World War 3 - New World Order - Pole Shift - Age of Peace (2006-2012)

Lets continue northward along the west coast now, continuing to try and understand how an acceleration of change in the nature of plate-tectonic activity implied by the Edgar Cayce readings relates to the statement that "Los Angeles, San Francisco, most all of these will be among those that will be destroyed."

Consider Cape Mendocino, California, for example, where three tectonic plates come together in a "triple junction"; the plates in question are the Pacific, Gorda, and North American plates. Some of the highest rates of crustal deformation, surface uplift, and seismic activity in North America occur at this Mendocino triple junction. On April 25-26, 1992, for example, three powerful quakes occurred here, along with 1.4 miles of coastal emergence. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the main shock of the series "may be the forerunner of a much more powerful, tsunami-generating earthquake in the Pacific Northwest...such an event could cause (great) damage due to the ground shaking, and the associated tsunami could devastate the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia."

In early 1996 scientists detected a major volcanic upheaval at the north end of the sea-floor rift segment known as the Gorda Ridge. This is testimony to the ongoing geologic outpouring of material from the Earth's interior in this subsea region of the Pacific Northwest as heat is transported to the surface in the vicinity of the Gorda Ridge.

The following lines from reading 3976-15 suggest possible catastrophes immediately ahead:

"As to the material changes that are to be as an omen, a sign to those that this is shortly to come to pass - as has been given of old, the sun will be darkened and the Earth shall be broken up in diverse places....and as to the changes physical again: The Earth will be broken up in the western portion of America."

Edgar Cayce
3976-15

R.A. Kerr, in an article in Science (March 14, 1997, p. 1564), says, "New geophysical research shows that the lofty peaks and plateaus of the American West are buoyed up not by the continental crust alone, but also by deeper forces from the Earth's mantle." He goes on to state that the West, floating on hot buoyant mantle beneath, is slowly spreading outward. Because it is hemmed in on most sides by rigid lithospheric plates, it may slowly "be heading for the Pacific Northwest, where plate motions open a small escape hatch."

Now if Edgar Cayce's reading is true, that "upheavals in the interior of the Earth" will lead to rising mantle plumes that will produce changes at the Earth's surface, than an area that could be expected to be among the first to be inlfluenced by such mantle motions would be the western states. The land there is sitting on a pool of hot mantle without the protection of thickened crustal roots formerly thought to underlie the topographic heights of the West. This makes the ground surface of the western states far more subject to deeper mantle motions than if it were underlain by the relatively cool and dense mantle that lies just beneath most continents. And recent work with seismic tomography contributes to a growing body of evidence for mantlewide convective flow. Thus, hot rising mantle from upheavals in the interior of the Earth could play havoc with the western United States.

Among the areas in the West that Edgar Cayce said would react to accelerating mantle motions - "The southern coast of California - and the areas between Salt Lake and the southern portions of Nevada"...Recent geophysical measurements that permit analysis of slowly changing distances between points on the surface show that the Colorado Plateau is hardly moving. But at Ely, in eastern Nevada, the land is moving westward across the Basin and Range Province. "Sliding from the heights supported by the hot, buoyant mantle", according to Kerr's review. In Utah, the "areas between Salt Lake and the southern portions of Nevada" lie roughly along the boundary between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province. This boundary now appears to be a zone of crustal extension and, if suddenly subjected to accelerated mantle motions, the crust there could experience catastrophic earthquakes and faulting. That is, this part of "the western portion of America" would be broken up.

But how do we explain the breaking up of the southern coast of California by this new model of the mantle and crust of the American West? According to Kerr's research review, the push of land sliding westward from the heights across Nevada's Basin and Range is pushing the crust into the Sierra Nevada and "crunching up the crust along the San Andreas." That's the reverse of the conventional view, which holds that it's the Pacific Plate pushing eastward that shoves up the Coast Ranges along the length of California. However, the stress on the San Andreas and associated faults in southern California would be exacerbated by accelerated mantle movements beneath the western states, leading to breaking up by a crustal-compression mechanism.

The full paragraph of reading 270-35 indicates that we "may expect" significant earthquakes in the western areas just discussed:

"If there are the greater activities in the Vesuvius, or Pelee, then the southern coast of California - and the areas between Salt Lake and the southern portions of Nevada - may expect, within the three months following same, an inundation by the earthquakes. But these, as we find, are to be more in the Southern than in the Northern Hemisphere."

