The Next Major Quake: The Sixth Seal of NYC

New York is overdue an earthquake from faults under city

New York is OVERDUE an earthquake from a ‚brittle grid‘ of faults under the city, expert warns

• New York City last experienced a M5 or higher earthquake in 1884, experts say
• It’s thought that these earthquakes occur on a roughly 150-year periodicity 
• Based on this, some say the city could be overdue for the next major quake 

By

Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:50 EDT, 1 September 2017 | Updated: 12:00 EDT, 2 September 2017

When you think of the impending earthquake risk in the United States, it’s likely California or the Pacific Northwest comes to mind.

But, experts warn a system of faults making up a ‘brittle grid’ beneath

New York City could also be loading up for a massive temblor.

The city has been hit by major quakes in the past, along what’s thought to be roughly 150-year intervals, and researchers investigating these faults now say the region could be overdue for the next event.

Experts warn a system of faults making up a ‘brittle grid’ beneath New York City could also be loading up for a massive temblor. The city has been hit by major quakes in the past, along what’s thought to be roughly 150-year intervals. A stock image is pictured

THE ‚CONEY ISLAND EARTHQUAKE‘

On August 10, 1884, New York was struck by a magnitude 5.5 earthquake with an epicentre located in Brooklyn.

While there was little damage and few injuries reported, anecdotal accounts of the event reveal the frightening effects of the quake.

One newspaper even reported that it caused someone to die from fright.

According to a New York Times report following the quake, massive buildings, including the Post Office swayed back and forth.

And, police said they felt the Brooklyn Bridge swaying ‘as if struck by a hurricane,’ according to an adaptation of Kathryn Miles’ book Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake.

The rumbles were felt across a 70,000-square-mile area, causing broken windows and cracked walls as far as Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

The city hasn’t experienced an earthquake this strong since.

According to geologist Dr Charles Merguerian, who has walked the entirety of Manhattan to assess its seismicity, there are a slew of faults running through New York, reports author Kathryn Miles in an

adaptation of her new book Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake.

One such fault passes through 125th street, otherwise known as the Manhattanville Fault.

While there have been smaller quakes in New York’s recent past, including a magnitude 2.6 that struck in October 2001, it’s been decades since the last major tremor of M 5 or more.

And, most worryingly, the expert says there’s no way to predict exactly when a quake will strike.

‘That’s a question you really can’t answer,’ Merguerian has explained in the past.

‘All we can do is look at the record, and the record is that there was a relatively large earthquake here in the city in 1737, and in 1884, and that periodicity is about 150 year heat cycle.

‘So you have 1737, 1884, 20- and, we’re getting there. But statistics can lie.

‘An earthquake could happen any day, or it couldn’t happen for 100 years, and you just don’t know, there’s no way to predict.’

Compared the other parts of the United States, the risk of an earthquake in New York may not seem as pressing.

But, experts explain that a quake could happen anywhere.

According to geologist Dr Charles Merguerian, there are a slew of faults running through NY. One is the Ramapo Fault

‘All states have some potential for damaging earthquake shaking,’ according to the US Geological Survey.

‘Hazard is especially high along the west coast but also in the intermountain west, and in parts of the central and eastern US.’

A recent assessment by the USGS determined that the earthquake hazard along the East Coast may previously have been underestimated.

‘The eastern U.S. has the potential for larger and more damaging earthquakes than considered in previous maps and assessments,’ the USGS

report explained.

The experts point to a recent example – the magnitude 5.8 earthquake that hit Virginia in 2011, which was among the largest to occur on the east coast in the last century.

This event suggests the area could be subjected to even larger earthquakes, even raising the risk for Charleston, SC.

It also indicates that New York City may be at higher risk than once thought.

A recent assessment by the USGS determined that the earthquake hazard along the East Coast may previously have been underestimated. The varying risks around the US can be seen above, with New York City in the mid-range (yellow).

Israelis Taunt From Outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11

Israeli crowds chant racist slogans, taunt Palestinians during Jerusalem Day march

World May 18, 2023 5:46 PM EDT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Jewish nationalists, some of them chanting “Death to Arabs” and other racist slogans, paraded on Thursday through the main Palestinian thoroughfare of Jerusalem’s Old City, in an annual display that caused new friction between Jews and Palestinians in the tense city.

