migrations, associated wars, and the development of civilizations has been hugely affected by earth-climate and its fluctuations in weather patterns, particularly agrarian economies, which is for most of human history. The sovereign care of God's wisdom in this field is a useful perspective to our understanding.

This brief history of world weather must be seen against the background of the never-again Covenant of God with the four particular life forms preserved in the annihilating flood of Noah – (1) humankind, (2) birds, (3) domesticated and (4) wild animals.

9,000 BC, certain cycles of our planet combined to give a specially warm period for the northern hemisphere (Holocene). These cycles are:

Maximum temperatures during the last interglacial period were higher than the current interglacial period, and certain Greenhouse gases, principally CO₂, were more abundant then than today. Within this continuing process many minor fluctuations occur for reasons that are still largely speculative.

Also, contrary to much popular science, the latest analysis of geological evidences has found no correlation between carbon dioxide levels and changes in world climate. But, variations in the level of cosmic radiation correlate directly with major wet and dry cycles in earth history. Cosmic rays provide the ionization needed in the atmosphere to stimulate cloud formation and thus rainfall.

the relative behaviour of our sun, not only seasonal in the equinox progression, as in 1 above, but also by its sun spot cycles appears to trigger changes in climate. For instance, for seventy years from 1645 AD there was no recorded sun spot activity, which, it is alleged, led to a cold period becoming a minor ice age. The sun spot cycle usually averages at 10.28 years, varying between nine and fourteen years. This sun spot cycle seems to be affected by the magnetosphere of planet Jupiter influencing the stability of loops forming in the sun's magnetic field.

sun also appears to have a brightness cycle of 206 years of which we are now about midway, which may explain a 150 year Yucatan dry period which appears to have helped collapse the Mayan civilization. (See 900 AD).

Some major earthquakes are also noted below as they account for more than 10% of deaths from natural hazards; although worldwide the earth actually experiences about 500,000 earthquakes each year.

— UNDER CONSTRUCTION —

Monsoon rains begin to penetrate into northern Africa changing the Sahara area to lush green vegetation.

A 290 km length of coastal shelf of the Møre coast in the Norwegian Sea collapses (total volume of 3,500 km3 of debris) causing a huge tsunami, striking Scotland and depositing sediment in Montrose Basin, the Firth of Forth, up to 80 km inland and 4 metres above current normal tide levels

Britain becomes an island.

In Mesoamerica – planting of maize begins in forest-cleared land.

A period of significantly higher Nile floods begins, continuing until c.2500 BC.

World sea level stabilizes to approximately its present level. 

The drying out of the Sahara area destroys its cattle culture and drives its inhabitants away, adding to the population of the Nile valley, and bringing the cattle-cult and mummification of the dead (including the dog/jackal-headed Anubis) with them. (University of Rome archaeological research).

Catastrophic Black Sea land subsidence, according to dendrochronology (tree-ring dating), which drowns all Early Bronze Age settlements in that region under what is now 8-10 metres of water.

Earth climate cools, putting once flourishing settlements in the higher latitudes, such as in the Orkney islands north of Scotland, under great stress.
In Mesoamerica – Farming of domesticated sunflower seeds and cotton spreads.

East Africa, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Gulf of Oman, Aegean, Indus experiences an abrupt climatic change.

A period of low Nile floods begins that includes periodic severe famines, until c.1950 BC.

Ur civilization in Mesopotamia collapses under extended severe drought caused by an extended El-Niño in the Pacific Ocean

The arid period of severe periodic famines, which began from c.2180 BC, now ends.

Drought begins throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The Nile does not rise for seven years.

The Great Seven-year Famine ends with the Egyptian administration restructured over three regions of Egypt and its people grouped into cities, under vizier Joseph.

A period of exceptionally high Nile floods begins, continuing until c.1780 BC/BCE.

Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts violently.

Minoan island Thera (Santorini) north of Crete explodes (Caphtor=Crete, migration of the Philistines, Amos 9:7), causing volcanic ash, a huge tidal wave, and helping the collapse of Minoan civilization.

In Iceland, the volcano Hekla erupts blanketing Europe in dust that radically changes the climate causing the collapse of Mycenaean Greek civilization, and probably affecting the economies of the Near East.

Mesopotamia is utterly devastated by a long drought which leads to an almost complete breakdown of civil authority.

An abrupt cooling of earth-climate begins.

June 4: The Chinese witness the first recorded solar eclipse.

June 15: Total eclipse of the sun.

July 17: Chinese astronomers report an eclipse of the sun.