Edgar Cayce
270-35
January 21st, 1936

The above Edgar Cayce reading is saying that when the conditions described are met - greater activities in Mts. Vesuvius or Pelee - inundations by Earthquakes will occur in the specified areas of the American west.

But he also goes on to make a point that these "inundations" will be more pronounced in the Southern Hemisphere.

Conventional interpretation of the phrase "an inundation by the earthquakes" has been that it is a figure of speech for "an overwhelming number of earthquakes." But a recent analysis of the Earthquake hazrad in the Salt Lake City area, by two seismologists at the University of Utah, suggests a different interpretation. These researchers modeled land deformation effects of a hypothetical, magnitude 7.2 quake that could be expected to occur on the south Weber segment of the north Salt lake City segment of the Wasatch fault. The seismologists put into their model a "scenario quake" consisting of the same ground-surface deformations that were observed in the M 7.5 1959 Hebgen Lake, Montana, quake that occurred 270 miles north of Salt Lake City. They concluded: "An unusual earthquake hazard....due to possible flooding and inundations by the Great Salt Lake accompanying large normal faulting earthquakes on the Wasatch Fault....Because of the close proximity of the Great Salt Lake to Salt Lake City, we demonstrate that this unappreciated hazard is very important, depending upon the lake level and the location of the scenario earthquake."

The changes implied by Edgar Cayce's readings would involve far more than the isolated-earthquake, land, deformation, and flooding scenario modeled by the Utah scientists. A new interpretation of the readings is that catastrophic earthquakes and flooding may occur in the land areas around Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake in Utah, around and below Lake Mead in far southern Nevada, and along those land areas fronting the Pacific Ocean in southern California. Such inundations could directly or indirectly affect population centers like Bringham City, Salt lake City, Murray, Orem, and Provo in Utah, Las Vegas in Nevada, and the cities of coastal California from Santa Barbara south to San Diego.

Thus, we now have two ways of interpreting the "inundation by the earthquakes" language of the readings. And the ambiguity of the phraseology used seems to have allowed science to catch up to the readings, here in our current day. As if to bolster the interpretation at this critical time, there is new global-scale seismic tomography evidence for deep mantle circulation of unprecedented proportion.

There's no question that the language of the readings can be quite challenging at times, as outlined in the examples above. But in continually trying to understand, we may in fact get understanding, often in unexpected ways. Here, recent scientific findings are accommodated by seemingly obscure phrases in the readings, many years after Edgar Cayce gave them. Were certain of the readings intentionally constructed this way? If so, we may have insight here from the promise that, "We may find a great deal of the activities as have been wrought by the gradual changes that are coming about", and as has been indicated, we will eventually begin to fully understand them soon.

What are the chances of "an inundation of the southern coast of California" due to Earthquakes, as mentioned in Edgar Caye's readings? Have there ever been any earthquakes and associated tsunamis (seismic sea waves) there before? Yes indeed.

But first, just what are tsunamis? (The word is Japanese for tsu harbor + nami wave). A tsunami (pronounced tsoo-nah-mee) is a series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces ocean water. Sea-floor movements accompanying earthquakes are the most common cause of tsunamis. But landslides into the sea, submarine land-slides, explosive submarine volcanic eruptions, and generated tsunamis are the greatest threat to the U.S. coast lines, but tsunamis originating at a distance are also a constant threat. The U.S. has suffered major damage from tsunamis originating in Chile, Japan, Russia, and Alaska. Eventually tsunamis will strike all U.S. Pacific Ocean coastlines.

Because the readings refer to tsunamis generated by local Earthquakes, it's important to cite details for several here to give folks an idea of the historical numbers and effects. In the next few posts I will attempt to cover this as quickly as possible.

As covered in Tsunamis Affecting the West Coast of the United States: 1806-1992, the Santa Barbara tsunami of December 21, 1812, was most probably caused by a submarine landslide in the Santa Barbara basin. This landslide was believed due to an Earthquake estimated at M 7.7 and originating on the San Andreas fault. The maximum wave height was about 15 feet or so, and is said to have reached half a mile inland. Submarine landslide tsunamis in California typically have waves with a maximum wave amplitude of 10 feet and affect a very restricted area. The tsunami of November 4th, 1927, was such a one and affected about 35 miles of shoreline. It was recorded as a six-foot wave at Surf, just north of Pt. Arguello near Santa Barbara, and as a five-foot surge at Port San Luis. Near Los Angeles on July 10, 1855, four Earthquakes generated a "probable submarine landslide and local tsunami." On May 27th, 1862, an M 5.9 Earthquake at San Diego caused the only local tsunami observed there. On august 30, 1930, an M 5.2 Earthquake caused a 20-foot wave at Santa Monica, Venice, and Redondo Beach: "Probably a submarine landslide source given the low magnitude of the Earthquake and localized effect. Sixteen people were rescued from the surf. One drowned at Redondo Beach. These few representative records show that local tsunami inundations "by the earthquakes" are quite possible for the southern coast of California.

