Folks there’s something afoot. Or if you’re willing to suffer a bad pun – underfoot. I’ve been watching some geology news sites, but you don’t have to get every expert’s opinion to get a rudimentary understanding of the incredible contortions the earth is undergoing right now. Since January there have been something like 65 volcanic eruptions from 58 different volcanoes – imagine that! Just in one year, and some of them have been extraordinarily violent. A couple of weeks ago that one in Ethiopia, Hayli Gubbi, erupted; a volcano that had been previously classified as extinct! In scientific geological classifications that means for all intents and purposes – dead. That thing cut loose with a tremendous eruption for the first time in recorded human history after sleeping some 12,000 years – totally unexpectedly.
I’ve mentioned in other posts about the super volcano Campi Flegri showing signs of stirring to life. That one is supposedly capable of serious earth-threatening eruptions and there are about three million people in and around the danger zone. That’s only the people in the immediate area of threat, but if it launches a super eruption, who knows what kind of threat it poses to all of the planet? Campi Flegri sits within a few kilometers of Mount Vesuvius, the big one that wiped out Pompeii and Herculaneum back in 79 A.D. Scientists are now speculating – with good evidence – that both Vesuvius and Campi Flegri are connected in their underground magma plumbing, and there’s evidence that Flegri and Vesuvius have erupted simultaneously in the past, and they think both share a capacious magma chamber so if either of them goes off, there might be a twofer. That would undoubtedly take out the whole area, including the approximately three million people living in and around Naples!
Volcanoes are classified according to their potential for explosive eruptions, presumably based on prior eruptive activity. The scale used is expressed in the volume of material they eject, and they use many inputs to arrive at this. It’s called the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)and there are charts to show just how potent their past eruptions have been. The eruption power is calculated using the presumed volume of ejecta and that comes from studying the land strata around the volcano, sometimes the material, or tephra, is even found in other countries even around the world if the eruption was powerful enough. The tuft from given volcanoes has some kind of signature elemental composition so it can be identified as to where it came from.
Using the above chart, you can see that Mt. Saint Helen’s 1980 eruption was classified as a VEI 5, so even though it was colossal to see on video, it’s sort of minor compared to a super volcano like Yellowstone – or Campi Flegri. Campi Flegri is really the one that scientists are concerned about as of now due to the activity – earthquakes, steam vents, and gas content being released from the (growing) number of fumaroles indicate that an eruption may be in the offing sometime soon. The lives of potentially millions of people could be at risk if it goes off in a super eruption. There is the possibility that it might erupt in some less explosive event, say a minor eruption, or even a VEI 1 (notice on the chart VEI 1 is described as “gentle”???), but any eruption at all would threaten hundreds of thousands of people, especially if there was no “warning”.
As far as a warning goes, I can’t think of anything else the Flegrean Fields could possible do, short of announcing it’s intention over a loudspeaker of the precise moment of eruption. Everything a restless volcano can do to indicate an impending eruptive event has been done. Precursory activity including melting roads, buildings so hot they burn your hand, constant earthquake tremors cracking walls and ceilings – all have been going on for a while now. Authorities have understandably been reluctant to sound the evacuation alarm – especially when they have done so in past years when the ground uplift became extreme but nothing happened. Residents left and went to other places only to see that after a while the subsidence reversed and nothing happened. This is the danger of the “boy who cried wolf” attitude of the folks who live there and most of them are willing to gamble that it will once again be a false alarm. But what if it ain’t?
If there is a super eruption at Campi Flegri that kills hundreds of thousands of people, the history books (assuming that the cataclysm doesn’t wipe out humanity – ash clouds creating volcanic winter, etc.) will no doubt be replete with accusations that no one gave the people any warning, or that folks just didn’t understand the magnitude of the threat. Considering the status of events in and around Pozzuoli and the Bay of Naples with the extreme and rapid rate of land rise – there’s actually some areas of boiling water in the bay – and repeated earthquakes, folks, especially folks with kids, need to consider the possibility of existence in some other place. Vesuvius has already taught lessons in Pompeii and Herculaneum of what it can do, but if Flegrei bangs out a super eruption, it’s going to make Vesuvius’ 79 AD event look “gentle”.
There are other considerations regarding all of the volcanoes erupting in the world recently. Maybe the Almighty God has finally decided to deal with a human race that has completely turned away from Him. We are told in the Bible that this age of mankind will end in fire. [2Peter 3:7]:“But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and [b]perdition of ungodly men.” and again in verse 10: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. and verse 12: looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
Peter obviously had been foretold of the coming end of humanity and the very world we live on for he quite plainly said that the world would end in fire. With the simultaneous eruptive activity of all the volcanoes, that might just be the plan. It’s still hard to imagine the heavens being dissolved, but he’s talking about the physical heaven, the sky, rather than the Spiritual Heaven which will never be ended.
When you get time, research the Siberian Traps, a time in geologic history during the Permian/Triassic boundary when the whole world was almost emptied of all life due to monstrous volcano activity in Siberia. The event lasted for two million years! Volcanoes can end the world in a cataclysmic holocaust, and it may just be getting started. This might indeed be the way God chooses to disrupt evil and put an end to a world which has chosen to try to exist without Him.
This old hillbilly has made his choice. [Joshua 24:15]: “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
No matter how ominous the threat(s) we face in this life – wars, earthquakes, floods, or even these horrible volcanoes – such dire events need be of little consequence to those of us who follow Jesus Christ, for He alone is able to preserve us. We might come to a nasty end on this side, but when we walk through that glorious door, He will be standing there smiling to welcome us to our real home, the one He prepared for us before human time began. He will tell His own [Matthew 25:34: “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ” And for those of us who believe, we have nothing at all to fear, He already conquered death, so even though in this upside down life we’re conditioned to believe we should fear it, it is not a threat to us.
There are a lot of terrible things happening in the world around us – the prophets told us it would be this way; Jesus and the apostles said these days would come upon us. Do not be alarmed nor afraid. When Jesus Christ has your back, you’re going to be ok, just keep the faith; spread the Word – He is coming back (I believe very soon), so be ready. Bring as many with you as will come, right now that’s our main focus: [Matthew 9:37,38]: “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” He’s sending us right now. We gotta be those laborers! Forget worldly pursuits and everything else – time is short! The mountains are starting to bubble up. Let’s find as many of His sheep as we can round up. Share this post anywhere you think it might do some good.
May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.
MK