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Friday, September 20, 2013

Strongest Storm on Earth En Route to Hong Kong



Super-Typhoon Usagi became the strongest storm on Earth on Thursday. Though it’s weakened since then, the storm is still churning toward Hong Kong and could create major disruptions with a likely landfall as early as Sunday.

On Thursday, Usagi measured sustained wind speeds of 160 mph. Those winds made it the strongest storm on Earth this year, besting Utor, which recorded wind speeds of 150 mph prior to making landfall in the Philippines in mid-August according to the Capital Weather Gang. NASA created a 3D satellite image of Usagi at its peak, showing an extremely well-developed eyewall.

Credit to Climate Central

Stocks are about to plunge, Wells Fargo warns




Gina Martin Adams is sticking to her guns.

The Wells Fargo strategist has been bearish on stocks all year, even as she watched the S&P 500 (^GSPC) add 21 percent. And on Thursday's " Futures Now ," Adams reiterated her call that the index would close out the year at 1,440.

"Our target is based on fundamentals," Adams insisted. "We're basing our target on typical valuation measures, given the level of interest rates and also on earnings forecasts. And that's why our target is relatively low."

In fact, "low" is somewhat of an understatement. Adams' target implies that the market will drop 16 percent in little more than three months, erasing everything that stocks gained after the year's first day of trading. This makes her one of the lone bears on the Street.

So what could produce such a dismal fourth quarter for stocks? First of all, Adams is highly skeptical about the rally that the market has enjoyed thus far.

"It's all about emotion at this point. The entirety of the S&P 500's increase this year has come via the multiple," Adams said. "It's been simply through the amount that investors are willing to bid up the value of the future earnings stream."

Indeed, the S&P 500's price-earnings multiple has risen from 17 on Jan. 1 to nearly 20. That means the market has largely been rising due to investors' willingness to pay more for those earnings.

Adams goes on to argue that the recent rise in Treasury yields could put an end to this inclination.

"The multiple is one of the most valuable components" of the rally, and "typical drivers of the multiple are interest rates." So despite the fact that yields have cooled off recently, "simply the fact that we moved from 1.6 [percent] on the 10-year Treasury rate to now the 2.7 [percent] range is a potential tremendous shock over the next six months," Adams contended.

Adams believes that stocks haven't yet digested the rate rally. "Stocks tend to follow rates over time," she said. "Typically, when you get a 100 basis point [or 1 percent] move in Treasury rates, you get a contraction on the P/E multiple on stocks of about a full turn. That, by itself, implies you get something of a 10-percent-plus correction in stocks."

And while the Fed's decision that it wouldn't slow its rate of asset purchases has driven the market to yet another all-time high this week, Adams doesn't believe the surprising announcement will ultimately make a difference.

"Unless bonds can actually rally substantially with the so-called Fed bid, and the Fed is able to manipulate yields significantly lower, the damage has been done, and I think the cat is quite frankly out of the bag."

Couple the rise in rates with slow earnings growth, and Adams believes the market is in for a very tricky fall.

"We're going to have to face the music come October," she said.


Credit Yahoo News

Biometric ID coming to a government office near you

eyes

Biometric systems are increasingly found across government for personal identification/authentication applications, being used for homeland security, identity management, border crossing, electronic commerce and the prevention of ID theft. This week’s Biometric Consortium Conference in Tampa, Fla., showcases a wide range of hardware and software solutions to identity management challenges, such as fingerprint, earlobe, hand geometry and gait recognition, as well as PC/network access, point-of-sale authentication and surveillance.

The new biometric products and services aimed at government include:

The SEEK Avenger from Crossmatch Technologies, a rugged, mobile, fully certified biometric enrollment and credential reading device. It combines forensic-quality fingerprint, stand-off dual iris capture, high-resolution facial and evidence imaging, and multiple-format credential reading. The SEEK Avenger’s optional 3G/4G wireless connectivity and an onboard watch list of up to 250,000 records allows enrollment or verification in the field, which can be valuable in remote locations, conditions where connectivity has been compromised or when virtually instantaneous confirmation is required.

Lumidigm’s multispectral imaging sensor offers multifactor authentication on a single sensor. It can natively read two different authentication factors, a fingerprint and a new optical barcode credential. Multispectral imaging can overcome the fingerprint capture problems that conventional imaging systems have in less-than-ideal conditions. It uses multiple spectrums of light and advanced optical techniques to extract unique fingerprint characteristics from both the surface and subsurface of the skin. The technology can also be used to authenticate factors beyond fingerprints, such as copy-resistant optical credentials.

