The Sixth Seal Is Long Overdue (Revelation 6:12)

ON THE MAP; Exploring the Fault Where the Next Big One May Be Waiting

By MARGO NASH

Published: March 25, 2001

Alexander Gates, a geology professor at Rutgers-Newark, is co-author of ”The Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes,” which will be published by Facts on File in July. He has been leading a four-year effort to remap an area known as the Sloatsburg Quadrangle, a 5-by-7-mile tract near Mahwah that crosses into New York State. The Ramapo Fault, which runs through it, was responsible for a big earthquake in 1884, and Dr. Gates warns that a recurrence is overdue. He recently talked about his findings.

Q. What have you found?

A. We’re basically looking at a lot more rock, and we’re looking at the fracturing and jointing in the bedrock and putting it on the maps. Any break in the rock is a fracture. If it has movement, then it’s a fault. There are a lot of faults that are offshoots of the Ramapo. Basically when there are faults, it means you had an earthquake that made it. So there was a lot of earthquake activity to produce these features. We are basically not in a period of earthquake activity along the Ramapo Fault now, but we can see that about six or seven times in history, about 250 million years ago, it had major earthquake activity. And because it’s such a fundamental zone of weakness, anytime anything happens, the Ramapo Fault goes.

Q. Where is the Ramapo Fault?

 A. The fault line is in western New Jersey and goes through a good chunk of the state, all the way down to Flemington. It goes right along where they put in the new 287. It continues northeast across the Hudson River right under the Indian Point power plant up into Westchester County. There are a lot of earthquakes rumbling around it every year, but not a big one for a while.

Q. Did you find anything that surprised you?

A. I found a lot of faults, splays that offshoot from the Ramapo that go 5 to 10 miles away from the fault. I have looked at the Ramapo Fault in other places too. I have seen splays 5 to 10 miles up into the Hudson Highlands. And you can see them right along the roadsides on 287. There’s been a lot of damage to those rocks, and obviously it was produced by fault activities. All of these faults have earthquake potential.

Q. Describe the 1884 earthquake.

A. It was in the northern part of the state near the Sloatsburg area. They didn’t have precise ways of describing the location then. There was lots of damage. Chimneys toppled over. But in 1884, it was a farming community, and there were not many people to be injured. Nobody appears to have written an account of the numbers who were injured.

Q. What lessons we can learn from previous earthquakes?

A. In 1960, the city of Agadir in Morocco had a 6.2 earthquake that killed 12,000 people, a third of the population, and injured a third more. I think it was because the city was unprepared.There had been an earthquake in the area 200 years before. But people discounted the possibility of a recurrence. Here in New Jersey, we should not make the same mistake. We should not forget that we had a 5.4 earthquake 117 years ago. The recurrence interval for an earthquake of that magnitude is every 50 years, and we are overdue. The Agadir was a 6.2, and a 5.4 to a 6.2 isn’t that big a jump.

Q. What are the dangers of a quake that size?

A. When you’re in a flat area in a wooden house it’s obviously not as dangerous, although it could cut off a gas line that could explode. There’s a real problem with infrastructure that is crumbling, like the bridges with crumbling cement.

There’s a real danger we could wind up with our water supplies and electricity cut off if a sizable earthquake goes off. The best thing is to have regular upkeep and keep up new building codes. The new buildings will be O.K. But there is a sense of complacency.

MARGO NASH

The Bowls of Wrath Cometh: Revelation 16

Natasha Turak

Biden warns Putin against using nuclear weapons; another nuclear plant hit by Russian strike

Amanda Macias

This was CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See here for the latest updates.

Russian missile explodes less than 900 feet from nuclear power plant

Longtime Russian pop singer and celebrity Alla Pugacheva spoke out against the Ukraine war on an Instagram post to her 3.4 million followers, which received more than 600,000 likes and scores of supportive comments. Acts of public dissent are rare since Russia imposed a law threatening up to 15 years’ imprisonment for spreading “fake news” about what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Russian troops struck a nuclear power plant in the country’s southern Mykolaiv region, but while its buildings sustained damage, its reactors are functioning normally, Ukrainian state energy officials said.

