The earthquake that rocked the East Coast on Tuesday, August 23rd left residents shocked. While a 5.8 magnitude quake wouldn’t register much of a reaction if it had hit a more earthquake-prone location like Los Angeles or Japan, most people are not prepared for earthquakes away from major fault lines. Earthquakes in odd places are actually a sign of the end times as predicted in the Bible. While the Bible does not specifically mention Virginia’s quake, earthquakes are mentioned. If we are in the end times, as many Christians believe, we can expect more out-of-the-ordinary earthquakes in the future.
Earthquakes in Diverse Places
When Jesus walked the earth, his disciples wanted to know what the signs “of the end of the age” would be (Matthew 24:3). In Matthew 24, Jesus told his disciples about many signs that would occur towards the end. He told them that there would be “famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7). Many of the signs that Jesus predicted in this chapter are occurring right now. Tuesday’s earthquake is just one abnormal earthquake. If we are in the end times, we can expect more.
Virginia’s quake is only one of several earthquakes in various places to hit the earth in the past year. While most earthquakes happen in the lands surrounding the Pacific Ocean called the Ring of Fire, within a day of Virginia’s quake, there were two earthquakes in Colorado, measuring 4.6 and 5.3. Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Spain all were hit with quakes in 2011 measuring a magnitude of greater than 5.0. In February, a magnitude 4.1 quake hit Arkansas. None of these quakes are in locations that typically receive quakes.
Are There Really More Earthquakes?
Large earthquakes, like the 9.0 quake that hit Japan in March, or odd earthquakes, like this week’s Virginia quake, tend to get a lot of news. When a large cluster of quakes hits, it seems like there are more quakes than normal. Is this really true, or is there just more awareness of large quakes? To find out whether there were more quakes or not, I decided to do the math for myself, starting in 2010. To prevent distortion in the statistics that could be caused by more sensitive equipment, I only bothered to deal with quakes that were magnitude 5 and above.
In an average year, the world will see one quake that is magnitude 8 or above, 15 magnitude 7 quakes, 134 magnitude 6 quakes, and 1319 magnitude 5 quakes (rounding down the quakes to the nearest whole number). Last year, we equaled the average number of magnitude 8+ quakes, had nearly 33% more magnitude 7 quakes than average, and went above the average in magnitude 6 and 5 quakes. With four more months left in the year, we have already tied the number of magnitude 8+ quakes for 2011, exceeded the average number of magnitude 6 quakes, and exceeded the number of magnitude 5 quakes. There have been 13 magnitude 7 quakes, which is less than we see in an average year, but if we continue to get earthquakes at the rate that we have been for the rest of the year, then we would end up with approximately 20 magnitude 7 quakes, which is above average.
Does the quake in Virginia, and what looks like an uptick in quakes overall, signify that we are in the end times that the Bible predicts? That is up for you to decide. I happen to think that it is significant. I also wouldn’t count out seeing more earthquakes in odd places in the future.
Source:
“Earthquake Facts and Statistics”. US Geological Survey.
“Prophecy and Earthquakes.” Brooke Lorren.