Summer: A series of earthquakes off Greece generate a tsunami in the Maliakos Gulf which affects the course of the Peloponnesian War by forcing the advancing Spartans to abort their planned invasion of Attica. Ancient geographer Strabo reports that throughout Greece parts of islands are submerged, rivers permanently displaced and towns devastated. The tsunami itself hit the coast in the Maliakos Gulf at three different places, reaching towns as far as three quarters of a mile inland. The force of the tsunami was such that at one place a trireme was lifted out of its dock and thrown over a city wall.

An earthquake and a tsunami destroy the prosperous Greek city Helike, lying 2 km away from the sea. The fate of the city, which remained permanently submerged, is often commented upon by ancient writers.

A Catastrophic rise in the ocean's eustatic sea level occurs approximately between the years 40 BC to 100 AD. as a result of an abnormal change in world climate. Evidence for this occurence of a sudden and abnormal rise of the Dead Sea level during this period, consists of various morphological data, and dendrochronology.
Two thousand years earlier a similar rise of the sea level is estimated to have occured.

Earthquake destroys Qumran (Mesad Hasidim, 'Stronghold of the Pious'), and shakes Jerusalem.

World sea level is about 2 metres (7 feet) below its present level.

• Earthquake shakes the Middle East destroying towns in Anatolia (Ephesus, Sardis).

• Severe famine strikes Judaea (Josephus Ant.20.101), as Agabus had prophesied to the Christians in Antioch, Syria, to prepare relief supplies (Acts 11:28).

• In Italy, an earthquake seriously damages the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. (The cities have not yet recovered from this catastrophe when they are destroyed in 79 AD).

• In Greece, Corinth is devastated by an earthquake.

• August 24: In Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupts destroying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae.

A period of low sunspot activity begins.

Low sunspot activity triggers a period of global cooling.

• Drought across the steppes of Eastern Europe causes migrations of pastoral nomads and serious shrinkage of the Aral and Caspian seas. Salt laden winds from the Aral sea area may have affected climate elsewhere.
This is proabably caused by an extended severe El- Niño effect, which also causes the complete collapse of the Moche civilzation in South America.

• Sunrise, July 21: a devastating earthquake in the Hellenic trench off the coast of Crete, estimated at 8 or higher on the Richter scale, causes a tsunami that strikes the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, particularly Alexandria and the Nile Delta, killing thousands and hurling ships nearly two miles inland. It causes widespread destruction in central and southern Greece, northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, and Sicily, and in Crete nearly all towns are destroyed. The quake was generated in a steep fault in the Hellenic trench near Crete. (The anniversary of this disaster was still commemorated annually at the end of the 6th century in Alexandria as a "day of horror).

The relatively numerous literary references to earthquakes in this time which is otherwise characterized by a paucity of historical records strengthens the case for a period of heightened seismic activity. Kourion on Cyprus, for example, is known to have been hit by five strong earthquakes within a period of eighty years, leading to its permanent destruction.

The Migration Period Pessimum (MPP, also known as Dark Ages Cold Period) begins in large areas of central Europe and Scandinavia, causing the retreat of agriculture, including pasturing, with consequent reforestation, and decline of the Roman Empire. (It lasted to about 900 AD, and is followed by the Medieval Warm Period from about 950 to 1250 AD).

• May 20/29: Earthquake strikes Antioch, Syria, followed by fire, killing about 250,000, and causing an uplift of its port of Seleucia-Pereia of ~0.7–0.8 m and subsequent silting up which makes it unusable.

• A violent storm shatters Mecca's sacred Ka'ba (meaning cube). 

• November 29: An earthquake estimate at 8.4 magnitude strikes Japan off the shore of the Kii Peninsula, Nankaido, Shikoku, Kii, and Awaji region, followed by a huge tsunami.

• September 11: An earthquake wrecks Jerusalem, collapsing the eastern and western sides of the Dome of the Rock. The 'Nea' church complex is also destroyed and not rebuilt. 

• An earthquake seriously damages the dome of the Anastasis in Jerusalem, and a locust plague devastates the countryside which leads to severe famine in Palestine. 

• December 22: c.45,000 die in an earthquake in Corinth, Greece, and c.200,000 in Damghan, Iran.

Folke Vilgerdson of Norway names Iceland 'Iceland' from his experience of a severe winter and its sea-ice filling the fjord in a failed attempt to settle. (In 874, Ingolf Arnason succeeded).

• July 13: The Sendai region of northern Honshu, Japan is struck by a major earthquake of an estimated magnitude of 8.6 on the surface wave magnitude scale, followed by a tsunami that causes flooding extending 4 km inland from the coast. The town of Tagajo is destroyed, with an estimated 1,000 casualties.