The war “isn’t going too well” for Russia, U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley said from Poland, adding that this could make Moscow’s reactions less certain and that U.S. forces in Europe need to maintain alertness.

Meanwhile, reports show Russian President Vladimir Putin relying increasingly on ad hoc volunteer forces for its Ukraine combat operations, sidestepping his country’s military high command after a series of setbacks in recent weeks.

China vs Babylon the Great: Who is Bigger? Daniel 7

The Dongfeng-2 Chinese missile is shown during the Chinese army’s 80th anniversary celebration of its founding, joined by 20 armored vehicles, a tank, an anti-aircraft battery, missiles and bombers. The Dongfeng series of missiles is arguably the most powerful in the world, and the DF-41 model can travel as far as Europe and the United States.ALAIN NOGUES/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

China’s ‘Dongfeng’ Missiles Compared to America’s Nuclear Arsenal

BY NICK MORDOWANEC ON 9/19/22 AT 1:43 PM EDT

China’s Dongfeng series of ballistic missiles is among the most high-tech in the world and compare well to U.S. missiles.

State-affiliated Global Times, which is China’s national English-language newspaper, under the People’s Daily, reported that ahead of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August, and before the 95th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, China for the first time revealed a video featuring the launch of what it said was the Dongfeng-17 (DF-17) missile. Reuters reported on August 4 that China launched several Dongfeng ballistic missiles into waters around Taiwan.

On Sunday’s 60 Minutes, President Joe Biden was interviewed amid tensions between China and Taiwan that have escalated in recent months. He was asked if the U.S. would defend Taiwan with its military forces if China attacked. Biden said it would “if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.”

Pelosi said she ignored China’s “fuss” over her Taiwan visit, which, she said, was to “show friendship and support.” While nearly two-thirds of Taiwan’s public is unconcerned about a wider conflict stemming from China’s military drills, a new study found that China has identified nearly 3,500 potential targets there.

Military-Today called China’s DF-41 among the deadliest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) in the world. Described as a solid-fuel missile that can carry up to 10 independent nuclear warheads, Military-Today reported an estimated range of 12,000 kilometers (about 7,500 miles) that can “sufficiently reach all areas” of the U.S., Europe and Russia.

A DF-41 fired in the United States’ direction would reportedly take 20 to 25 minutes to reach its target, causing “extremely devastating” effects that can hypothetically “wipe out entire countries.”

Last year, the U.S. Department of Defense warned of the “growing threat the world faces” from China’s expanding nuclear arsenal after images showed a suspected 230 silo-based ICBM launch sites in Yumen, Gansu, and Hami, Xinjiang.

China’s DF-41 operational missile range is more than 14,000 kilometers (about 8,700 miles), GlobalSecurity.org reported, and makes it the world’s longest-range missile—longer than the U.S. LGM-30 Minuteman, which can travel about 13,000 kilometers (about 8,100 miles).

On September 7, the U.S. Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III test from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, according to Defense News. One of about 400 Minuteman III missiles, it was equipped with three test re-entry vehicles and traveled 4,200 miles at more than 15,000 mph to a test range at the Kwajalein Atoll near the Marshall Islands.

A previous launch in August was delayed multiple because of Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, as not to raise tensions between the U.S. and China.

The most powerful nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal is the B83, with a maximum yield of 1.2 megatons, making it 60 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. According to the Nuclear Weapon Archive, 650 B83s are in “active service.”

Hamas calls for mobilising efforts against Israeli colonial settlement outside the Temple Walls: Rev 11

Hamas calls for mobilising efforts against Israeli colonial settlement expansion

Sep 18, 2022

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas considers the Israeli occupation’s fencing of vast areas of Palestinian lands in the northern Jordan Valley a move intended to annex the area to be later used for colonial settlement expansion. Such a move is a crime added to the repeated Israeli violations against the Palestinian lands, people, and holy sites. 

