Disaster compared to scene from Bible (Planet rotation said affected by 9.0 quake)

WorldNetDaily ^ | December 26, 2004

[NYer]

The largest earthquake in the past 40 years and the resulting deaths of thousands from 33-foot tidal waves are being compared by an American reporter to descriptions of disaster from Holy Scripture.

"The speed with which it all happened seemed like a scene from the Bible – a natural phenomenon unlike anything I had experienced before," said Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs, who was swimming off a Sri Lankan island when the disaster struck this morning.

"As the waters rose at an incredible rate, I half expected to catch sight of Noah's Ark. Instead of the Ark, I grabbed hold of a wooden catamaran that the local people used as a fishing boat. My brother jumped on the boat, next to me. We bobbed up and down on the catamaran, as the water rushed past us into the village beyond the road."

Officials at the U.S. Geological Survey the 9.0 quake centered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the biggest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.

The temblor sparked a tsunami, a series of giant walls of water which left more than 14,000 dead in six countries, with the death toll continuing to rise.

Dobbs gives a first-person account of the dramatic event in the Post:

Disaster struck with no warning out of a faultlessly clear blue sky. ... I was a quarter way around the island when I heard my brother shouting at me, "Come back! Come back! There's something strange happening with the sea." ...

In less than a minute, the water level had risen at least 15 feet – but the sea itself remained calm, barely a wave in sight. ...

After a few minutes, the water stopped rising, and I felt it was safe to swim to the shore. What I didn't realize was that the floodwaters would recede as dramatically as they had risen.

All of a sudden, I found myself being swept out to sea with startling speed. Although I am a fairly strong swimmer, I was unable to withstand the current. The fishing boats around me had been torn from their moorings and were furiously bobbing up and down.

For the first time, I felt afraid, powerless to prevent myself from being swept out to sea.

I swam in the direction of one of the loose catamarans, grabbed hold of the hull, and pulled myself to safety. My weight must have slowed the boat down and soon I was stranded on the sand.

As the water rushed out of the bay, I scrambled onto the main road. Screams and yells were coming from the houses behind the road, many of which were still half full of water, trapping the inhabitants inside. Villagers were walking dazed along the road, unable to comprehend what had taken place.

I was worried about my wife who had been on the beach at the time I went for my swim. I eventually found her walking along the road, dazed and happy to be alive. She had been trying to wade back to our island, when the water had carried her across the road and into someone's back yard. At one point she was underwater, struggling for breath. She finally grabbed onto a piece of rope and climbed into a tree, while the waters raged beneath her.

An Italian scientist says the earthquake was so strong, it even disturbed the rotation of the Earth.

"All the planet is vibrating," Enzo Boschi, head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute said on SKY TG24 TV.

The U.S. State Department says at least three Americans are confirmed dead, two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand.

A written statement from the White House says "the President expresses his sincere condolences for the terrible loss of life and suffering caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in the region of the Bay of Bengal.

"The United States stands ready to offer all appropriate assistance to those nations most affected including Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as the other countries impacted. Already relief is flowing to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We will work with the affected governments, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, and other concerned states and organizations to support the relief and response to this terrible tragedy."

Relief agencies say the full scale of the disaster is impossible to assess, since communications have been cut to remote areas.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

Some people (Jews and some Christians) believe that God's name is so HOLY that it should NEVER be spelled out as respect to THE ALMIGHTY.

[Quix]

Thanks.

But only as comfortably convenient if on my account.

Blessings,

[Quix]

True enough . . . so far.

[SheLion]

 Learn something new every day.  Thank you both so much for enlightening me.

Since the atheists are trying to take God out of everything, I guess I am overly sensitive.

Please accept my apologies!!!

[Sacajaweau]

Thinking about all this.

I Think of the earth as being a raisin in raisin bread as it is cooking. It's always in motion and the volcano is just excessive heat that got into the raisin and blew a hole in it. The raisin stays in place with a small void which will fill with ? (Internal). What it releases and moves is equalized on the surface of the earth until everything is in tandem again. Our earth is in a state of perpetual change as is the universe. It's this great balance that is awesome and GLOBAL WARMING is just a little piece of sh**.

[Our man in washington]

Would you at least one person at DU was making that case? She was claiming that global warming had increased the depth of the ocean to the point that a tragedy like this was available, and global warming was all the fault of Bush.

I don't think I need to bother to debunk that.

[WorkingClassFilth]

"All the planet is vibrating," Enzo Boschi, head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute..."

Desperate for riveting articles that prove their relevance, the media is beginning it's tailspin descent into the level of journalism formerly reserved for bat-boy and UFO's. The next wave of articles will probably sound like those from 1950's 'B' sci-fi movies...

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AP reports fishermen around the world describe sea-life acting in strange ways as millions of deep sea creatures from sharks to mullets leaping onto fishing vessels as though trying to escape something...something from the vast and unknowable depths...

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REUTERS. In light of recent global tragedies and their dire effects on the fishing industry, the BBC reported this morning that riots have broken out in the House of Commons. A faction calling itself 'The Sensibles' have demanded that Parliment repeal a recent act calling for the registration of cod as potential weapons. British police have been unable to quell the fracas due to the ineffective use of bananas currently issued as riot control truncheons.

