The Geophysical End of the World

[Eugene Shubert]

I'm excited about the theory of planet resurfacing as explained in the transcript to the Nova program called, Venus Unveiled. The theory was devised to explain a mystery about the planet Venus but I believe that it applies to the planet Earth as well.

In short, the theory of planet resurfacing says that a planet like Venus has a crust (a lithosphere) that is trapping the heat of the planet's molten core. As the interior of the planet continues to heat up due to radioactive decay at the core—and an insufficient loss of heat through the lithosphere—eventually the surface will become disrupted and it will catastrophically sink into the interior. This begins a period of totally catastrophic surface volcanism with a time of flame resulting in a virtually complete magma ocean on the entire surface of the planet. This extracts so much heat from the interior of the planet that the interior cools off until the point that it is sufficiently cool that again the planet dies and starts to form a solid surface, very quiet and peaceful for 500 million years.

"It will look like the planet is totally dead with no volcanism, earthquakes or other activity of that sort. But it then heats up in the interior until you're ready for another catastrophe. As the interior heats up, eventually this process repeats. The whole surface founders and sinks into the interior and this episodicidity repeats again."

Please compare what the scientists have said about planet resurfacing with what the prophet Ellen G. White has written in the 1911 edition of The Great Controversy:

"In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: 'It is done.' Revelation 16:17.

"That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, 'such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. Verses 17, 18. The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of destruction. The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabited islands disappear." Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 636-637.

"The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. Malachi 4:1; 2 Peter 3:10. The earth's surface seems one molten mass—a vast, seething lake of fire." Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 672-673.

From an earlier vision, Ellen White reported this:

"But there was one clear place of settled glory, from whence came the voice of God like many waters, which shook the heavens, and the earth. The sky opened and shut, and was in commotion. The mountains shook like a reed in the wind, and cast out rugged rocks all around. The sea boiled like a pot, and cast out stones upon the land." — Ellen G. White, A Vision, April 7, 1847.

[Eugene Shubert]

The Geophysical End of the World has started

Geologist Dereje Ayalew and his colleagues from Addis Ababa University were amazed -- and frightened. They had only just stepped out of their helicopter onto the desert plains of central Ethiopia when the ground began to shake under their feet. The pilot shouted for the scientists to get back to the helicopter. And then it happened: the Earth split open. Crevices began racing toward the researchers like a zipper opening up. After a few seconds, the ground stopped moving, and after they had recovered from their shock, Ayalew and his colleagues realized they had just witnessed history.

In north-eastern Africa's Afar Triangle, recent months have seen hundreds of crevices splitting the desert floor and the ground has slumped by as much as 100 meters (328 feet). At the same time, scientists have observed magma rising from deep below.

The dramatic event that Ayalew and his colleagues witnessed in the Afar Desert on Sept. 26, 2005 was followed by a week-long series of earthquakes. During the ensuing months, hundreds of further crevices opened up in the ground, spreading across an area of 345 square miles. "The earth has not stopped moving since," geophysicist Tim Wright of the University of Oxford says. The ground is still splitting open and sinking, he says; small earthquakes are constantly shaking the region.

Scientists have made repeated trips to the area since the drama of last September. Locals have reported a number of new cracks opening in the ground, says geologist Cynthia Ebinger from the University of London, and during each visit, new crevices are discovered. Fumes as hot as 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit) shoot up from some of them; the sound of bubbling magma and the smell of sulfur rise from others. The larger crevices are dozens of meters deep and several hundred meters long. Traces of recent volcanic eruptions are also visible.

In a number of places, cracks have opened up beneath the thin layer of volcanic ash that covers the region. As there is no ash in the fissures, it's clear that they opened up after the volcanic eruptions, most of which took place at the end of September or in October, 2005. A number of locals who fled the eruptions have reported that a black cloud of ash -- spewed out of the Dabbahu volcano -- darkened the sky for three days.

Basalt magma has risen into some of the crevices. For the moment, Ayalew explains, the lava seems not to be rising further. A number of recent eruptions, though, have left layers of new basalt lava on the Earth's surface. And it's the exact same kind of lava that spews out of volcanic ridges deep under the ocean -- a process which slowly pushes older lava sediments away on either side. The process has only just begun in the Afar Triangle.

The source of the African magma looks to be a gigantic stream of molten rock rising from beneath the Earth's crust and slicing through the African continental plate like a blow torch.