SecuGen Biometric Solutions’ USB fingerprint reader comes in a stand-alone (peripheral) model and an OEM sensor version that can be integrated into hardware products where space is at a premium, such as access control systems, kiosks, ATMs, safes and industrial equipment. Both are FAP 20 Mobile ID and PIV certified by the FBI.

At the show, EyeVerify and Fixmo will demo their biometric solution for mobile security that delivers password-free mobile authentication by using the cameras on smartphones to image and pattern-match the blood vessels in the whites of the eye. Fixmo will integrate EyeVerify’s Eyeprint Verification into Fixmo Safezone, a mobile, defense-grade secure workspace that is encrypted, contained and managed by IT independent of the device itself.

Credit To GCN

Europeans into poverty.....

Iran president blames Israel for 'instability,' calls for peace

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed Israel for causing "injustice to the people" of the Middle East during an exclusive interview with NBC News in which he also called for peace, saying Iran is not "looking for war."

Unlike his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani struck a moderate tone on many issues, but he deflected a question from NBC News' Ann Curry about whether he believed that the Holocaust was "a myth."

"I'm not a historian. I'm a politician," he replied. "What is important for us is that the countries of the region and the people grow closer to each other, and that they are able to prevent aggression and injustice."

Rouhani's comments came in his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since his June election. The interview was broadcast Thursday on TODAY.



David Lom / NBC News

NBC News' Ann Curry speaks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday. It was Rouhani's first interview with a U.S. news outlet since being elected.

When asked by Curry about the fact that Ahmadinejad had people believing that Iran wanted to wipe Israel off the map, Rouhani replied: "What we wish for in this country is rule by the will of the people. We believe in the ballot box."

Curry also asked Rouhani to respond to comments by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called him a "wolf in sheep’s clothing."

Rouhani described Israel as "an occupier and usurper government" that "does injustice to the people of the region, and has brought instability to the region, with its warmongering policies."

He added Israel "shouldn't allow itself to give speeches about a democratically and freely elected government."

Netanyahu has previously hinted at the possibility of Israeli military strikes on Iran over the country's controversial nuclear program if Western sanctions and diplomacy fail.

However, Rouhani also said it was important that countries across the Middle East learn to peacefully coexist.

"We are not seeking ... and looking for war with any nations. We are seeking peace and stability among all the nations in the region," Rouhani said.

In an exclusive interview with NBC's Ann Curry, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country is asking for peace, stability and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.

Rouhani replaced Ahmadinejad who had been quoted as describing the Nazi Holocaust as "a myth" while in office. In 2009, Ahmadinejad dropped language from a speech at a U.N. conference on racism that branded the Holocaust "ambiguous and dubious."

Rouhani's comments underscored the shift in tone since he was elected with just over 50 percent of the vote. During his inaugural address, the new president spoke of engagement with the West to end bruising sanctions over his country’s controversial nuclear program.

Rouhani also appeared to pledge his support for increasing Iranians’ access to the Internet and other political and social freedoms.

"We want the people, in their private lives, to be completely free, and in today’s world having access to information and the right of free dialogue, and the right to think freely, is the right of all peoples, including the people of Iran," he said.

When asked whether his government would stop censoring the Internet, Rouhani said "a commission for citizens' rights" would be established.

"Does that mean that people in Iran will have access now to Twitter and to Facebook?" Curry asked.

"The viewpoint of the government is that the people must have full access to all information worldwide," Rouhani replied. "Our opinions on this should based on protection of our national identity and on our morals."

Officials in Washington, D.C., say the time is right for Iran, which wants a deal to get out from sanctions that are crippling its economy. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

In the interview with Curry, Rouhani also said his country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program.

"In its nuclear program, this government enters with full power and has complete authority," he said, adding that Iran has repeatedly pledged that "under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever."

Rouhani, who earned a Ph.D. from a Scottish university, was the only non-conservative in the field during the election to replace Ahmadinejad. He got more than 18 million votes while five conservative candidates combined garnered just under 18 million.

Rouhani also discussed how he and President Barack Obama have exchanged letters in which they traded views on "some issues."

"From my point of view, the tone of the letter was positive and constructive," Rouhani said of the note he got from the White House congratulating him on his election.