• March 23: c.150,000 die in an earthquake near Ardabil, Iran, near the Caspian sea.

• Collapse of the Mayan civilization in the Yucatan Peninsula resulting from a 150 year drought precipitated by the 206 year cyclical brightening of the sun.

Erik the Red discovered new land West of Iceland and calls it 'Greenland'.

• Europe enjoys 300 years of warmer weather that increases harvests and allows wheat to be cultivated much further north and at higher elevations.

• An earthquake disturbs the surface area of Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The subsidence around 'Solomon's Stables' is filled up with archaeologically rich debris.

• A star explodes in the constellation of Taurus which later forms the Crab nebula.

• A seven year famine begins in Egypt during which the Nile does not rise.

• c.230 000 die in an earthquake in Aleppo, Syria.

• Atlantic pack ice begins to grow, making passages between Norway, Iceland and Greenland more difficult.

• c.60 000 die in an earthquake near Silicia, Turkey.

• Earth cooling worsens, leading to the collapse of Greenland civilization.

• Life expectancy as reflected in the records of the British royal family (the best-off in society) is 35.28 years.

• c.100 000 die in an earthquake near Chihli, China.

•  A magnitude 7.1 quake and tsunami hit Kamakura, Japan's de facto capital, killing 23,000 after resulting fires.

• Warm summers in Europe are no longer dependable.

• A large tsunami strikes Crete, Rhodes, Alexandria and Acre in Palestine.

The Great Famine
10–25% of many cities die.

• In Britain and Northern Europe, torrential rain and floods cause a general famine. Hundreds of thousands of peasants die of starvation. These years begin a period of unpredictable weather which lasted into the 19^th century. (Europe does not fully recover until 1325).
The futility of prayer undermines the institutional authority of the Church.
Incidents of cannibalism occur in Ireland and other parts of Northern Europe.

• August: Epidemics of pneumonia and bubonic plague sweep Britain until the end of 1349. Life expectancy for the period until 1375 drops to 17.33 years.

• March 15: Earthquake located in Amer, Catalonia, Spain, with intensity estimated between 8 and 9 on the Richter scale, destroys the town.
• May 15: Earthquake epicenter located in Olot, Catalonia, Spain, with intensity estimated at 9.

• December 5: Earthquake strikes Naples, Italy, killing about 35,000.

• September 20: An earthquake and tsunami hit the port in Wakayama, Japan. Between 30-40 thousand deaths are estimated. The building around great Buddha of Kamakura (7m above sea-level) is swept away by the tsunami.

• England experiences foul weather, a poor harvest, and high mortality from 'sweating sickness' (profuse sweat, foul smell, thirst, delirium, death within a few hours of onset).
• An earthquake destroys San Salvador, capital of El Salvador, Central America.

• February 26: Over 200,000 people are killed in an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal.

• The first Spanish settlement in Venezuela, Nueva Cádiz, with a population between 1000 and 1500, is destroyed in an earthquake followed by tsunami.

• Probable beginning of worldwide glacial expansion.

• Much of the earth endures the so-called Little Ice Age. Global average temperature drops between 1° and 2° Celsius, ice sheets advance over farms and valleys in Greenland, the Baltic sea and Thames river freeze regularly, crops fail, and famine and disease affect Europe.
Iceland becomes isolated as its sea ice does not melt in summer.

• January 23: c.830,000 die in an earthquake in Shen-shu, China, measuring ~8 on the Richter scale.

• Elizabethan preacher, John King, declares –

"Our years are turned upside down; our summers are no summers; our harvests are no harvests".

• February 3: An earthquake of 8.1 in Japan followed by a tsunami hits 700 houses (41%) of Hiro, Wakayama Prefecture. More than 5,000 are drowned in an enormous tsunami with a maximum known rise of water of 30m is observed on the coast from the Boso Peninsula to the eastern part of Kyushu Island. The eastern part of the Boso Peninsula, the coast of Tokyo Bay, the coast of the prefectures of Kanagawa and Shizouka, and the southeastern coast of Kochi Prefecture suffered especially heavily.

• In England, the Thames freezes over.
• January 30, Tuesday morning: A huge tidal surge strikes Britain from the south west driving more than six miles inland and drowning more than 3,000 persons, hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, and destroying the local economy on both sides of the Bristol channel.

• August 17: c.8,000 die in an earthquake in Turkey measuring ~8 on the Richter scale.

• Mount Etna in Sicily erupts.

• c.60 000 die in an earthquake in Sicily, Italy.

• December 22: A large tsunami strikes Seikaido-Nankaido, Japan.

