triggered an 11-day war.

That conflict killed at least 260 Palestinians including many fighters, and 14 people on the Israeli side including a soldier.

Incidents at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, have triggered repeated rounds of violence over the past century.

Hamas has vowed to defend Al-Aqsa’s status as “a pure Islamic site”.

But analysts have said in recent weeks that the movement does not want a war at present, partly because its military capacities were degraded by the last one.

They say Hamas is also wary that a new conflict could prompt Israel to cancel thousands of work permits issued in recent months to residents of impoverished Gaza, where unemployment is near 50 percent.

But Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction which Israel says has thousands of fighters and rockets in the enclave, said on Monday that “the enemy’s threats to cut off aid to Gaza will not force us into silence over what is happening in Jerusalem”.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that the United States was “deeply concerned” about the tensions and that senior US officials had been in touch by telephone with their counterparts from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Arab governments.

“We have urged all sides to preserve the historic status quo” at the Al-Aqsa compound and avoid “provocative” steps, he said.

Iranian Horn vows vengeance for Soleimani

Iran vows vengeance for Soleimani regardless of fate of nuclear talks

Amwaj.media

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei awards Qasem Soleimani Iran’s highest military honor, the Order of Zolfaqar, on Mar. 10, 2019. (Photo via Office of the Supreme Leader)

The story: Iran says it will continue to pursue anyone involved in the US assassination of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani—regardless of the outcome of efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. This comes as the Joe Biden administration is expected to soon decide on whether to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). Meanwhile, the nuclear negotiations have stalled amid ambiguity over Washington’s preparedness to respond to Tehran’s latest proposal.

The coverage: Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Apr. 18 rejected suggestions that Tehran would abandon its pursuit of those responsible for Soleimani’s death if the IRGC is removed from Washington’s FTO list.

Of note, the Quds Force is the expeditionary wing of the Guard Corps, and American demands that Iran must renounce any retaliation for Soleimani’s death has been among the key remaining sticking points between the two sides.

• Khatibzadeh said in his weekly press briefing that “avenging” Soleimani is “a fundamental principle of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign policy.”
  
• The senior Iranian official described the US killing of Soleimani as a “cowardly assassination” and reiterated that “it will not go unpunished.”

Described by some as the “second most powerful” person in Iran, Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike near Baghdad’s international airport in Jan. 2020.

• Iran responded five days later by launching a volley of missiles at Ain al-Assad, an Iraqi airbase housing US troops.
  
• Expecting a US response, the IRGC misidentified a Ukrainian passenger plane as a cruise missile and shot it down near Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020, killing all on board.

Speaking on Apr. 18, Khatibzadeh said Tehran and Washington are exchanging messages as part of efforts to salvage the nuclear deal, which is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

• The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman refrained from stating whether the US had responded to Iran’s latest proposal, instead insisting that “messages are being sent back and forth via Mr. [Enrique] Mora,” referring to the EU’s deputy foreign policy chief. The senior European official serves as the coordinator of the talks to revive the JCPOA.
  
• Mora’s shuttle diplomacy saw him travel to Tehran before paying a visit to Washington in late March.

The context/analysis: Over the past year, multiple rounds of talks have been held in Vienna between Iran and the P4+1 (Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany) to resurrect the JCPOA, with the US indirectly involved.

• Despite considerable progress, talks temporarily broke off on Mar. 11, but efforts to salvage the deal continue.
  
• Added to the FTO list by the former Donald Trump administration (2017-21) in Apr. 2019, the IRGC’s blacklisting remains one of the sticking points preventing the revival of the deal.
  
• Some reports claim that the US wants guarantees from Iran that it will stop seeking vengeance for Soleimani in return for delisting the IRGC.

Iran has sanctioned more than 50 American individuals in connection with Soleimani’s killing, while several commanders have declared that it takes more than killing senior US officials to avenge the slain Quds Force commander.

• The IRGC’s second-in-command Ali Fadavi stated in Dec. 2021 that not even “killing thousands of US presidents” would suffice as revenge for the US assassination. The next month, he declared that “avenging Soleimani is a certainty.”
  
• Echoing Fadavi, the commander of the IRGC’s Ground Force, Mohammad Pakpour, said on Apr. 13 that “even if all US leaders are killed,” it would not make up for Soleimani’s death. He said Iran will seek “other means” to avenge Soleimani.
  
• The most ominous threat so far has come from Soleimani’s successor as Quds Force commander, Esmail Qa’ani, who warned on Jan. 6 that Iran may avenge the slain general on US soil.

The Office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published a poster and a video on the first and second anniversaries of Soleimani’s killing, threatening to target former US President Trump for having ordered the strike on Soleimani.

• The US State Department said on Mar. 12 that it was spending more than 2M USD per month to provide 24-hour security to former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and ex-special Iran envoy Brian Hook due to “serious and credible” threats from Tehran.
  
• Pompeo and Hook were instrumental in pushing for the IRGC’s FTO designation and later defended the decision to kill Soleimani.

The future: Soleimani was a venerated figure among many in Iran and his assassination only enhanced its status.

• Iran is unlikely to cease pursuing those it deems responsible for the killing of the former Quds Force commander.
  
• On the other hand, Pakpour’s comments may suggest face-saving flexibility ahead geared to secure a revival of the JCPOA. In this context, Iran and its allies may focus on US targets in the region rather than pursuing senior political figures on US soil.

The Russian Horn Will Use Nuclear Weapons: Revelation 16

Zelensky Warns The World Putin Can Use Nuclear Weapons!

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues on its 53rd day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine will not give up lands in the east of the country to end the war with Russia. Zelenskiy also stated that the world should be prepared for the possibility of Putin’s use of nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told CNN that Ukraine will not give up lands in the east of the country to end the war with Russia and that the Ukrainian army is ready to fight the Russian army in the Donbas region.