Now, it's the Afar Triangle's turn and it's sinking rapidly. Large areas are already more than 100 meters (328 feet) below sea level. For now, the highlands surrounding the Denakil Depression prevent the Red Sea from flooding these areas, but erosion and tectonic plate movement are continually reducing the height of this natural barrier. The Denakil Depression, which lies to the east of Afar, is already prey to regular floods -- each flood leaving behind a crust of salt.

The chain of volcanoes that runs along the roughly 6,000 kilometer (3,730 mile) long East African Rift System offers further testimony to the breaking apart of the continent. In some areas around the outer edges of the Rift System, the Earth's crust has already cracked open, making room for the magma below. From the Red Sea to Mozambique in the south, dozens of volcanoes have formed, the best known being Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Nyiragongo.

A team of scientists working with Christophe Vigny of the Paris Laboratory of Geology reported on the phenomenon in a 2006 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Source: SPIEGEL Magazine Online - March 15, 2006, A Continent Splits Apart by Axel Bojanowski.

[Eugene Shubert]

Report: Volcanism in the Afar triangle region of NW Ethiopia.

[Eugene Shubert]

Japanese Waters Warming Faster Than World Average
Tokyo (AFP) May 16, 2007

The temperature of waters around Japan has risen at a much faster rate than the rest of the world's oceans in the past century, partly because of global warming, according to an official report. Average sea temperatures in areas around Japan rose by 0.7-1.6 degress Celsius between 1900 and 2006, a higher rate than the world average of 0.5 degrees Celsius, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

This compared with an average rise of 1.1 degrees Celsius in the temperature on the ground in Japan in the past century, the governmental agency said in its report this week.

The warmer ocean was expected to impact fish resources and the ecosystem including colonies of corals, said Yasushi Takatsuki, a marine meteorology specialist at the agency.

"It cannot be totally attributed to global warming. There are factors such as natural changes in the ocean environment. We want to check how much global warming accounts for the sea temperature rise," he said.

[Eugene Shubert]

For completeness, perhaps I should mention another theory that might help to explain the eventual collapse of the Earth's mantle and the future sinking of mountains. This is crazy but there seems to be evidence that the Earth has expanded dramatically during the Creation Week. I doubt if this connects to the time of the Universal Flood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjgidAICoQI
http://www.gotquestions.org/pangea-theory.html

[Eugene Shubert]

The sudden thinning in 1997 of Jakobshavn Isbrae, one of Greenland's largest glaciers, was caused by subsurface ocean warming, according to research published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Jakobshavn Isbrae, a large outlet glacier feeding a deep-ocean fjord on Greenland's west coast, went from slow thickening to rapid thinning beginning in 1997. Several explanations have been put forward to explain this development. The scientists in the Nature Geoscience study sought to address the matter comprehensively by tracing changes in ocean temperatures and the factors driving these changes.

In doing this, they relied on previous results published by others that used NASA's Airborne Topographic Mapper, which has made airborne surveys along a 120-kilometer stretch in the Jakobshavn ice-drainage basin nearly every year since 1991.

While many other glaciers were thinning around Greenland, these surveys revealed that Jakobshavn Isbrae thickened substantially from 1991 to 1997. But, after 1997, Jakobshavn Isbrae began thinning rapidly. Between 1997 and 2001, Airborne Topographic Mapper surveys showed an approximately 35-meter reduction in surface elevations on the glacier's 15-kilomater floating ice tongue.

This is far higher than thinning rates of grounded ice immediately upstream.

The researchers reported that these changes coincided with jumps in subsurface ocean temperatures. These temperatures were recorded by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources from 1991 to 2006 over nearly the entire western Greenland continental shelf.

These data indicate a striking, substantial jump in bottom temperature in all parts in the survey area during the second half of the 1990s. In particular, they show that a warm water pulse arrived suddenly on the continental shelf on Disko Bay, which is in close proximity Jakobshavn Isbrae, in 1997.

The arrival coincided precisely with the rapid thinning and subsequent retreat of Jakobshavn Isbrae. The warm water mass remains today, and Jakobshavn Isbrae is still in a state of rapid retreat.

The remaining question, then, is what caused the rise in water temperatures during this period.

Source: Atmosphere And Ocean Warming Thinning Out Greenland Icecap by Staff Writers New York NY (SPX) Oct 03, 2008