The marchers, who were overwhelmingly male Orthodox teens and young men, were celebrating “Jerusalem Day,” which marks Israel’s capture of the Old City 56 years ago. The Palestinians see the event as a provocation. Two years ago, the parade helped fuel an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Throughout the afternoon, dozens of groups hoisting blue and white Israeli flags streamed through Damascus Gate – the entry to the area’s Muslim Quarter – as they made their way across the Old City to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. The area is normally bustling on Thursday afternoons with Palestinians doing their errands ahead of the weekend.

The boisterous crowds danced and chanted Jewish religious songs outside Damascus Gate as scores of Israeli police stood guard. In several cases, groups chanted slogans such as “Death to Arabs,” “Mohammed is Dead” and “May Your Village Burn” as they stared at Palestinian onlookers. Some of the youths wore clothing identifying themselves as members of Lehava – a far-right Jewish supremacist group that opposes assimilation or romantic relationships between Jews and Palestinians.

Israeli police, who had said that violence and incitement would not be tolerated, kept the sides apart but did little to stop the chants. Palestinian businesses were either shuttered or empty, and marchers occasionally threw water bottles at nearby journalists, eliciting cheers from the crowd. Police said two people were arrested for throwing objects.

Several lawmakers in Israel’s new far-right governing coalition, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, joined the procession. Under heavy police guard, Ben-Gvir waved to the crowd as he made his way into Damascus Gate and then high-fived security forces inside. Ben-Gvir, who oversees the nation’s police force, is a former far-right activist and hard-line West Bank settler who has been convicted of incitement and support for a Jewish terror group.

While there were repeated scuffles and confrontations between Jews and Palestinians, the parade appeared to pass without serious violence. By nightfall, the massive crowd had converged in the plaza in front of the Western Wall.

Jerusalem Day is meant to celebrate Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites, in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, but its annexation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

The event has been a source of friction over the years, and over 2,500 police were deployed for this year’s parade, with hundreds more stationed around the city.

Israel decided to allow the marchers to take the traditional route through Damascus Gate, instead of an alternate path circumventing the Muslim Quarter, despite an uptick in Israeli-Palestinian violence over the past year and heavy fighting last week between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Ahead of the march, Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group called on Palestinians to oppose the event.

On Thursday, dozens of Palestinian protesters gathered along the perimeter fence separating Gaza and Israel, raising Palestinian flags, burning tires and Israeli flags, and throwing stones toward the heavily guarded frontier.

Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets toward protesters, hurting three people, according to local media reports. There was no immediate comment from Gaza’s health authorities.

The protest ended without further violence that could have threatened a flare-up. It comes days after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire ended five days of fighting between Israel and the smaller, more radical Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for the Palestinian president in the occupied West Bank, said allowing the march to snake through Palestinian areas of the Old City “will only lead to a rise in tension and could lead to an explosion.”

In a test ahead of the parade, nearly 1,300 Jews visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site earlier Thursday, about half the number of last year, according to Beyadenu, an activist group that promotes Jewish visits to the site. Police were seen escorting groups of Jewish visitors walking through the compound and five members of the far-right coalition government also arrived at the site, the group said.

Jordan, Israel’s neighbor which acts as a custodian of the Jerusalem shrine, condemned the Jewish visits there and the trajectory of the march. Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, which established ties with Israel as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, also condemned the visits to the site.

The hilltop compound is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, home to the ancient Jewish Temples, and is the holiest site in Judaism. Palestinians revere it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Under longstanding agreements, Jews are permitted to visit the site but not pray there. But an increase in such visits, along with scenes of some Jews quietly praying, has raised concerns among Palestinians that Israel is trying to alter the status quo — a charge Israel denies.

The competing claims to the site lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and often spill over into violence, including a 2021 war between Israel and Hamas.

AP correspondents Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, and Jack Jeffery in Cairo contributed to this report.

