Large earthquake hits Arizona, felt in NM, TX

Several earthquakes occurred overnight and yesterday. Here is a short report.

Moderate quake widely felt in Arizona, N. Mexico
A moderate earthquake struck in Arizona near the New Mexico line that was widely felt across the region, but no injuries or damages were immediately reported. County sheriffs' offices on both sides of the state line reported receiving numerous phone calls after Saturday's magnitude 5.2 quake shook the largely rural region. Arizona residents in Graham County, Safford, Tucson, Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler and other areas have reported feeling the tremor. It was felt as far away as Phoenix and El Paso, Texas, both about 175 miles from the epicenter, as well in parts of Mexico, which begins some 80 miles to the south.

As soon as I read of an earthquake in Arizona, I wondered how frequent or infrequent earthquakes there are. Not too frequent, though they do happen. The largest one similar to the one that occurred last night happened 50 years ago. But this one is bigger, making it one of the largest magnitude quakes in AZ history. Below is some context for you.

Earthquake History of Arizona, according to United States Geological Survey,

The earliest documents which describe Arizona earthquakes were those recorded at Fort Yuma, located in the 1800's on the California side of the Colorado River. Shocks which probably centered in the Imperial Valley of California, or in Mexico, have been noted there since late 1852.

No earthquake in recorded history has caused deaths or injuries in Arizona. In the past century or more, 14 tremors of intensity V to VII have centered within its borders, of which 12 were reported after Arizona entered the Union in February 1912. All of these shocks, however, were moderate in intensity, with one intensity VII, one VI-VII, four VI, and eight V.
News station KPHO reports that Historical data kept by the USGS establishes this earthquake one of the most powerful in Arizona history. In July of 1959 a magnitude 5.6 quake struck along the Arizona-Utah border. A rockslide at Mather Point in the Grand Canyon was attributed to the shock, according to the USGS.

In other quake news,
Magnitude of quake off south Atlantic islands revised to 6.9; tsunami threat 'does not exist'
A powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck in the far south Atlantic ocean in the inhospitable South Sandwich Islands region, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said on Sunday. The USGS, which monitors quakes worldwide initially said the quake was of magnitude 7.1, but later revised its strength downwards. It also slightly revised the epicentre's location. The quake, which struck at 7.52am, had an epicentre 154km north-west of the uninhabited Visokoi Island, and 1,975km east-south-east of Stanley, the main city on the Falkland Islands, the USGS reported. The epicentre was at a depth of 16.5km.

6.2-magnitude quake hits off Japan's Iwo Jima
TOKYO: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit off the Japanese island of Iwo Jima on Sunday, said the US Geological Survey. The quake was situated 167km east-southeast of Iwo Jima, which is part of Japan’s Volcano Islands chain. Japanese broadcaster NHK there was no threat of a tsunami resulting from the earthquake.

Oklahoma continues to be seismically active, as does other parts of the United States where it seems that earthquakes don't or shouldn't be happening. This is the USGS 7-day earthquake map view.


Here is a closer-in view. My memory may well be flawed, but I don't remember seeing so many "dots" sprinkled all over the US. This view is of the last week.


He who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; (Job 9:5-6)

Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. (Psalm 18:7)

Comments

  1. "And there shall be earthquakes in diverse places."

    Such a simple statement by Jesus and yet so pregnant with meaning. Historically, we could take the stance, earthquakes have always happened in diverse places. Are we to believe that Jesus would choose a statement of the obvious as a mile marker for the end of days? I don't think so.

    Jesus was living in a time where someone could live a simple life in one location with little exposure of his surrounding lands. They could have earthquake after earthquake 100 miles away completely surrounding them and They would be none the wiser.

    Now we pull up a cell phone and get plotter diagrams of maps and know of an earthquake around the world in seconds. The modern person today doesn't just intellectually know we have earthquakes in diverse places, they personaly experience them in real time.

    I believe this statement by Jesus is directly aimed at The generation who live in the information age. Our generation.

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  2. It was definitely an eye opener last night (I know you know I live here, but I'm just sayin...) and it was quite the topic of discussion online as well as in church this morning. My husband grew up in Sierra Vista (Cochise County) and cannot recall even ONE earthquake occurring here. By the same token, the '73 quake would have seen him too young to remember it or too far for it to have been felt. But this is actually the second quake since we moved here with the first "felt" one being just a couple of years ago and it was a 1 something. Where we live in Vail (Pima County, just three streets over from Tucson) we naturally thought it was the train since we have tracks right across the street. Last night's on the other hand was very very different. Instead of the vibration of a train, this was a jolt and a shaking. Thinking I was feeling things, I dismissed it almost immediately until Twitter and Facebook blew up. It was then that I realized (as well as my 20 year old son who felt it downstairs) that it was indeed an earthquake. First thing that came to my mind was, "Once again, Jesus is not kidding." When looked at it in that light, it's sobering, yet exciting. If that makes any sense... God can flip Arizona upside down if He so chooses and He would be perfectly in the right to do that, but instead, He warns us with a jolt like this. I hope that others know that when He does this, He is lovingly sending out a warning, as He always does, to come to Him in repentance and faith and find salvation in Jesus. It is my prayer that within all the hype and talking that's going on, that the message is received.

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  3. Well they happened 3 last night Nov 1st. I felt the 3rd one but my son was awake and felt the 2nd one. It was an odd feeling to feel the bed and furniture "quiver" and windows rattle. Never ever experienced that before and I have live here all my life. Interesting how I really feel it is a spiritual sign, cannot explain why or if it is a true harbinger but I feel there is something tied into all of this and that there may be a great many earthquakes along the same fault lines causing havoc. I pray not but earthquakes in Arizona is not really a common occurrence. Makes you think and makes you want to live right. Not performance based but sincerely thinking of others and those not saved. The great commission really comes to mind here.

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    Replies
    1. thank you Terri for your good comment. I agree with you. It does make a person think. The earth seems so solid then all of a sudden, jello! God truly is sovereign

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