The two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1980 after students supporting the Iranian revolutionaries who overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

"It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future," Rouhani told Curry. "I believe the leaders in all countries could think in their national interest and they should not be under the influence of pressure groups. I hope to witness such an atmosphere in the future."

Rouhani's is due to appear next Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly — where Western diplomats regularly walked out during Ahmedinejad's fiery speeches.

Credit to NBCNEWS

Defund Obama Care, Stock Market New Highs, Navy Yard Shooting & JP Morgan Fined $920 Million

Do NOT Be Decieved, DO NOT Pray For America!




The godless Left in America at this very moment are beyond ecstatic with with the apathy of the majority of Americas and all the opportunities which stands before them. In the Left's heart of hearts they cannot believe how easy it has been to continually lie and be believed by dummkoff Americans, who would sell ALL of their freedoms and liberties in a heart beat for a bowl of soup, birth control and an Obama phone. 

Oh how these elitist Marxist have waited ever so patiently for this very moment when all the doors would be opened for the plunder of the American culture, society and people. The Secular tsunami is ripping across America and truly what can stop it? The stench of the Marxist fragrance of the Left's American Utopia dream is ripe in the air and happy days are indeed here at last. 

With a spineless social liberal/moderate GOP in Washington you can bet your last deflated dollar that there is nothing to hold back the Left from making all of their Marxist dreams come true, but they (Obama and the Left) have better be careful for that which they wish for; for in their lawless endeavors little do they know they are setting the global stage for the EXPONENTIALLY HORRIFIC period call the Day of the Lord!(1 Thess. 5:3,Rev. 6-19).

Truly my dear friends, who will hear TRUTH today (societal and spiritual) and even more so, who will walk in it?

 

In a day of great national and global uncertainties, oh how we need DIVINE REALITY! This technological age in which we live has EXPONENTIALLY accelerated and exposed the absolute bankruptcy and godlessness of our nation and fallen world. We are indeed at the very precipice of our world’s collapse. 

Words alone are infinitesimally inadequate to describe or explain what is at our very door and to get people to even listen to the Divine warning sirens and Biblical shofar blasts is even infinitesimally more so (Rev. 6-19). Truly my dear friends, who will hear TRUTH today (societal and spiritual) and even more so, who will walk in it? Our nation's conservatives today are on maximum suicide alert in light of the last five years and their "Christianity" is failing them because some are ignorant of the Holy Scriptures and many do not have a saving relationship to the Creator in Spirit and TRUTH (Matt. 7:21-23, John 4:24, Rom. 10:2-4, 2 Tim. 3:5-7, Rev. 3:14-22).

Only those who possess a saving relationship to Almighty God in Spirit and TRUTH and by faith in Almighty God's Word possess a heavenly objectivity and perceive of these matters from a heavenly and biblical point of view will be able to see our critical status as a world and a nation and find security and comfort in Almighty God's ETERNAL plan (Rev. 21-22:1-5). Jesus said in ALL TRUTH and AUTHORITY, that one must be born again to see the Kingdom of God (literally and spiritually – John 3:3-7, Rom. 8:5-8, 1 Cor. 1:9-16, 2 Cor. 5:17-21, Col. 3:1-4). O how true He is!


Almighty God has already given this nation over to judgment and once this is happening who can stop it? In our dire hour DO NOT seek to pray for our nation any more, for we are well pass the point of no return and Almighty God the RIGHTEOUS Judge is now our RIGHTEOUS Adversary.

 

No doubt our message here at the IFB concerning our nation is becoming very repetitive and "blah, blah, blah" to our visitors, but was not this also the same message in Jeremiah's day before Babylon came in to level and ravish Jerusalem (Jer. 6, 7, 15:1, Ezek. 14:14, 21)? The message then was not popular and neither is this one today. Hear me my dear friends... I beg you, as a voice shouting in the wilderness, Almighty God has already given this nation over to His Divine judgment and once this has begun who can abide and let alone stop it? In our dire hour DO NOT be deceived and seek to pray for our nation any more, for we are well pass the point of no return. Almighty God the RIGHTEOUS Judge of ETERNITY has now become our nation's RIGHTEOUS Adversary and WOE! WOE! WOE unto America!