Russian forces prepare for the nuclear meltdown: Revelation 8

A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict outside Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, March 29, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Russian forces dig in at Ukrainian nuclear plant, witnesses say

By Tom Balmforth

 and Sarah Mcfarlane

LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) – Russian military forces have been enhancing defensive positions in and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine in recent weeks, four witnesses said, ahead of an expected counteroffensive in the region.

New trenches have been dug around the city and more mines have been laid. Surveillance cameras at the plant are pointing north across a wide reservoir towards Ukrainian-controlled territory.

The Russians have had firing positions set up atop some of the plant’s buildings for several months. Nets have been erected in a possible deterrent to drones.

The measures described by two Ukrainians who work at the power plant and two other residents in the city of Enerhodar underline the risks the war poses to the security of the facility.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety in a city under Russian occupation.

The Russian plant operator said any possible military action by Ukraine posed a threat to nuclear safety, and that the plant’s equipment was being maintained properly. The Ukrainian military intelligence agency and the Russian defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Some nuclear industry experts said they were alarmed and warned that any damage to the plant could have dire consequences for people, the surrounding area, the war and the global nuclear industry.

“Nuclear reactors were not designed for war zones and I do not believe they can be safe or secure in a war zone,” said Nickolas Roth, director at think tank the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Petro Kotin, chief of Ukraine’s Energoatom nuclear agency, told Reuters he did not believe Ukrainian forces would stage an attack directly on the site and could instead try to force the Russians to retreat by cutting off supply lines.

But there is concern in the international community that the six-reactor nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, could be caught up in fighting, particularly as military analysts expect Ukraine to try to push Russian forces back in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog says that the military presence and activity is growing in the region, underlining the need for urgent action. It has warned for months of the danger of a major accident at the plant.

The agency plans to present a deal between Russia and Ukraine to the U.N. Security Council later this month to protect the facility, four diplomats told Reuters.

In Japan, where just over a decade ago an earthquake and tsunami cut power supply to the Fukushima nuclear power plant causing reactors to melt down, the government said it was keeping close tabs on Zaporizhzhia.

“We think it is an alarming situation and we are closely watching,” said Satoru Yasuraoka, a director of the nuclear energy policy division at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

In April, Japan contributed 2 million euros to the U.N.’s watchdog to help its efforts to secure the safety of the Zaporizhzhia power plant.

Kotin said the biggest threat to safety at the plant was that fighting could cut the last remaining external power line needed to cool the plant’s reactors. When that goes down, only backup diesel generators stand in the way of a meltdown.

“If all the pumps stop, you will have from one hour and a half hours to three days and you will have this meltdown,” Kotin said.

The backup generators have already kicked in six times for short periods when the power has gone done due to shelling, which Russia and Ukraine have blamed on each other.

Kotin estimated that Russian troop numbers at the plant had increased from around 500 to 1,500 in recent months. He is not able to access the facility, which is no longer operating, but has a network of contacts still there.

The four sources said they heard occasional blasts, which they assumed were from stray animals stepping on mines. One of the workers saw tracer bullets fired across the night sky from the roof of one of the plant’s buildings, probably at a drone.

While the troop buildup and extra defences point to occupying forces digging in, there are also signs that the Russians have one eye on the exit.

The plant lies on the southern banks of the Kakhovka reservoir, which serves as a natural barrier to Ukrainian-controlled land to the north.

The plant and city of Enerhodar are connected by a single main road to Melitopol, the biggest Russian-occupied city in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, which provides Russia with a land corridor to the occupied Crimean peninsula.

Kotin said Russian forces would have to retreat if it looked like that road was going to be cut off.

He added that he believed Russian forces had already been conducting drills at the plant to practise pulling out.

“In my opinion, they are preparing for evacuation, so they are bringing everything in one place to be ready to take everything and to get out of there,” he said.

Two of the sources in Enerhodar said they saw Russian forces this month taking X-ray, laboratory and other equipment away in boxes from a hospital as well as equipment from closed Ukrainian banks in the city of Enerhodar.

Ukraine has announced plans to conduct a big push to recapture occupied land soon, and it is widely expected to strike in the south because of its strategic importance as a bridge to Crimea and the Black Sea.

Russia has laid fortifications stretching from western Russia to Crimea and the trenchwork is particularly extensive on the way from Ukrainian-held land south to Melitopol, suggesting Moscow expects an attack there.