• January 26, at 21h00 (9pm): an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale tears about 1,000km along the Cascadia fault line, from mid Vancouver Island, Canada, to northern California, causing a huge tsunami across the Pacific causing destruction along the Pacific coast of Japan. On the west coast of Vancouver Island, the tsunami completely destroys the winter village of the Pachena Bay people with no survivors.

• October 28: An 8.4 earthquake and tsunami 25.7-meter-high strikes the Kochi Prefecture, Japan. More than 29,000 houses are wrecked and then washed away, causing about 30,000 deaths. In Tosa, 11,170 houses are washed away and 18,441 people drowned. In OsakaAbout about 700 drown and 603 houses are washed away. The tsunami is 20 m high at Tanezaki, Tosa, and 6.58 at Muroto.

• Seventy years of virtually no sun-spot activity now ends, which had caused a mini ice age across our planet, in which, among other, the Norwegian colony in Greenland is annihilated by attacks of Eskimos forced South by the cold.

• c.77,000 die in an earthquake near Tabriz, Iran.

• c.300,000 die in an earthquake in Calcutta, India.

• August 29: Western Hokkaido, Japan, is hit by a tsunami associated with the eruption of the volcano on Oshima island. The cause of the tsunami is thought to have been an undersea landslide triggered by the eruption. 1,467 people are killed on Hokkaido and another 8 in Aomori Prefecture.

• November 1, 10h16: An earthquake near Lisbon, Portugal, measuring ~8.7 on the Richter scale, is followed by a tsunami with a maximum height of 15 metres (49 ft), which goes far inland. Between 60,000 and 100,000 people die in Lisbon alone, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.The tsunami takes just over 4 hours to travel over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to Cornwall, UK. An account by Arnold Boscowitz claimed "great loss of life." It also hits Galway in Ireland, and causes some serious damage to the Spanish Arch section of the city wall.

• April 4, ~8AM:An undersea earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.4 occurred near Yaeyama Islands in Okinawa, Japan. The earthquake is not believed to have directly resulted in any deaths, but a resulting tsunami is thought to have killed about 12,000 people, (9,313 on the Yaeyama Islands and 2,548 on Miyako Islands according to one source). Estimates of the highest seawater runup on Ishigaki Island, range between 30 meters and 85.4 meters. The tsunami put an abrupt stop to population growth on the islands, and was followed by malaria epidemics and crop failures which decreased the population further. It was to be another 148 years before population returned to its pre-tsunami level.

• February 28: c.200,000 die in an earthquake in Iran.

• Iceland (Laki) is seriously affected by two huge eruptions of lava. Volcanic ash covers the island and 75% of livestock die.
• c.50,000 die in an earthquake in Calabria, Italy.

• Iceland suffers terrible famine and about 10,000 people die.

• Major volcanic eruption in Unzen, Japan. Tsunamis are the main cause of death for Japan's worst-ever volcanic disaster, due to an eruption of Mount Unzen in Nagasaki Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. It begins towards the end of 1791 as a series of earthquakes on the western flank of Mount Unzen which gradually moved towards Fugen-daké, one of Mount Unzen's peaks. In February 1792, Fugen-daké started to erupt, triggering a lava flow which continued for two months. Meanwhile, the earthquakes continued, shifting nearer to the city of Shimabara.
On the night of 21 May, two large earthquakes were followed by a collapse of the eastern flank of Mount Unzen's Mayuyama dome, causing an avalanche which swept through Shimabara and into Ariake Bay, triggering a tsunami. It is not known to this day whether the collapse occurred as a result of an eruption of the dome or as a result of the earthquakes. The tsunami strikes Higo Province on the other side of Ariake Bay before bouncing back and hitting Shimabara again. Out of an estimated total of 15,000 fatalities, around 5,000 is thought to have been killed by the landslide, around 5,000 by the tsunami across the bay in Higo Province, and a further 5,000 by the tsunami returning to strike Shimabara. The waves reached a height of 330 ft, classing this tsunami as a small megatsunami.

• Zero sunspot activity!

• June 2: A violent earthqake rocks Cape Town, South Africa.

• In London, the Thames river freezes over for the last time.

• November 25: A massive earthquake estimated at between 8.8-9.2 on the moment magnitude scale, strikes Sumatra, Indonesia. The coast of Sumatra near the quake's epicentre is hardest hit by the resulting tsunami

• In Jerusalem: many Christian monasteries are damaged by an earthquake.