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UPI (0900 GMC, 27.12.04) California. Noted world astronomers, Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine and Dr. Howard, have issued a joint statement to the world press from their Mount Palomar observatory this morning. Noting their colleague Dr. Enzo Boschi's discovery of the earth's rotational disturbance, they added that the imbalance in the earth's geomagnetic balance may be affecting the larger cosmos as well. As early as yesterday aftenoon, the team observed multiple bright flashes eminating from the surface of the red planet Mars. It is unknown what this might mean at this time...

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COURAGE, AMERICA...

[garbanzo]

Frankly, I think the guy probably said that the rotation could be affected not that it has been affected. I don't think data could be gathered this fast to maintain such an absolute statement.

Not really. Time is maintained in two ways - atomic clocks and by measuring the rotation of the earth as compared to distant stars. Given that astronomers do this all the time, it's fairly easy to see when discrepancies pop up between the atomic time and the "stellar" time.

[Sacajaweau]

Damn GPS...It would have taken a hundred years to figure it out the old way.

However, the "built in" error was removed not long ago and that was 100 feet so I'm not betting on the new location yet.

[First_Salute]

Thank you for correcting my spelling, too; because it is tough, for some reason, for me to hit all the keys, though I am pretty sure that the keyboard misses a beat in the Shift, I am fairly certain that otherwise, the problem is in my head.

[Steely Tom]

can an earthquake alter the angular momentum of the earth?

No. The angular momentum of the earth can only be changed by either encountering an extra-terrestrial object that transfers angular momentum to us (for instance, by collision with a sizeable asteroid, particularly if the angle of collision is "glancing") or by ejecting some material from the earth and thereby carrying away some angular momentum.

However, the rotational speed of the earth, or the orientation of its axis of rotation, could be changed even if its angular momentum does not change, if there occurred a sufficiently radical redistribution of mass within the earth, including its crust.

You can prove this to yourself by getting one of those little half-pint cartons of milk and "flipping" it in the air. You will observe that the carton always ends up rotating at a speed that is considerably slower than you expect. This is because you are imparting spin to the carton, and the carton, in turn, imparts spin to the milk it contains, but this process takes place after the carton has left your hand.

It is also possible (though doubtful IMO because of the magnitudes involved) that some angular momentum the earth once had got "trapped" in the form of stored energy (by putting millions of cubic miles of rock located in earth's crust or mantle under stress) at some point in the distant past. If an earthquack were to "release" this stored angular momentum, it could change the earth's rotation.

But, as I said, it seems to me that for this to be measurable the earthquake would have to be truly biblical. Massive tidal waves in every ocean of the world, costal cities everywhere devastated, that sort of thing.

As big as this one was, it's energy release was small potatoes compared with a quake that could do that sort of thing.

What the Dr. Boschi said is that "the planet is vibrating." This could be the case with no change in angular momentum whatsoever.

(steely)

[Sacajaweau]

I tend to agree with this. That gaping hole had to refill with something from someplace....either behind it or from the side of it...you HAVE the idea.

[wolfpat]

Registering cod as weapons? Ridiculous. However, I'm going out to cut down some trees with a herring...

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Did we jump forward, backward, slow, speed up?

A mouse scammering across the room changes the rotation of the earth, though not in any measurable way. This earthquake and resulting tsunami could not significantly change the angular momentum of the earth as a whole, however, if it redistributed the mass of the earth, it could change both the rotation rate and the rotational axis.

The canonical analogy is the ice skater who spins faster by drawing her arms in towards herself. The actual case is a little more complicated. Leaving out the astronomical effects of nutation and precession (which actually do involve long term predictable changes in the direction of the earth's rotation and hence changes in the earth's angular momentum) the earth's axis of rotation wobbles around its "mean" or conventional point. This wobble is not completely understood, but it is not much different than the expected results of "eulerian wobble". You see "eulerian wobble" every time you see a replay of a pass thrown by Jim Plunket - a not perfect spiral.

Motion of the North Pole Exhibiting Wobble

The effect is somewhat subtle, one second of arc corresponds to a displacement of about 30 meters on the surface of the earth. For a good discussion of matters effecting the earth's rotation start here

[Sacajaweau]

These astonomers are awesome. There's another I would like to hear from....Apache Point.

[XRdsRev]

We need to reset our clocks to 8pm (EST). The date is now June 12 and please amend all maps and atlas' to show that the north pole is now located at Parma Ohio. Thanks

[Tennessee_Bob]

I thought it was a Pacific fault...

[ExtremeUnction]

I'm amazed that all of Sumatra is 100 feet over from where it was a couple of days ago.

Look at "Earthquake Park" in Anchorage." A vast area of land that dropped 20 feet when their 9.2 hit in 1964.

[wolfpat]

Great! It's my birthday. It doesn't seem like a whole year has passed...
My in-laws in Middletown will be glad the pole stopped before it got to them.

[Jemian]

Thanks. Your explanation helps.