Moscow claims the nuclear plant, which provided a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity needs before the war, now belongs to Russia after Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin declared partially-occupied Zaporizhzhia as Russian land along with three other Ukrainian regions last September.

Russian-installed officials have announced an evacuation from frontline areas in the Zaporizhzhia region, including Enerhodar. They say they have already evacuated more than 1,500 people from there.

The plant’s reactors were all shut down by last September and the number of workers has fallen from around 11,000 Ukrainian staff before the war to around 6,000, Energoatom says.

Around 2,700 have signed contracts with a Russian subsidiary of Rosatom which Moscow now says operates the plant. Energoatom said last week that Russia was planning to evacuate more than 3,000 workers from the facility.

Reporting by Tom Balmforth; additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi; editing by Mike Collett-White and Angus MacSwan

Russian Horn Prepares for Nuclear Meltdown in Ukraine: Revelation 8

More military at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant than station personnel

Ukrainska Pravda

Wed, May 17, 2023 at 6:05 AM MDT·2 min read

Russia has so much increased the number of troops at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant [ZNPP – ed.] captured more than a year ago that there are already more of them than the station personnel.

Source: National Resistance Center of Ukraine

Quote: “The invaders are increasing their military presence at the ZNPP in Enerhodar. As of now, there are already more Russian military men at the ZNPP than personnel working at the station. Thus, the invaders escalate the situation in order to continue to conduct nuclear blackmail. “

Details: National Resistance Center notes that the Russians are turning the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant into a military base.

Recently, it was revealed that the invaders are preparing a preliminary plan for the evacuation of Rosatom workers at the captured ZNPP (Rosatom is Russian state company that runs all nuclear power plants in this country – ed.)

Collaborators and Rosatom employees, who were brought by the Russians, were warned that a forced evacuation could begin soon and therefore they should provide a list of relatives and be ready to leave at the first signal.

Quote: “The occupiers kidnap employees of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant for ‘preventive conversations’ in torture chambers, so that they agree to take passports of the Russian Federation. Thus, the enemy created a pocket professional union, which must be forcibly joined by all employees of the station, and for admission it is necessary to obtain an enemy passport. All dissenters are taken out and tortured. “

Earlier: On 16 May, Energoatom reported that the number of armed invaders in the Zaporizhzhia NPP occupied by Russians has significantly increased: now there are more than 2,500 personnel of the Russian military at the station.

In addition, the invaders tighten the rules for the work and stay of workers at the facility almost daily: nuclear scientists are not even allowed to communicate with each other.

Turbulence in the Pakistani Nuclear Horn: Daniel 8

Turbulence in Pakistan

Colonel Balwan Singh Nagial

The Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, was arrested on 09 May 2023 in an alleged land transfer case involving realtor Malik Riaz. He was accused of corrupt practices and was handed over to National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The Pakistan Rangers, who work under the Interior Ministry officers usually posted from the military establishment on secondment, broke open the glass of the window pan and arrested Imran Khan, who was undergoing a biometric process at the court. It is alleged that they beat the security staff and lawyers of Imran Khan. After this incident, massive protests broke out in numerous areas of Pakistan. For the first time, the protestors smashed the main gate of Pakistan Army headquarters at Rawalpindi, raising voices against the establishment. The caretaker government ordered the Pakistan Rangers to control Pakistan’s law and order situation, and section 144 has been invoked. Imran Khan’s arrest came after he alleged an Inter-Service Intelligence(ISI) officer. The Pakistan Army rejected these allegations terming them as highly irresponsible and baseless. It is pertinent to mention that Imran Khan has been facing various allegations of corrupt practices since he was ousted from power in April 2023, when he lost the vote of confidence.

Nuking up the remaining nuclear horns: Daniel 7

Some U.S. Allies Finally Need to Improve Defenses, Including Getting Nukes

May 16, 2023

By IVAN ELAND

Also published in Inside Sources Tue. May 16, 2023 

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was recently feted with a state dinner and address before Congress in Washington to show how close a U.S. ally South Korea remains. However, the most covered news from the U.S.-South Korea summit was President Yoon’s sterling rendition of Don McLean’s song “American Pie.”