In all, some 21 locally generated tsunamis of various destructive power have been documented for the southern California coast between 1806 and 1992. Although this coast seems safe from locally generated tsunamis relative to the coasts of, say, Japan or Alaska, the dangers from large tsunamis cannot be ignored. D.S. McCullough, in a U.S. Geological Survey report on tsunamis along the Pacific coast, says that "a preliminary appraisal of the potential for locally generated tsunamis suggests that "Wave run up heights as great as four to six meters," or 13 to 20 feet, could be caused by seabed movements due to Earthquakes. Such waves are not in the same league with the giant tsunamis that hit Hawaii in 1946 and 1975, but even a five or six feet tsunami can cause widespread damage in a harbor or along a heavily settled stretch of coastline.

One tsunami prone area in southern California is located off Santa Barbara where the offshore area has created an odd set of conditions with the potential for making large seismic sea waves. Quoting a report on his book Superquake! (Crown, N.Y. 1988). "Surface fault rupture accompanied by sea-floor displacement is a distinct possibility beneath the Santa Barbara Channel. To put it another way, a big quake on land could set off another quake under the sea and thus send tsunamis rolling toward the California shore." Support for this view is found in J. Deng and L. Sykes's recent study of the 200-year evolution of the crustal stress field in southern California (Jour. Geophysical Research, v. 102, B5, May 10, 1997). The authors write: "Future great earthquakes along the San Andreas fault, especially if the San Bernadino and Coachella Valley segments rupture together, can trigger moderate to large Earthquakes in the Transverse Ranges, as appears to have happened in the Santa Barbara Earthquake that occurred 13 days after the great San Andreas shock of 1812."

We should also take note in passing that another kind of inundation that could occur would be due to flooding by reservoir waters released when Earthquakes cause dams to fail. Several stream-dammed reservoirs are located in the coastal zone of southern California.

If the ultimate cause of the tsunamis mentioned for the meaning of the Edgar Cayce readings is an acceleration of lithospheric plate movements incident to Pole-Shift, there is one last, far-out possibility to consider. And it ties into the last sentence of the reading which indicates that the effects of the inundations by the Earthquakes will be felt more in the Southern Hemisphere. This understanding of the phrase "inundation by the earthquakes" would relate to tsunamis generated from different sources. If "the greater portion of Japan (goes quickly) into the sea," or if a huge piece of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, suddenly slides into the Pacific, highly energetic tsunamis would be generated that would strongly impact the southern California shoreline and those of Central and South America.

Indeed, the coast of southern California has experienced no less than 44 tsunamis generated by earthquakes or submarine landslides beyond the U.S. Pacific coast (excluding Alaska) between 1806 and 1992. These waves have traveled from Japan, coastal Alaska, Chile, the Kuril Islands, the Java sea, El Salvador, and other places. Many of the 44 tsunamis of distant origin that hit the coast of southern California were recorded only as minor excursions on tide-gage records. But consider what could happen as accelerating mantle motions cause Earthquakes and landslides at currently erupting volcanoes like Kilauea, Hawaii. The seismic hazard for the southern portions of Hawaii rivals that of the area around the San Andreas fault in California, according to F. Klein, seismologist with the U. S. Geological Survey. And geophysicists in early 1997 were measuring progressive seaward displacements of the land portion of Kilauea's southeastern flank.

First, note that the tsunami of December 21st, 1812, traveled all the way from Santa Barbara, California, to Hookena, Kona, Hawaii, where the wave run-up height was estimated at between six and fourteen feet. Now let's reverse the California to Hawaii tsunami travel direction. Suppose that a giant submarine landslide occurs on the southeastern flank of Kilauea and generates a large tsunami. The coastlines of Peru and Chile would receive the brunt of such a tsunami, but the coast of southern California would also be affected. Recall the words of Edgar Cayce's reading: "But these (inundations by the earthquakes), are to be more in the Southern than in the Northern Hemisphere."