However dearly beloved, pray fervently in these hours that individuals will wake up to the REALITY of our hour and their desperate need of Almighty God's RIGHTEOUSNESS and be saved! The upcoming seven tribulation will begin because the Age of Grace will have come to a stone hearted end - being that there are no more in this dispensational time block which will hear the global message of Almighty God's wondrous grace and mercy. All that is now left for our nation and world is Almighty God's RIGHTEOUS WRATH (Isa. 24, Matt. 24, Rev. 6-19). Do your part as an American, May God help us... but DO NOT trust in it at ALL any more, for the Day of the Lord is at hand and who then will be able to stand and let alone stop the global EXPONENTIAL CATASTROPHIC tsunami which is heading our way(Isa. 24, Matt. 24, Rev. 6-19).

Beloved, Be strong in the Lord and rejoice in His PERFECT salvation and RIGHTEOUSNESS!

God speed for Almighty God's glory!

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

DJP I.F.




Credit to the Ignorant Fisherman Blog

Pope Warns Church Must Find Balance or Fall 'Like House of Cards'



Pope Francis said the Catholic Church should not allow its bans on gay marriage, abortion and contraception to dominate its teachings, but must be a more welcoming Church where priests are understanding pastors and not cold, dogmatic bureaucrats.

In a dramatically blunt interview with Civilta Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit monthly, Francis said the Church had locked itself up in "small things, in small-minded rules". It must find a new balance between upholding rules and demonstrating mercy, "otherwise even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards..."

Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,300 years and the first from Latin America, did not hold out the prospect of any changes soon to such moral teachings.

In the long interview with the magazine's director, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, he also said he envisioned a greater role for women in the 1.2 billion member Church but suggested it would not include a change in the current ban on a female priesthood.

In an remarkable change from his predecessor Benedict, who said homosexuality was an intrinsic disorder, Francis said that when homosexuals told him they were always condemned by the Church and felt "socially wounded", he told them "the Church does not want to do this".

He re-stated his comments first made on the plane returning from Brazil in July that he was not in a position to judge gays who are of good will and in search of God.

In the interview released on Thursday, he added: "By saying this, I said what the catechism says. Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.

CHURCH SHOULD BE "A FIELD HOSPITAL"

The Church, he said, should see itself as "a field hospital after a battle" and try to heal the larger wounds of society and not be "obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently."

John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, a liberal advocacy group in the United States, said:

"This pope is rescuing the church from those who think that condemning gay people and opposing contraception define what it means to be a real Catholic.

"Francis is putting a message of mercy, justice and humility back at the center of the church's mission. It's a remarkable and refreshing change."

The interview of some 12,000 words took place over three sessions in August in his simple quarters in the Vatican and was released on Thursday simultaneously in translations by Jesuit journals around the world.

"We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that," he said.

"But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the Church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the Church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time," he said.

Speaking specifically of homosexuals, he said:

"We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy. When that happens, the Holy Spirit inspires the priest to say the right thing," he said.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are.

But in several parts of the interview, which took place in his simple quarters in a Vatican guest house where he has lived since his election instead of the spacious papal apartments, he stressed the need for mercy and understanding by priests.

"The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord's mercy motivates us to do better," he said.

The pope also spoke about the role of women in the Church, saying their "deep questions must be addressed".

"We must therefore investigate further the role of women in the Church. We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman. Only by making this step will it be possible to better reflect on their function within the Church," he said.

He hinted that he was open to giving women greater decision-making roles in the Church.

"The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions. The challenge today is this: to think about the specific place of women also in those places where the authority of the Church is exercised for various areas of the Church," he said

Credit to Newsmax.com

Two Hundred Million Europeans See Israel as Nazi State



The fundamental Zionist idea about anti-Semitism was that once a Jewish State was realized, the problem of anti-Semitism in Paris, Berlin and Rome would be solved. Since Jews would have their own homeland, they could no longer be persecuted as religious and national strangers. But this neat packet of reasoning has turned out to be incorrect.

The Belgian Ministry of Education funds an organization, the Committee for Remebrance Education, which provides teachers with materials for their history lessons. One of the materials used is the cartoon “Never Again, Over Again”, which equates the treatment of the Palestinian Arabs by the Israelis today with the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis in the 40s.

“Never Again" means that what happened under Hitler should never happen again. And "Over Again" means that what is happening today is the same as in the past with Hitler, the Belgian school teachers are told. “In the past, the concentration camps were fenced off with barbed wire. Today, the border between Israel and Palestine is marked with barbed wire and a wall”.

Daniel Goldhagen devoted his entire academic research to the analysis of the Nazi genocide. His international fame came with “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”, the book-indictment of one hundred thousand “ordinary Germans” who killed millions of Jews. Now it is the turn of Goldhagen's new book titled “The Devil That Never Dies”, published by Little, Brown and Company.

