Climate Change,
Earthquakes and Doomsday
Climate changes triggered geological mayhem. As the kilometres-thick Scandinavian ice sheet vanished, the faults beneath released the accumulated strain of tens of millennia, spawning massive magnitude eight earthquakes.
Andrea Hampel of the University of Hannover’s Geological Institute, who with colleagues has been studying earthquake activity says, “future ice loss may trigger earthquakes of intermediate to large magnitude if the crust underneath the modern ice cap contains faults prone to failure”.
Scientific studies reveal that where an earthquake fault or volcanic activity is primed and ready to go, climate change may provide that extra helping hand that brings forward the timing of a quake or eruption that would eventually have happened anyway. In keeping with these scientific predications, earthquakes have occurred with greater frequency around the world. In fact, the number of noticeable earthquakes has been increasing year after year since 2017 in the key oil producing regions of the U.S., according to an analysis by an independent energy research firm. The National Earthquake Information Center now locates about 20,000 earthquakes around the globe each year, or approximately 55 per day.
On September 8, 2021 an earthquake occurred near Acapulco in Guerrero, Mexico of a magnitude of 7 on Richter scale causing landslides, gas leaks and killing many. Early in the morning of August 14, 2021, an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.2 rocked Haiti, causing homes, schools and hospitals to collapse, claiming hundreds of lives, and nearly 1.2 million people effected and leaving communities in crisis.
On September 5, 2021 an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter Scale jolted Yecheng County of Kashgar Prefecture in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. An earthquake occurred off the coast of the Alaska Peninsula on July 28, 2021 of a magnitude of 8.2 according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), followed by a number of aftershocks, including three that were of magnitude 5.9, 6.1 and 6.9 respectively. On March 4, 2021 a series of earthquakes occurred in the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand with magnitudes of 8.1 and 7.4 that occurred at 19:28:31 UTC on 4 March 2021. The list of earthquakes that have shook the earth in 2021 are many. It seems that earthquakes are becoming a frequent occurrence.
Another earthquake that remains fresh in recent memory is the one that devastated the Chinese province of Sichuan killing almost 70,000 people in May 2008. Similarly, on the 26th December, 2004, an undersea earthquake in Indonesia resulted in a tsunami which caused heavy damage and loss of life in South Asian coastal cities.
The oldest of the highly destructive earthquakes recorded in history is the one that struck Shensi, a district in China in 1556 A.D. and took a heavy toll of more than 800,000 lives.
Such earthquakes occur almost every day in varying degrees of intensity, some regions being more prone to earthquakes than others.
The earthquake is one terrestrial phenomenon which most obviously forewarns us of the advent of Doomsday. Anomalies in the organization of the present set-up of the universe, which periodically result in minor calamities, are indicative of what is going to happen on a large scale in the future.
The interior of the earth is, in fact, composed of red-hot semi-molten magma, which is ejected periodically through volcanic activity in the form of lava. Sometimes also strong movements of the earth’s crust can be felt. These are produced by movement of the plates of the earth’s crust due to continental drift. From time to time, the movement of the earth’s surface assumes gigantic proportion and the resulting earthquakes are like a unilateral attack of nature upon man in which nature definitely has the upper hand.
According to a tradition, Prophet Muhammad said, “The Hour (Last Day) will not be established until earthquakes will be very frequent. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1036)
In light of the above tradition we studied seismic activity over the last century and found that the world has been witnessing a substantial increase in the number of earthquakes. According to long-term records since about 1900, the average number of major earthquakes per year are 16. These normally include 15 earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range and one earthquake having a magnitude of 8.0 or greater. The records of the past 40-50 years reveal that we have exceeded the long-term average number of major earthquakes about a dozen times. Earthquakes are increasing all around the world.
The above tradition relates earthquakes with Doomsday, as an Earthquake is, in fact, a small reminder of the day of resurrection. A surge the earth is split asunder with a terrible rumbling; when buildings come tumbling down like playing cards; when the upper layers of the earth are cracked open and the interior of the earth is spewed out, when cities bustling with life are reduced to ashes in a matter of minutes; when the earth is strewn with dead bodies, like shoals of fish washed up on the sea coast, man realizes his utter helplessness in the face of nature. What is most tragic about earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is the fact that no one can predict when or where they will take place. And, when they do, everything happens in a flash, leaving little or no time for escape. The day of the resurrection will come upon us all of a sudden, just like an earthquake. Such natural catastrophes demonstrate, most awesomely, God’s capacity to destroy the earth at any moment.
Even more terrifying events take place in the outer reaches of the universe. In the infinitude of space, are innumerable, enormous celestial bodies in continuous motion. In fact, there are so many of them that they are in danger of colliding with each other. Studies in astronomy have confirmed that this is an actual possibility - it would not be surprising if they did collide. What is surprising is that they do not collide. Our Solar System may well be the result of a collision of this type. If we can visualize such a collision taking place on a greatly enlarged scale, the day of resurrection will no longer seem impossible, nor even such a remote possibility as we had perhaps at first imagined.
Believers in the concept of the life hereafter contend that a time is bound to come when the forces of destruction which are present in the universe in embryonic form will one day assume gigantic proportions. What is latent today will certainly be manifest tomorrow, and the coming of the day of resurrection will be a reality. Today we apprehend it as a probability; tomorrow we shall witness it as fact. Man needs to prepare for the coming of Doomsday in the hereafter, when he is able to in this world of test.