Zelenskiy answered questions from CNN International’s Jake Tapper at the presidential office in Kiev.

Zelenskiy said that there is no guarantee that if Russia succeeds in seizing Donbas, it will not try to seize Kiev again. Because this could affect the whole course of the war.” said.

“Because I don’t trust the Russian army and the Russian leader,” Zelensky continued.

Zelenskiy stated that the Kremlin was planning a quick and decisive victory, and that the defense of the Ukrainian army was also a surprise for the US intelligence.

Zelenskiy said the world should be prepared for the possibility of Putin’s use of nuclear weapons because he does not value the lives of Ukrainians.

Stating that he witnessed terrible events in Ukraine, Zelensky called for urgent help, saying that his army still needs to be equipped to respond to the approaching Russian attack in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.

US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Willam Burns stated that he has no doubt that Russia will inflict brutal pain and damage to Ukraine through this war, and that it will use extreme violence against civilians, adding that Moscow has carried out operations that have led to the death of thousands of civilians in the past.

Israel and Hamas on the Brink of War Outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11

(Newser) – Days of violence in Jerusalem and an exchange of fire in Gaza overnight have raised the possibility that Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers will once again go to war, as they did less than a year ago under similar circumstances, per the AP. This time around, both Israel and Hamas have strong incentives to avoid all-out war. But neither wants to be seen as retreating from a Jerusalem holy site at the heart of the century-old Mideast conflict, so further violence cannot be ruled out. “At this stage it’s political theater in which everybody is playing his part,” said Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a local think tank. “But sometimes the gun that appears in the first scene will shoot at the end.”

For Hamas, another war would devastate Gaza, which has hardly begun to rebuild after the last one. And Israel would wield a potent new weapon—the ability to revoke thousands of work permits issued in recent months that provide an economic lifeline to Palestinians in the blockaded territory. For Israel, war could set back efforts to sideline the conflict and damage burgeoning ties with Arab states. The broad-based governing coalition, which lost its majority this month, is at a small but growing risk of having a key Arab partner bolt, which would set the stage for new elections.

All of those factors help explain the relative restraint up until now: Israel intercepted the Gaza rocket, its airstrikes caused little damage, and no one was hurt. Neither Hamas nor any other group claimed the launch. At the same time, neither Israel nor Hamas can be seen as backing down over a major holy site in east Jerusalem that is sacred to Jews and Muslims, where Palestinians and Israeli police clashed over the weekend. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. Palestinians view it as the one tiny part of their homeland that has yet to be taken over by Israel, which seized east Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war.

The China Horn’s terrifying arsenal of space weapons: Daniel 7

China’s terrifying arsenal of space weapons could have a ‘devastating impact’ warns US

CHINA has reportedly been building up a growing arsenal of terrifying space weapons that could bring a “devastating impact”, according to US Defence chiefs.

By JACOB PAUL

19:48, Mon, Apr 18, 2022 | UPDATED: 19:48, Mon, Apr 18,

China ‘preparing for war with US’ says expert

Beijing’s test-firing of an orbiting hypersonic missile last summer was China’s longest range land attack weapon tested to date. An intercontinental ballistic missile was reportedly fitted with a hypersonic glide vehicle that enabled it to travel at an ultrahigh speed. The manoeuvring missile is thought to have used what is known as a “fractional orbital bombardment system” (FOBS).

This reportedly let the rocket travel a staggering 24,800 miles in space before reentering the atmosphere and successfully striking a ground target.

According to a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report on space threats, the test was just one piece of a horrifying puzzle – space weaponry built and deployed by China and Russia aimed at US targets.

The DIA report claims that these weapons are specifically aimed at targeting US satellites that are used by the military for communications and precision-guided missiles.

DIA Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier said: “The loss of space-based communication and navigation services could have a devastating impact on warfighters during a conflict — that’s one of the most serious scenarios anticipated.

China reportedly has a terrifying arsenal of space weapons that could cause a “devastating impact” (Image: Getty )

The rocket reportedly travelled a staggering 24,800 miles in space before reentering the atmosphere (Image: Getty )

“A secure, stable and accessible space domain is crucial as China and Russia’s space-based capabilities and electronic-warfare activities continue to grow.”

The report also claimed that China has been developing space-based weapons since 2006 for attacks on “ground, sea, or air targets from space.”

This also comes as China has been making hundreds of new silos for long-range nuclear missiles.

Beijing has also been constructing an arsenal of anti-satellite weapons and has routinely been firing rockets into space.

Israeli missiles strike Hamas targets outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11

Israeli missiles strike Hamas targets after Gaza rocket attack

Gaza’s rocket attack on Israel ended four months of peace

By Anders Hagstrom | Fox News

Former Israeli Ambassador to U.S. Ron Dermer joins Steve Hilton on ‘The Next Revolution’ to weigh in on Biden’s Iran nuclear deal.

The Israeli military says it struck a number of Hamas-controlled targets in Gaza on Monday following a rocket attack targeting Israeli citizens.

Hamas forces in Gaza fired a single rocket into Israel on Monday evening, the first such attack in four months. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it targeted a Hamas weapons-manufacturing facility in response.

“The IDF considers Hamas responsible for what unfolds in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement, according to the Times of Israel

Israel’s Iron Dome defense system intercepted the Hamas rocket.

Hamas sources sought to downplay the attack, with spokesman Hazem Qassem saying the IDF had struck “empty sites.”

He also congratulated Hamas militants who had fired a shoulder-fired Strella anti-aircraft missile, which missed.

The rocket attack was the first time the region had lashed out at Israel since January 1, according to the Times. The period of peace was among the longest Israel and Gaza have seen in recent years.