Yet the most critical item, buried in most stories, was closer consultations between the two countries in the American provision of a nuclear umbrella over South Korea. This declaration of closer cooperation on nuclear options comes as North Korea allegedly tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the United States.

In the closer cooperation, which will result in U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarines calling in South Korean ports for the first time in decades, President Biden was responding to Yoon’s implied threat earlier this year to get his own nuclear weapons, for which some in South Korea are clamoring.

Although Biden is one of the most experienced politicians in American history to win the presidency, especially in foreign policy, he is also very traditional in his thinking. He has also recently pledged several times verbally to defend Taiwan against a rising China, despite U.S. official policy being much more ambiguous. In addition, Biden is redeploying American military forces to the Philippines, tightening the U.S. alliance with Australia, and building up U.S. forces in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, in Europe, he is shoveling military aid hand over fist to help Ukraine against a Russian invasion, a laudable objective but one for which the more threatened wealthy European nations should be assuming the bill.

In general, all such policies further overextend an overseas American military posture already stretched to the limit. Although Donald Trump was the most inexperienced person in public affairs ever to be president and of questionable integrity, competence and commitment to the Constitution and the republic, he seemed to intuitively grasp such U.S. overextension. His idea of what to do about it was less developed and, therefore, muddled.

In contrast, although very competent in getting legislation through the complicated processes of Congress, sometimes even in a bipartisan way, despite being in an era of rank partisanship and being experienced in dealing with world leaders, Biden always seems to just double down on the traditional policy of American overseas overextension.

But it is not 1945 anymore; then, the mighty United States, when all other great powers were dealing with destruction from World War II, accounted for half the world’s economic output. Now the United States accounts for 15.5 percent but accounts for almost 40 percent of global defense expenditures—which is more than the next 10 highest countries spend on military combined.

So, instead of Biden pledging to go further in defending allies all over the world, he should be telling them that they’ll need to assume more responsibility for their own defenses and even team up to deal with the bigger threats from Russia in Europe and China and North Korea in East Asia. Nuclear powers Russia, China and North Korea are more threatening to their regions than to the United States.

But what if South Korea, Japan and Taiwan get nuclear weapons instead of relying on the protection of the American nuclear umbrella. So be it. Russia and China already can effectively strike the American homeland with nuclear weapons and North Korea likely now does too. Thus, if North Korea should attack South Korea, would the United States really be willing to sacrifice Los Angeles or San Francisco to save Seoul? If China attacked Taiwan, would the United States sacrifice those cities and more to save Taipei?

Nuclear proliferation has always been considered by the United States as bad, but some analysts think that additional responsible countries—such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan or Germany—proliferating nuclear weapons might actually increase international stability. A nuclear South Korea or Taiwan would certainly pause aggression by the North Koreans or Chinese, respectively.

At the very least, Biden should demand that allies do more for their defense, as his predecessor ham-handedly tried to do. Since World War II, and especially since the Cold War, the United States has had poor luck in convincing its allies to do so. But that’s because the United States wants to remain the “Big Man on Campus,” to maintain amorphous “influence” worldwide. For decades, however, now-wealthy U.S. allies have benefitted from access to the American market and the U.S. security shield. Now many Asian countries’ top trading partner is China, but they still turn to the United States to shell out to protect them from … well … China.

The stark reality, which longtime American politicians have chosen to ignore—much like they do the vast U.S. budget deficits and even more massive accumulating $31.5 trillion national debt—is the long-standing American strategic overstretch. The United States can no longer afford to police the entire world.

IVAN ELAND is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Director of the Institute’s Center on Peace & Liberty.

Who is the Antichrist Iraq’s most influential religious-political figure?

Who is Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq’s most influential religious-political figure?

Sulaiman LkaderiPublished date: 21 October 2021 17:38 UTC| Last update: 10 hours 40 mins ago 111Shares

Muqtada al-Sadr emerged as the frontrunner in Iraq’s 2021 elections. The Shia cleric, militia leader and political kingmaker has played a crucial role in shaping Iraq since the US invasion in 2003. Here’s what you need to know about him.