"And The Powers of the Heavens Shall Be Shaken"

by Hank Beymer

In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 24, Jesus' disciples asked Him about the signs of the end of times, and when He would return. In his discourse, He mentions that there will be signs in the heavens and earth, and describes things that we would call "natural" phenomena. And in the Book of Revelation, even more signs are described, including great earthquakes, flaming objects falling to the earth, and many other such things.

In today's times, there are many "signs of the end times" gurus making prognostications about things that are happening, and invariably, many of them look to some of the reports of natural phenomena to try and determine how close to the end we are.

There are a number of things that have occurred recently that have been considered, even by the scientific community, to be somewhat unusual.

 Most recently, just within the past week, there have been two abnormally large solar flares that occurred. According to those in the know, we were very lucky in that the flares themselves were not pointed directly at the earth, and that the magnetic poles of the flares were more aligned with that of the earth.  The flare shown at the left is from the beginning of the cycle, while the one on the right is at the peak. (Photos courtesy SOHO.)

Solar flares emit great amounts of magnetic radiation. Essentially, a flare is an gigantic explosion within the sun. Flare intensity is rated on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most powerful. The latest two flares were both rated as G5, and sun watchers say that for there to be two G5's in one week is highly unusual.

 The radiation emitted can, and does cause certain things to occur on earth, one of the most notable being the Aurora Borealis. This is a result of the magnetic radiation emitted and its interaction with the ionized particles in the earth's atmosphere. Usually, the Aurora Borealis is only noticeable in the far northern and southern hemispheres, and especially during certain parts of the year.

  As a result of this last weeks flares, the Aurora caused light shows in the night sky as far south as Texas and Arizona. Shown here are three examples of the Aurora "light show". Note in particular the one with the circular shape, indicating a highly unusual ionized particle configuration in the atmosphere. 

When the solar flares have magnetic poles that are "mis-aligned" with those of earth, other, more drastic consequences can occur. One of these is to cause intense magnetic induction to occur in electrical lines and grids, or any thing that is electronic or electrical in nature. Extreme fluctuations in power can cause power lines to fail, radio and television towers to quit, even cars to malfunction.

During the last flare, Japan lost two communication satellites as a result of the radiation. I was also interested to find during my research, that while geologists and geo-physicists say that there hasn't been any particular increase in earthquake activity, there has been a very noticeable increase in the number of recorded earthquakes over the past 33 years, as shown in the accompanying graph.  From just over 4,000 recorded in 1970, to over 23,000 recorded to date this year.

I also found that of the 10 largest earthquakes, 7 have occurred since 1950. In Japan alone, there have been two earthquakes greater that a 7.5 magnitude just in the past 3 months. Harbingers of the end times? I don't know...but it certainly is interesting!! I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open.

FLASH....as this edition was going to press, SOHO (Solar Observatory) announced that several more major flares had erupted. Anticipated effect was very low, as the sun spots from which the flares emanate was passing around the sun, but they announced that the same area would be back facing earth in just a week or so. No guesses were being made as to whether or not any other major eruptions would come.