• November 4: A magnitude 8.4 earthquake strikes near what is today Aichi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, followed by a tsunami.
• November 5: A magnitude 8.4 earthquake strikes in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, generating a tsunami of 28 meters at Kochi, Japan. The earthquake and tsunami kill 3,000 people. The tsunami washed 15,000 homes away. The number of homes destroyed directly by the earthquake is 2,598; in which 1,443 people died
• November 7: A 7.4 earthquake in Ehime Prefecture and Oita Prefecture, Japan.
The total death-toll from the three quakes and their tsaunamis is between 80,000 and 100,000 people.

• November 11, about 22h00 local: An earthquake strikes Ansei Edo (Tokyo region), Japan, killing between 4,500 to 10,000 people. The Japanese era name is changed to bring good luck after 4 tragic quakes and tsunamis in 2 years.

• January 9, 16h24 UTC: earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 near Fort Tejon in Southern California.
• December 16, 21h00: c.11,000 die in an earthquake in Naples, Italy, measuring ~6.9 on the Richter scale.

February 20: A Great Storm ravages England.

• April 2, 4PM: earthquake rocks the Hawaian islands of an estimated magnitude between 7.5 and 8.0 rocks the southeast coast of the Big Island of Hawai'i. It triggers a landslide on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano, five miles north of Pahala, killing 31 people. A tsunami then takes 46 additional lives. The villages of Punaluu, Ninole, Kawaa, Honuapo, and Keauhou Landing are severely damaged and the village of 'Apua is destroyed.
• August 16: An earthquake of magnitude estimated at 8.5 strikes the Peru-Chile oceanic trench. The resulting tsunami strikes the port of Arica, Chile, then part of Peru, killing an estimated 25,000 in Arica and 70,000 in all. Three military vessels anchored at Arica, the US warship Wateree and the storeship Fredonia, and the Peruvian warship America, are swept up by the tsunami.

• August 26-27: Major volcanic eruption in Krakatau, Indonesia, causing tsunamis that kill more than 36,000 people on the islands of Java and Sumatra. The island volcano of Krakatoa in Indonesia explodes with devastating fury blowing its underground magma chamber partly empty so that much overlying land and seabed collapses into it. A series of large tsunamis are generated from the collapse, some reaching a height of over 40 meters above sea level. Tsunamia are observed throughout the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and even as far away as the American West Coast, and South America. On the facing coasts of Java and Sumatra the sea flood goes many miles inland and causes such loss of life that one area is never resettled but reverts to jungle and is now the Ujung Kulon nature reserve.

• October 27, 21h38: c.7,273 die in an earthquake in Mino-Owari, Japan, measuring ~8 on the Richter scale.

• June 15, about 19h36 local: A large undersea earthquake off the Sanriku coast of northeastern Honshu, Japan, triggers a tsunami which strikes the coast about half an hour later with waves, which reached a height of 100 feet, killing about 27,000 people.

• June 12, 11h06: c.1,500 die in an earthquake in Assam, India, measuring ~8.3 on the Richter scale.

• Major volcanic eruption of Mount Pele, Martinique, killing some 28,000 people in two minutes.

• December 28, 04h20: more than c.70,000 die in an earthquake and an associated tsunami near Messina, Italy, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale.

• Major volcanic eruption in Kelud, Java.

• December 16, 12h05: c.200 000 die in an earthquake in Ningxia-Kansu, China, measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale.

• March 24: 5,000 die in an Earthquake in China measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
• September 1, 02h58: c.143,000 die in an earthquake near Kanto, Japan, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. Many die from the Great Tokyo Fire caused by the quake which destroyed over half the brick buildings in the city.

• March 7, 09h27: c.3,020 die in an earthquake in Tango, Japan, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.
• May 22, 22h32: c.200,000 die in an earthquake near Tsinghai, China, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.

• November 18: An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 beneath the Laurentian Slope on the Grand Banks is felt throughout the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, as far west as Ottawa, and as far south as Claymont, Delaware. The resulting tsunami measures over 7 meters in height and takes about 2½ hours to reach the Burin Peninsula on the south coast of Newfoundland, where 28 people lose their lives in various communities. It also snaps telegraph lines laid under the Atlantic.

• c.70,000 die in an earthquake near Gansu, China, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.

• March 2, 17h31: c.2,990 die in an earthquake in Sanriku, Japan, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale.
• March 11, 01h54: 115 die in an earthquake in Long Beach, California, USA, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale.

• January 15, 08h43: c.10,700 die in an earthquake in Bihar, India, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale.

• c.60 000 die in an earthquake near Quetta, Pakistan, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale. Quetta is almost completely destroyed.