In their paper, "Giant Hawaiian Landslides" (Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science, 1994) J. Moore, and others, documented dozens of major landslides that have recently been discovered on the flanks of the Hawaiian Ridge. They are among the largest on Earth, attaining lengths greater than 200km and volumes of several thousand cubic kilometers. The authors write that rapid movement of some of the submarine debris avalanches "is indicated by the fact that some have moved uphill for tens of kilometers, and are believed to have produced major tsunamis."

Now just to cover these possibilities related to Edgar Cayce's readings, let's think about the word Pelee. In Polynesian mythology, Pele was the fire goddess who inhabited the crater of Kilauea volcano, causing it to erupt during her jealous rages. Thus, the phrase, "great activities in the vesuvius or Pelee" might also be referring to "the domain of the Pele," on Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Once mantle movement incident to Pole-Shift begins to affect sensitive calderas, and Volcanoes like Vesuvius, and Torrid-Zone Pelee and Kilauea, "inundations by the earthquakes" will become almost commonplace. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory calls Kilauea "the nations deadliest volcano," pointing out - among several other deadly events documented by the Observatory - that 46 people perished along Kilauea's coastline in 1868, when a huge Earthquake caused widespread shaking, coastal subsidence, and a tsunami that destroyed several villages.

So that's it for the California posts my friends. As I said before I have done my best to warn the residents that live in these areas of the impending disasters, but I know that there will be people who will choose not to listen to these warnings. Aside from getting some of the people I know to dress up in suits, renting a few limos, buying the most realistic Obama mask I can find, driving into the heart of California, getting up on a podium (wearing the mask), and yelling to all the residents of California to "get the **** out", there isn't much more I can do. So I'll leave it at that.

JAPAN

Scientists calculate that about 15 percent of all the seismic energy released on the planet is focused on Japan where 120 million people are crowded onto an archipelago with a total land area about the size of California's.

Japan has been shaken by Earthquakes for all of recorded history. Between 1603 and the great Kanto district (Tokyo) quake of 1923, about 40 damaging shocks occurred. Some of these were followed by tsunamis of various destructive power. Active Volcanoes dot the Japanese archipelago as well, producing numerous eruptions.

The underlying mechanism for these unwelcome events are now known to be related primarily to the convergence of the margins of four crustal plates, beneath or adjacent to Japan. The Eurasian plate lies to the west, the North American plate extends down from the north, the Pacific plate pushes in from the east, and the Philippine Sea plate shoves northward at the geologically rapid rate of 1.5 inches per year.

Edgar Cayce's prediction that "the greater portion of Japan must go into the sea" is found in the 1934 reading that describes many other large scale Earth changes as well:

"As to the changes physical again: The greater portion of Japan must go into the sea."

Edgar Cayce
3976-15
January 19th, 1934

The major geophysical problem for Japan is subduction, a process in which one lithospheric plate descends beneath another. It is important to make a distinction, however, between gradual decent of one or more lithospheric plates beneath Japan and the above readings implied acceleration of this process that could result in rapid subduction and submergence of much of northern Honshu and Hokkaido Islands, or "the greater portion of Japan."

Destructive Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions may occur in Japan between now and the end of the century, even without acceleration of the subduction process, but they will reach unprecedented proportions if the process does accelerate.

The Pacific plate has, for a relatively long time geologically, been subducting to the west beneath northern Honshu and Hokkaido Islands. A fault plane has developed that extends to a 435 mile depth beneath the Sea of Japan, on a 45 degree dip from where it originates beneath the Japan Trench. According to the theory of plate tectonics and sea-floor spreading, the Pacific plate is sinking into the mantle beneath Japan, causing Earthquakes and erupting Volcanoes along the upper boundary of the plate.

Earthquakes such as the 1978 Miyagi-Oki (M 7.6) and 1986 Tokachi-Oki (M 8.2) events are examples of quakes due to the Pacific plate underthrusting Japan. If the Edgar Cayce Earth-change readings are any guide, as December 21st, 2012 approaches great underthrusting Earthquakes will occur with increasing frequency on the east coast of Honshu and Hokkaido.

The important tectonic story in Japan these days is a newly recognized kind of underthrusting on the western margin of Honshu and Hokkaido. This easterly directed underthrusting has produced large, shallow Earthquakes, as explained by a Japanese scientist:

"The August 2, 1940 earthquake ruptured the northernmost segment along this margin; the June 16, 1964 Niigata earthquake ruptured the southernmost segment; and the May 26, 1983, Japan Sea earthquake ruptured the segment between the 1940 and 1983 earthquakes."

