Iran’s Attack on Israel Could Open the Door to Retaliation!
The world witnessed a breakthrough moment Saturday night when additional air defense was provided to Israel by not only the USA, but by MEAD, the Middle East Air Defense alliance. Israel was joined by several Islamic nations with predominately Sunni Muslim populations who have had a historically adverse relationship with Iran which is predominately Shia Muslim.
While the United States leadership is cautioning someone with a terse one-word warning “Don’t” the world seems to be doing exactly what it wants to do regardless of the United States monosyllabic warning!
I have a favorite cliche, “After all is said and done, there is more said than done!” The international leadership of the United States has historically fallen into that category since Joseph Biden became POTUS. The world has begun to realize the empty nature of what the United States says on the world stage.
In order to be effective in world affairs, a nation must have not only the ability, but the will to take the necessary steps to make things happen.
The Passing of a Great Country
The phrase, “it came to pass” appears around 1,200 times in the Hebrew version of the Bible; over the years I have increasingly come to appreciate that thought as it certainly appears virtually everything comes to pass, nations included.
The United States is conspicuously absent from Bible end-times prophecy so we must reasonably conclude that something happens that causes it to pass from the world scene. The question in the minds of many is what is going to happen to cause that passing and when will it happen?
Earlier, in some of my writings, I commented that the removal of the church and one well-placed EMP could eliminate the USA as a world power. While I still think that would be enough, I hasten to acknowledge the Lord has a number of other options available to him, not counting direct divine intervention such as fire from heaven as described in Revelation 20:9 where it is written:
“9 And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God’s people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them.”
God has four ticking time bombs available and already in place that could cause massive destruction to the USA. Starting on the West Coast and moving in an easterly direction, they are:
The Cascadian Subduction Zone
The San Andreas Fault
The Yellowstone Supervolcano
The New Madrid Seismic Zone
The activation of any one, or combination of these geological elements could cause massive damage to the USA! Let’s examine these natural phenomena one at a time.
The Cascadian Subduction Zone
Courtesy of Oregon.gov
The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a 700-mile fault that runs from northern California up to British Columbia and is about 70-100 miles off the Pacific coast shoreline. There have been 43 earthquakes in the last 10,000 years within this fault. The last earthquake that occurred in this fault was on Jan. 26, 1700, with an estimated 9.0 magnitude. This earthquake caused the coastline to drop several feet and a tsunami to form and crash into the land. Evidence for this great earthquake came from Japan. Japanese historical records indicate that a destructive distantly-produced tsunami struck their coast on Jan. 26, 1700. By studying the geological records and the flow of the Pacific Ocean, scientists have been able to link the tsunami in Japan with the great earthquake from the Pacific Northwest. Native American legends also support the timing of this last event.
Oregon has the potential for a 9.0+ magnitude earthquake caused by the Cascadia Subduction Zone and a resulting tsunami of up to 100 feet in height that will impact the coastal area. There is an estimated five to seven minutes of shaking or rolling that will be felt along the coastline with the strength and intensity decreasing the further inland you are.
While relatively limited in scope, a major earthquake followed by a huge tsunami would have a major impact on that part of the USA.
The San Andreas Fault
National Park Service
The San Andreas Fault, a “Transform Plate Boundary.” is located in California and has the potential for cataclysmic movement at some time in the future. The National Park Service website provides the following explanation:
“Where tectonic plates slip horizontally past one another, lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed. Instead, blocks of crust are torn apart in a broad zone of shearing between the two plates. Such boundaries are called transform plate boundaries because they connect other plate boundaries in various combinations, transforming the site of plate motion. The grinding action between the plates at a transform plate boundary, results in shallow earthquakes, large lateral displacement of rock, and a broad zone of crustal deformation.
Perhaps nowhere on Earth is such a landscape more dramatically displayed than along the San Andreas Fault in western California. The landscapes of Channel Islands National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore and many other NPS sites in California are products of such a broad zone of deformation, where the Pacific Plate moves north-northwestward past the rest of North America.”
The USGS has published a 312 page report, on the kind of damage that could be expected when the pressure on the San Andreas is finally released, which is called, “The ShakeOut Scenario”
An earthquake of 7.8 magnitude could shut down the entire West Coast and take an extended amount of time for restoration.
The Yellowstone Supervolcano
The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest of three super volcanoes found in the United States along with the Long Valley Caldera and the Valles Caldera; an eruption in any of these three could end the world as we know it.
Because of the extreme destruction that would be caused by the eruption of a super volcano, I’m inclined to think the Lord will save this one for the Tribulation.
The USGS has commented:
If another large, caldera-forming eruption were to occur at Yellowstone, its effects would be worldwide. Such a giant eruption would have regional effects such as falling ash and short-term (years to decades) changes to global climate. Those parts of the surrounding states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming that are closest to Yellowstone would be affected by pyroclastic flows, while other places in the United States would be impacted by falling ash (the amount of ash would decrease with distance from the eruption site). Such eruptions usually form calderas, broad volcanic depressions created as the ground surface collapses as a result of withdrawal of partially molten rock (magma) below. Fortunately, the chances of this sort of eruption at Yellowstone are exceedingly small in the next few thousands of years.
The New Madrid Seismic Zone
I have previously mentioned the New Madrid Seismic Zone and its potential for damage in the Eastern half of the United States. An article published in the USGS revealed the following: (Fact Sheet 2009-3071)
Earthquake Hazard in the New Madrid Seismic Zone Remains a Concern
“There is broad agreement in the scientific community that a continuing concern exists for a major destructive earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone. Many structures in Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., and other communities in the central Mississippi River Valley region are vulnerable and at risk from severe ground shaking. This assessment is based on decades of research on New Madrid earthquakes and related phenomena by dozens of Federal, university, State, and consulting earth scientists.
Considerable interest has developed recently from media reports that the New Madrid seismic zone may be shutting down. These reports stem from published research using global positioning system (GPS) instruments with results of geodetic measurements of strain in the Earth’s crust. Because of a lack of measurable strain at the surface in some areas of the seismic zone over the past 14 years, arguments have been advanced that there is no buildup of stress at depth within the New Madrid seismic zone and that the zone may no longer pose a significant hazard.
As part of the consensus-building process used to develop the national seismic hazard maps, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) convened a workshop of experts in 2006 to evaluate the latest findings in earthquake hazards in the Eastern United States. These experts considered the GPS data from New Madrid available at that time that also showed little to no ground movement at the surface. The experts did not find the GPS data to be a convincing reason to lower the assessment of earthquake hazard in the New Madrid region, especially in light of the many other types of data that are used to construct the hazard assessment, several of which are described here.”
Next, we will take a look at the time left for the USA.
davidbowerkingwood 
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