• December 26, 23h57: c.32,700 die in an earthquake in Erzincan, Turkey, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale.

• December 7, 04h35: c.1,223 die in an earthquake in Tonankai, Japan, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale.

• April 1: The Aleutian Islands tsunami kills 159 people on Hawaii and five in Alaska (the lighthouse keepers at the Scotch Cap Light in the Aleutians). It results in the creation of a tsunami warning system known as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), established in 1949 for Oceania countries. The tsunami is known as the April Fools Day Tsunami in Hawaii due to people thinking the warnings were an April Fools prank.
• December 20, 19h19: c.1,330 die in an earthquake in Nankaido, Japan, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale.

• February: In England the Thames river freezes.

• October 5: c.110,000 die in an earthquake in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.

• August 22: Off the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada, the Queen Charlotte Island's West coast is struck by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake, Canada's largest quake since 1770.

• August 15, 14h09: c.1,526 die in an earthquake in Assam-Tibet, measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale.

• November 5: A tsunami from an undersea earthquake kills 2,336 on the Kuril Islands, USSR.

• In London the Thames river freezes.

• A flu virus kills nearly four million people in a world pandemic.

• July 9: An earthquake causes a megatsunami to reach a height taller than the Empire State Building, measuring over 520 metres (1,706 ft), killing two at Lituya Bay, Alaska, USA.

• February 29, 23h40: c.10,000 die in an earthquake in Agadir, Morocco, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale.
• May 22, 19h11: c.5,700 die in an earthquake in Chile, measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, the largest quake ever recorded.

• March 27: A magnitude 9.2 Good Friday Earthquake, causes tsunamis which strike Alaska, British Columbia, California, and coastal Pacific Northwest towns, killing 121 people. The waves are up to 100 feet huigh, and kill 11 people as far away as Crescent City, California.

• May 31, 20h23: c.66,000 die in an earthquake in Peru, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.

• The fishing port of Pozzuoli, Italy, rises by over 3 metres, probably due to the subterranean build up of volcanic magma.

• November 6, 11AM the USA explodes a 5 megaton nuclear bomb under Amchika island, Alaska, on a tectonic fault-line, which registers 7 on the Richter scale.

• June 30: First leap second is added to our time to keep atomic clocks in line with changes in the Earth's slowing rotation.

• February 4, 11h36: c.10,000 die in an earthquake in Haicheng, China, measuring 7 on the Richter scale.

• February 4, 09h01: c.23,000 die in an earthquake in Guatemala, Central America, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale.
• July 27, 19h42: c.500,000 (some put the figure as high as 655,000) die in an earthquake in T'ang-shan, northern China, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, the second greatest number of casualties in recorded history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

• c.15 000 die in an earthquake in Iran.

• Major volcanic eruption of Mount St Helens, USA, destroying 10 million trees, but killing only about 60 people.

• September 19, 13h17: c.10,000 Mexicans in Michoacan, die in a major earthquake off the Pacific coast.

• Major volcanic eruption in Lake Nyos, Cameroon.

• December 7, 07h41: c.25,000 die in an earthquake in Spitak, Armenia, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale.

• c.25 000 die in an earthquake in Armenia.

• June 20: c.40,000 die in an earthquake near Gilan, Iran, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.

• September 29, 22h25: c.9,748 die in an earthquake in Latur-Killari, India, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale.

• January 16, 20h46: c.5,502 die in an earthquake in Kobe, Japan, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.

• The rotation of the earth changes from a long term slow-down (an extra second in a little less than a year due to a gradual increase in the moon's orbit) to a short term acceleration, most probably from the descent of a large mass in the molten interior of our planet.

• July 17, 08h49: c.2,183 die in an earthquake in New Guinea, measuring 7 on the Richter scale.
• November 23: An Arctic cold wave is reported to have killed 71 people across Europe over the last three days. 36 deaths were in Poland and 24 in Romania and Bulgaria.

• January 25, 1819: c.1,185 die in an earthquake in Colombia measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale.
• May 10-12: The solar wind virtually stops (98%+ reduction) during Jupiter's perihelion (closest to the sun), allowing earth's magnetic field to expand with a temporary cooling effect.
• August 17, 00h01: c.17,118 die in an earthquake in Izmit, Turkey, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.
• September 20, 17h47: c.2,400 die in an earthquake in Chi-Chi, Taiwan, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.
• November 12, 16h57: c.894 die in an earthquake in Duzce, Turkey, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The August and November in Turkey quakes killed about 20,000 people.

• Tide-gauge records suggest an average global sea-level rise over the past century of 0 to 3mm per year, though there is no firm evidence of acceleration in these rates.