The book is most important as an analysis of “global anti-Semitism” as Goldhagen calls it, but it is also the indictment of Europe’s public opinionwhich depicts the Jews as “monstrous predators” who crush the Palestinians. Goldhagen enunclates Europe’s new anti-Semitism as follows: “Israel has no right to exist, so it is right and necessary to destroy the Jewish state. Two hundred million Europeans see the Israeli Jews as Nazis”.

That’s why, according to the Jewish People Planning Institute, 40 to 50 percent of European Jews are considering alyah. Because they do not feel safe.

And France is the most explosive example.

Nathan Sharansky just landed in Paris to coordinate the departure of 800 French Jews. “I do not remember such a number of people interested in alyah since the days when Jews stood in line outside the Israeli embassy in Moscow”, Sharanski said from the French capital.

It is a peak of emigration which has not been seen since 2004, when during the Second Intifada Europe’s Jews suffered a wave of anti-Semitism and thousand of French Jews marched through the streets raising signs like “Synagogues brûlées, République en ranger”, i.e. synagogues burned, republic in danger.

At stake is the famous relationship between Jews and France symbolized by the French Air Force jewel created by Marcel Dassault; by the father of the Constitution, Michel Debré; by Simone Veil, first president of the European Parliament; by Pierre Mendes-France, Minister of Economy in 1945, and by the socialist leader Leon Blum.

The Israeli government recently released emigration numbers. France tops the global list after Russia, Ukraine and Ethiopia. It is the “Aliyah Tapis Rouge”, emigration on the red carpet.

In Paris, the Jews are advised to “walk in groups”, never alone. Better if above the kippah they wear a baseball hat. Half of the Jewish families in Villepinte, a proletarian suburb north of the capital, have left and the local synagogue, already burned down in 2011, is no longer able to set up the required 10-man quorum, called a minyan, for prayer.

Joel Mergui, historic leader of the Jews of Paris, has warned: “The mass migration is likely to clear the capital of the community”. It is a drama silenced by the French media: “Of the 600,000 Jews in France, only one third is in contact with the community and educates their children in Jewish schools. A third is about to be assimilated, and a third is on the fence”.
Nazism, Barth said, “is ... a religious institution of salvation. It is impossible to understand National Socialism unless we see it in fact as a new Islam”.

50,000 Jews have left France since 1990. But alongside real emigration, there is a new phenomenon which is difficult to count. That of the 30,000 French Jews who spend most of the year in Israel, but who have not yet taken out citizenship. 800 Jewish marriages occur every year in the town hall of Paris, but half of these are celebrated in Israel.

After the massacre at the Jewish school in Toulouse, in which a Muslim killed a Jewish rabbi and three children, Richard Prasquier, president of the Conseil des institutions représentatif juives de France (CIJF), stated that in France there is “an Islam of war” and he compared it to Nazism.

Political Islam is the latest totalitarian ideology chosen by Europe to liquidate the Jewish people.

In view of declarations of genocidal intentions by Arab and Islamic groups, it is interesting to remember an observation by the Swiss theologian Karl Barth. Nazism, Barth said, “is ... a religious institution of salvation. It is impossible to understand National Socialism unless we see it in fact as a new Islam”.

This is Europe 1933-2013. Or as Arnold Toynbee, the noted British historian, angrily referred to them, the Jews are “a fossil race” who have no right and reason to continue to exist.




Credit to Israel National News



Seismologists Puzzle Over Largest Deep Earthquake Ever Recorded



Sep. 19, 2013 — A magnitude 8.3 earthquake that struck deep beneath the Sea of Okhotsk on May 24, 2013, has left seismologists struggling to explain how it happened. At a depth of about 609 kilometers (378 miles), the intense pressure on the fault should inhibit the kind of rupture that took place.

"It's a mystery how these earthquakes happen. How can rock slide against rock so fast while squeezed by the pressure from 610 kilometers of overlying rock?" said Thorne Lay, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Lay is coauthor of a paper, published in the September 20 issue of Science, analyzing the seismic waves from the Sea of Okhotsk earthquake. First author Lingling Ye, a graduate student working with Lay at UC Santa Cruz, led the seismic analysis, which revealed that this was the largest deep earthquake ever recorded, with a seismic moment 30 percent larger than that of the next largest, a 1994 earthquake 637 kilometers beneath Bolivia.