"Careful study of the focal mechanisms of the 1940, 1964, and 1983 earthquakes are all consistent with the Sea of Japan (Eurasian plate) thrusting beneath Honshu and Hokkaido. Since there is no deep Benioff zone associated with the underthrusting of the Sea of Japan, one simple interpretation of the tectonics is that a new subduction zone is forming off the west coast of Honshu and Hokkaido...Thus, a closer look at this region shows that the July 12, 1993 event (the Hokkaido-Nansei-Oki quake) is not on the "wrong side" of Japan. Instead, Japan is unfairly burdened with active underthrusting on both sides!"

The subduction off of the west coast of Honshu and Hokkaido Islands seem to have started within the recent geological past, on a fault plane that is dipping to the east under Japan. This fault plane dips under the part of the North American plate that extends down to central Honshu from the north. The July 12th, 1993 magnitude 7.8 quake on this fault produced one of the largest tsunamis in Japan's history, a seismic sea wave that devastated the island of Okushiri in the Sea of Japan. If the Edgar Cayce Earth-change readings are any guide, Japan can expect an increasing number of severe quakes due to acceleration of subducting crustal plates along both its east and west coasts. One recent Pacific plate subducting event took place off Japan's northeast coast on October 3, 1994.

If the newly recognized, shallow-subducting mechanism caused by the Eurasian plate moving downward beneath the edge of the North American plate and if the principal subduction process were to accelerate, then one could speculate that much of northern Japan, on up to and including Sakalin, could begin moving along the newly developing fault zone into the Pacific. On the other hand, acceleration of the subduction of northern Honshu and Hokkaido might be accomplished mainly by sudden acceleration in the westward movement of the Pacific plate. Perhaps both processes could occur simultaneously.

At any rate, geologists know that during early Cenozic time northern Honshu Island extended much farther into the Pacific than it does now. In 1978, for example, marine geologists reported that "remnants of a land mass that subsided during the current episode of subduction were found on the continental slope and on the upper part of the present Japan Trench's landward wall."

Why would decent of the Pacific lithospheric plate beneath northern Japan suddenly accelerate? Owing to the pressures applied to Earth's plates due to a Pole-Shift/and or upheavals in the mantle alluded to in the Edgar Cayce readings. One day very soon, the slab descending beneath Japan suddenly might break through the 670 km barrier into the lower mantle in an "avalanche" of episodic mantle mixing of the type envisioned by some computer modelers.

As the rate of subduction of Honshu and Hokkaido accelerates, so also will there be an increase in the frequency of Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanic eruptions in and around these islands. Already in the pipeline, so to speak, are great destructive quakes for Tokyo and for the Tokai region some 70 miles southwest of downtown Tokyo.

The great Kanto district Earthquake of September 1st, 1923, killed 140,000 people in and around Tokyo. The upheaval, and the aftershocks and fires that followed, transformed the metropolitan area into a heap of ash and twisted metal. It was Japan's most destructive quake ever, until that time.

That was 73 years ago. The Tokyo region has suffered an Earthquake of magnitude 8 or stronger every 69 years on average, according to a study of seismic activity since the year 818. These have been quakes originating directly beneath the metropolitan area or powerful tremors set off by Earthquakes in neighboring districts. And legend has it that Tokyo will have a big quake five to ten years after an eruption of Mihara Volcano, which lies about 65 miles south of downtown Tokyo. Mihara last erupted in 1986. About 25 percent of Tokyo's soil is calculated to liquefy in the next large quake, causing many structures to fail. Firestorms following the shock are the biggest fear. Computer models of the hypothetical storms show that one-third of Tokyo will burn to the ground and that 40,000 will die.

In 1988, Kenshiro Tsumara, head of seismology at the Japan Meteorological agency, said that he was not as worried about predictions of another Kanto district quake in the very near future as he was about the imminent possibility of a great quake in the neighboring Tokai region. The last great Tokai quake, in 1854, was a magnitude 8.4 shock that killed upwards of 3,000 people and destroyed 25,000 homes. At the time Tokai was a rather sparsely populated farming district, whereas today it is populated by about 7.5 million people living in over 170 towns and cities. It is also home to numerous oil refineries, industrial complexes, and petrochemical plants. Seismic forces have for several decades been building on faults beneath Suruga Bay, where the next Tokai-Earthquake epicenter is expected to to occur.