• January 13, 17h33: c.844 die in an earthquake in El Salvador. measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.
• January 26, 03h16: c.20,085 die in an earthquake in Gujarat, India, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.
• February 15: Our sun reverses its magnetic polarity as it reaches the peak of its 11-year sunspot cycle.
• Saturday, June 23, 20:33:14 UTC (15:33:14 local time): and earthquake strikes Peru measuring 8.2 on the Richter Scale killing 75 directly and 26 more in the resultant tsunami and disappearance of a further 64.

• March 25, 14h56: c.1,000 die in Hindu Kush Region, Afghanistan, in an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale.

• May 21: c.2,266 die in an earthquake in Boumerdes, Algeria, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale.
• August 10: Temperatures peak at 38.1° Celsius in England.

• Sunday 26 December: 00:59 GMT (7.59 am local time): 283,106 die in ten countries hit by tsunamis resulting from an undersea earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia, measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale.

• Tuesday 22 February: 00:59 GMT? (7.59 am local time?): c.400 die and 1000s are left homeless in Iran from an earthquake in the region of Takara.
• Monday 28 March: 1,313 die in an earthquake in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale.
• Thursday 28 July: an exceptionally heavy monsoon kills more than 700 in the state of Maharashtra in India.
• October: Nearly 87,000 die in an earthquake in the Islamabad and Kashmir region of Pakistan and India, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale.

• Wednesday 3 May: 15:26 GMT (04:26 local time): near the island Tonga, a major quake of 7.9 on the Richter scale.
• Friday 26 May: 22:53 GMT (Saturday 27 May 05:53 local time): 5,749 die and many thousands are injured and property destroyed in Bantul-Yogyakarta area of Java, Indonesia, in a strong quake of 6.3 on the Richter scale.
• Sunday 15 October: earthquake (07:07:48 local time): 10 miles NNW of Kailua Kona, Hawaii, Hawaii, USA, measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale, with one after-shock measuring 5.8.
• Tuesday, 26 December: 12:26:21 GMT (8:26:21 pm local time): undersea quake disrupts 7 fibre-optic cables in the Bashi channel between Taiwan and the Philippines slowing communications across southeast Asia and Australia, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. Worldwide, internet Spam drops by 10% and viruses drop by 3% in January 2007 as a consequence.

• Thursday 8 March: 11:14:31 GMT: east of the South Sandwich Islands, a quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale.
• Sunday 25 March: 00:40:02 GMT: about 115 km (75 miles) south of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu in the South Pacific, a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale.
• Sunday 25 March: 00.42 GMT: one dead and about 150 injured in a quake near the west coast of Honshu, Japan, measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, followed by aftershocks.
• Sunday 25 March: 01:08:19 GMT (12:08:19 pm local time): about 135 km (85 miles) south of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu in the South Pacific, a quake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.

• Wednesday 15 August: 6:40 p.m. local time, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale in Peru, where many Roman Catholics were in churches celebrating the Assumption of Mary, killing more than 510 and injuring more than 1500.

• Monday 1 October: the Antarctic sea ice reaches its all-time maximum as, at the same time, the Arctic sea ice reaches its minimum.

• Wednesday 14 November: an earthquake of 7.7 on the Richter scale strikes Chile killing two, causing much damage, and halting production at some of the world's largest copper mines. Aftershocks continue for days.

• Thursday 15 November: the cyclone Sidr causes the death of more than 3,000 people in Bangladesh, with many thousands missing (including a number of fishermen), and affecting some 2.74 million people, with winds of 250kph (155mph) and a storm surge as high as 6 meters (20 feet) along the low lying coast.

• Saturday 3 May: the devastating cyclone Nargis destroys part of Myanmar/Burma, particularly its rice-growing heartland, causing the death of up to 138,000 people but the military government, reluctant to allow foreign aid workers into the country, decides to go ahead with a May 10 political referendum, and maintains its isolationist attitude supported by China. Some foreign aid allowed in is re-labeled with the names of Myanmar's military rulers as though it is a gift from them.
• Monday 12 May: a series of earthquakes, one as much as 7.8 on the Richter scale, strike across Eastern and Northern Sichuan, China, with its epicentre in Wenchuan County, killing more than 69,170 people with 17,427 missing, injuring more than 281,000, destroying about 80% of buildings, damaging about 400 dams, and displacing about five million people. Many schools collapsed in the quake, killing more than 9,000 students and teachers.
The disaster area houses China's main nuclear weapons research lab in Mianyang, and several secretive atomic sites, but no nuclear power stations. In Sichuan's Shifang city, the quake buries hundreds of people in two collapsed chemical plants, and more than 80 tons of ammonia leaks out.
• Saturday 30 August: an earthquake of 6.1 on the Richter scale kills 36, injures hundreds, damages about 400 homes in West China's Sichuan and Yannan provinces.