Deep earthquakes occur in the transition zone between the upper mantle and lower mantle, from 400 to 700 kilometers below the surface. They result from stress in a deep subducted slab where one plate of Earth's crust dives beneath another plate. Such deep earthquakes usually don't cause enough shaking on the surface to be hazardous, but scientifically they are of great interest.

The energy released by the Sea of Okhotsk earthquake produced vibrations recorded by several thousand seismic stations around the world. Ye, Lay, and their coauthors determined that it released three times as much energy as the 1994 Bolivia earthquake, comparable to a 35 megaton TNT explosion. The rupture area and rupture velocity were also much larger. The rupture extended about 180 kilometers, by far the longest rupture for any deep earthquake recorded, Lay said. It involved shear faulting with a fast rupture velocity of about 4 kilometers per second (about 9,000 miles per hour), more like a conventional earthquake near the surface than other deep earthquakes. The fault slipped as much as 10 meters, with average slip of about 2 meters.

"It looks very similar to a shallow event, whereas the Bolivia earthquake ruptured very slowly and appears to have involved a different type of faulting, with deformation rather than rapid breaking and slippage of the rock," Lay said.

The researchers attributed the dramatic differences between these two deep earthquakes to differences in the age and temperature of the subducted slab. The subducted Pacific plate beneath the Sea of Okhotsk (located between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Russian mainland) is a lot colder than the subducted slab where the 1994 Bolivia earthquake occurred.

"In the Bolivia event, the warmer slab resulted in a more ductile process with more deformation of the rock," Lay said.

The Sea of Okhotsk earthquake may have involved re-rupture of a fault in the plate produced when the oceanic plate bent down into the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone as it began to sink. But the precise mechanism for initiating shear fracture under huge confining pressure remains unclear. The presence of fluid can lubricate the fault, but all of the fluids should have been squeezed out of the slab before it reached that depth.

"If the fault slips just a little, the friction could melt the rock and that could provide the fluid, so you would get a runaway thermal effect. But you still have to get it to start sliding," Lay said. "Some transformation of mineral forms might give the initial kick, but we can't directly detect that. We can only say that it looks a lot like a shallow event."



Credit to Sciencedaily.com

Will the Dead Sea be eaten by sinkholes?

Dead Sea E

Estimates by Moment magazine suggest that, on the Israeli side alone, there are now over 3,000 sinkholes around the Dead Sea.

This compares to just 40 counted in 1990, with the first sinkhole appearing in the 1980s.

The Dead Sea spans more than 60 miles through Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan.

Its waters are 10 times saltier than the northern Atlantic Ocean because it has no outlet. This means that any minerals that flow there, stay there.

The increase in sinkholes is directly related to the Dead Sea drying up at a rate of one meter per year.

Sinkholes are basically bowl-shaped features that form when an empty space under the ground creates a depression.

The depression is the result of a reaction between freshwater and salt buried in a subterranean level beneath the surface.

When the freshwater dissolves the salt, it creates a void, causing the landscape around and above it to suddenly collapse.

Over the last few decades, increasing numbers of people have been drawn to the Dead Sea causing its salt water to dry up.

This leaves more fresh water in the area to dissolve the salt and create more cavities.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2424549/Will-Dead-Sea-eaten-sinkholes-Huge-chasms-appearing-region-rate-day.html#ixzz2fRBortF1


Dead SeaDead Sea




5.1-magnitude earthquake hits northwest China




BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the junction area of northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai Provinces on Friday morning.

No casualties have been reported so far, according to local authorities.

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake hit a region between Sunan county, Gansu Province, and Menyuan county, Qinghai Province, at 5:37 a.m., the China Earthquake Networks Center said.

The epicenter, with a depth of seven km, was determined to be at 37.7 degrees north latitude and 101.5 degrees east longitude, the center said.

The quake was felt strongly in the county seat of Menyuan, said Feng Xiuying, vice director of publicity department of the Menyuan County.

Initial investigation showed no houses have been toppled in the county seat. People have rushed to a square to take refuge. As the temperature is low, some people took their cars as temporary shelters to keep warm, Feng said.

The quake was also felt in the city of Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, which is about 150 km away from Menyuan county.

No casualties have been reported in the neighboring Gansu Province, said the emergency office of the province.

The quake lasted for a dozen seconds and was felt slightly in Sunan county when most local residents were asleep.

The county has launched an emergency plan and sent quake-relief teams to the affected areas.

Further verification of the impact of the quake is under way.

Credit to News