Katsuhiko Ishibashi, one of Japan's top Earthquake experts, believes the Tokai quake will trigger a series of geological events beneath Tokyo that would be powerful enough to destroy large parts of the city. Ishibashi's views were reported in the Chicago Tribune as follows:

"His argument is based largely on historical evidence suggesting the 1854 Tokai earthquake touched off violent tremors in the Kanto District that caused numerous fatalities and great damage in the years leading up to the catastrophe convulsion of 1923. Because Tokyo has grown much in population density, he said, similar tremors today would be deadlier."

"When the great Tokai earthquake does occur, it will plunge the Tokyo area into a period of intense seismic activity marked by the repeated occurrence of magnitude 7-class earthquakes," he recently wrote in a Japanese scientific journal."

"What does that mean in layman's terms?"

"Ishibashi, sitting in a 28th-floor restaurant overlooking downtown Tokyo, swept his hand to take in the sprawl of office towers, hotels, residences rising above congested streets in what has often been called the World's most poorly planned city."

"Collapsed buildings. Fires. Millions of panicking people. Widespread death."

"Chaos, he said."

Any sudden increase in the rate of subduction of plates under Japan will bring terrible chaos to the population there. Consider the effects of the Kobe Earthquake of January 17th, 1995. This was the most powerful tremor to strike an urban area of Japan since the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake. The human toll of the Kobe quake was also second to Tokyo's with over 5,000 dead and 20,000 injured. In economic terms, the Kobe Earthquake was the most costly ever natural disaster. The tremor destroyed or damaged more than 46,000 buildings, toppled the main elevated highway between Kobe and Osaka, cut gas, water, and electric service, derailed seven trains, and left 300,000 of the city's 1.5 million people without shelter. Such chaos may be but a prelude to the catastrophic losses that would be expected due to subduction of the greater portion of the Japanese achipelago itself.

Is there any evidence for recent subsidence in Japan? Yes, there is.

Recent results of a study of vertical crustal movements in the Tohoku District of Japan identify a trend that coincides with many geophysical speculations. This district encompasses all of northern Honshu above a line connecting Iwaki and Niigata, on opposite coasts. Although some small areas within the district have shown crustal uplift during the 1966-1995 study interval, the authors primary conclusion is that "the most fundamental trend is extensive subsidence along the Pacific coast." This conforms to our current period in which coming Earth changes are to appear.

The upper portion of Europe

What about the possibility of a sudden geophysical change of some sort in Europe?

There is geological evidence for long-term uplift of of Scandinavia since melting of the last ice sheet there and it suggests that this uplift might suddenly accelerate. This would perhaps agree with Edgar Cayce's reading that says that there will be "upheavals in the Arctic and in the Antarctic."

Another possibility would be a sudden blockage or diversion of the Gulf Stream that brings warmth to Europe. Of course, the Gulf Stream's warmth is only part of the picture. In the last 35 years much has been learned about the ocean-atmosphere climate system. There was a major reorganization of the climate about 135,000 years ago. It involved the creation of a conveyor belt of ocean currents carying heat or cold nearly around the globe and to the shores of the various continents.

As for the climate immediately ahead, a sudden warming in the North Atlantic Basin is the next most likely event. Studies of Greenland ice cores that show that the northern Atlantic basin was affected by rapid climate changes over the past 100,000 years or so, due to switches in the mode of operation of the Atlantic Ocean's thermohaline circulation, lend more evidence towards the warming possibility. These switches in ocean circulation would be responsible for large temperature changes in the land surrounding the northern Atlantic.

Of particular interest to the sudden warming speculation are any observations of changes in the heat load of the upper levels of the Atlantic Ocean that are flowing from the south, northward toward the North Atlantic Basin. In 1994, a group of Spanish oceanographers published a study that compared water temperatures measured in 1957, 1981, and 1992 throughout a cross section of the ocean between Africa and Florida, along 24 degrees North latitude. They concluded that the waters there "had warmed appreciably down to 3,000 meters depth."

Is there, then, any evidence that such unexpected warmth is showing up in the North Atlantic Basin? Quite possibly there is. Consider the 1994 report that describes signs of warming evident in parts of Spitzbergen, 600 miles north of Norway and about 250 miles south of the boundary of permanent Arctic park ice. The leader of a team of scientists studying insects there for the period from 1990-1993 has reported that "the general trend seems to be that the western coast of Spitzbergen certainly is getting warmer." Climate records for the area suggest these feelings are well founded.