• Saturday 3 January: an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale strikes off Indonesia's eastern coast, around 135 kilometres from Manokwari the capital of the province of West Papua, causing electricity blackouts and sending residents fleeing for high ground.
• Monday 12 January: Durham University-led scientists use a computer model to analyse changes in Helheim Glacier, in southeast Greenland and conclude that Helheim which retreated by 7 kilometres (4 miles) over three years ending in 2005, losing 15 million tons more of ice than in 2000 at its peak (according to a February 2007 study in the journal Science) has since advanced about 4 kilometres, reversing the well publicized trend.
• Wednesday 25 February: Shunichi Akasofu – Founding Director of the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) reports "It seems that global warming and the halting of the temperature rise are related to solar activity. Currently, the sun is "hibernating". The end of Sunspot Cycle 23 is already two years late: the cycle should have started in 2007, yet in January 2008 only one sunspot appeared in the sun's northern hemisphere, after that, they vanished completely (new sunspots have now begun to appear in the northern hemisphere). At the current time, it can clearly be seen there are no spots in the photosphere. Lately, solar winds are at their lowest levels in 50 years. Cycle 24 is overdue, and this is is worrisome. So, have there been other historical periods with an absence of sunspots? As a matter of fact, from 1650 to 1700 approximately, there were almost no sunspots. This time period has been named for the renown English astronomer Maunder, and is called the Maunder Minimum. "
• Monday 6 April: an earthquake strikes across central Italy at 03.42 of 6.3 on the Richter scale centering under the village of Onna near L'Aquila (northeast of Rome), lasting several minutes, which kills more than 278 persons, injuring several thousands and making more than 100,000 homeless.

• Tuesday 12 January: Earthquake strikes Haiti at 16:53 local, with magnitude of 7.0 killing about 230,000 people, injuring an estimated 300,000 and leaving about 1,000,000 homeless. Some right-wing Christians in the United States shamefully spread the rumour that am 18th century covenant with Satan was the cause of the earthquake, thereby dishonouring the authority of God over His creation. (See: What is Heaven For?).
• Saturday 27 February: Earthquake strikes Maule, near Concepción, Chile, at 3.34 AM local, with a magnitude of 8.8, and tsunami warnings are issued for the whole Pacific.
• Monday 8 March, 4:32 AM: Earthquake of magnitude 6.0 at a 5 kilometre depth strikes eastern Turkey near the Karakocan town in Elazig province, killing at least 51 people.

• November: The British government warns that this winter is expected to be the coldest since 1963.
• December: Total eclipse of the moon coincides with the solstice (the first time in 372 years).
• Britain experiences its coldest Christmas since 1890.

• Monday 21 February: Earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand, measuring 6.3 at 23:51GMT (12:51PM local) at a depth of only 4km (2.5 miles), killing at least 161 people and injuring many; the second such within five months. (New Zealand, which sits between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, records on average more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which about 20 would normally top magnitude 5.0).

• Friday 11 March: A huge earthquake strike north Japan at 5:46 GMT measuring 9.0 (the strongest in Japan since recording began) at a depth of 24km, triggering a major tsunami which struck the coast at nearly 10m, devastating huge areas, killing more than 20,000 and displacing more than 500,000 people. Many powerful after-shocks follow.

• Sunday 23 October: Earthquake hits eastern Turkey, measuring 7.2 killing at least 270 and injuring many more.

Data compiled from many sources.

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See: Insightful Article by Robinson, Robinson and Soon, of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.

Dr. D. Bruce Merrifield - Professor of Management Emeritus at the Wharton School of Business,
served in the Reagan Administration as Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology and Economic Affairs:
believes Global Warming is GOOD.

Global Warming and CO2

"research literature concerning the environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th Century have produced no deleterious effects upon global weather, climate, or temperature. Increased carbon dioxide has, however, markedly increased plant growth rates. Predictions of harmful climatic effects due to future increases in minor greenhouse gases like CO2 are in error and do not conform to current experimental knowledge." (Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, 2001)

	[Graph-direction is reverse of left graph]
	Commencing from the middle of the Little Ice Age (see 1550 AD above) from which we are probably still recovering.

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Join: Oxford University's World Climate Prediction Experiment

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Copyright © Lloyd Thomas 2000-2011. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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