The Hamas movement affirms that the Israeli occupation’s non-stop policy of displacement and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people will not succeed in wiping out the historical features of Palestine. Neither will it deter our people from continuing their freedom struggle until liberation and return.

Hamas hails the Palestinian citizens of the occupied West Bank and calls on them to stand against the attacks of the Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers and resist them with all means possible.

Fawzi Barhoum
Hamas spokesperson

Bumbling Biden Leader of Babylon the Great

Image caption,Taiwan carried out military exercises earlier this month

Biden again says US would defend Taiwan if China attacks

By Frances Mao
BBC News

US President Joe Biden has again said the US would defend Taiwan in the event of an attack by China.

Asked in a CBS interview if US troops would defend the island, Mr Biden said: “Yes, if in fact, there was an unprecedented attack.”

The remarks prompted the White House to clarify that the official US policy – which doesn’t commit to military action on Taiwan – had not changed.

Beijing said it “deplores and firmly opposes” Mr Biden’s pledge of action.

The foreign ministry said it had lodged “stern representations” with Washington over the remarks, broadcast in a CBS 60 Minutes interview on Sunday.

Taiwan is a self-ruled island off the coast of eastern China that Beijing claims as part of its territory.

Washington has always walked a diplomatic tightrope over the issue.

On the one hand it adheres to the One China policy, a cornerstone of its relationship with Beijing. Under this policy, the US acknowledges that there is only one Chinese government, and has formal ties with Beijing rather than Taiwan.

But it also maintains close relations with Taiwan and sells arms to it under the Taiwan Relations Act, which states that the US must provide the island with the means to defend itself.

Mr Biden’s comments, his clearest yet in pledging US military intervention, seemingly run counter to Washington’s stance of “strategic ambiguity” – it does not commit to defending Taiwan, but also does not rule out the option.

In Sunday’s interview Mr Biden also reiterated that the US was not encouraging Taiwan independence.

“There’s a One China policy and Taiwan makes their own judgements on their independence. We are not moving, not encouraging their being independent – that’s their decision,” he said.

Taiwan responded to Mr Biden’s remarks on Monday by welcoming the “US government’s rock-solid security commitment to Taiwan”. Taipei said it would continue to deepen its “close security partnership” with Washington.

Only earlier this month, the US agreed to sell $1.1bn (£955m) in weaponry and missile defence to Taiwan, provoking anger from China.

This is the third time since October last year that President Biden has gone further than the official stance.

In May, speaking in Japan on his first tour of Asia as president, he said “Yes” when asked if the US would defend Taiwan.

The White House had quickly issued a follow up saying there was no departure from long-standing US policy.

This time too the White House issued a statement, downplaying the president’s comments: “The President has said this before, including in Tokyo earlier this year. He also made clear then that our Taiwan policy hasn’t changed. That remains true.”

Beijing has previously condemned such comments from Mr Biden promising US military action.

“Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory… The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair that brooks no foreign interference,” a foreign ministry spokesman had said in May in response to Mr Biden’s remarks in Japan.

Tensions between US and China – especially over Taiwan – have ramped up after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a controversial visit to the island in August – a trip Mr Biden had said was “not a good idea”.

Beijing responded with a five-day military blockade around Taiwan. The US claims China shot missiles over the island, but Beijing did not confirm this. Taiwan said the missiles China fired flew high into the atmosphere and posed no threat.

Elsewhere in the pre-recorded interview, Mr Biden also warned Russia not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.

China and Taiwan: The basics

• Why do China and Taiwan have poor relations? China sees the self-ruled island as a part of its territory and insists it should be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary. The question over whether Taiwan was ever a part of China remains unsettled
• How is Taiwan governed? The island has its own constitution, democratically elected leaders, and about 300,000 active troops in its armed forces

• Who recognises Taiwan? Only a few countries recognise Taiwan. Most recognise the Chinese government in Beijing instead. The US has no official ties with Taiwan but does have a law which requires it to provide the island with the means to defend itself