Back-To-Back Quakes In Alaska: Pictures And Videos Reveal The Damage

Back-to-back earthquakes shatter roads and windows

• Back-to-back earthquakes measuring 7.0 and 5.7 shattered roads and rocked buildings Friday in Anchorage
• The quake broke store windows, knocked items off shelves, opened cracks in a two-story, downtown building, disrupted electrical service and disabled traffic lights, snarling traffic and threw a grown man out of his tub 
• Flights were suspended after the quake knocked out telephones and forced the evacuation of a control tower
• The 800-mile Alaska oil pipeline was shut down while crews were sent to inspect it for damage
• Anchorage's school system canceled classes and asked parents to pick up their kids as it examined buildings

Shocking aerial images of shown the devastating impact the earthquakes in Alaska had on the roads and landscape.

The tremors that struck the state on early Friday morning decimated stretches of road, and made them impassible,  

Back-to-back earthquakes measuring 7.0 and 5.7 also rocked buildings Friday in Anchorage and the surrounding area, sending people running into the streets and briefly triggering a tsunami warning for islands and coastal areas south of the city.

No tsunami arrived and there were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first and more powerful quake was centered about 7 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, with a population of about 300,000. 

People ran from their offices or took cover under desks. The 5.7 aftershock arrived within minutes, followed by a series of smaller quakes.

'We just hung onto each other. You couldn't even stand,' said Sheila Bailey, who was working at a high school cafeteria in Palmer when the quake struck. 'It sounded and felt like the school was breaking apart.'

A large section of an off-ramp near the Anchorage airport collapsed, marooning a car on a narrow island of pavement surrounded by deep chasms in the concrete. Several cars crashed at a major intersection in Wasilla, north of Anchorage, during the shaking.

Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll said he had been told that parts of Glenn Highway, a scenic route that runs northeast out of the city past farms, mountains and glaciers, had 'completely disappeared.' 

Traffic in the three lanes heading out of the city was bumper-to-bumper and all but stopped Friday afternoon as emergency vehicles passed on the shoulder.

The quake broke store windows, knocked items off shelves, opened cracks in a two-story, downtown building, disrupted electrical service and disabled traffic lights, snarling traffic. It also threw a full-grown man out of his bathtub.

Flights at the airport were suspended for hours after the quake knocked out telephones and forced the evacuation of the control tower. And the 800-mile Alaska oil pipeline was shut down while crews were sent to inspect it for damage.

Anchorage's school system canceled classes and asked parents to pick up their children while it examined buildings for gas leaks or other damage.

Fifteen-year-old Sadie Blake and other members of the Homer High School wrestling team were at an Anchorage school gymnasium for a tournament when the bleachers started rocking and the lights went out. People started running down the bleachers in the dark, trying to get out.

'It was a gym full of screams,' said team chaperone Ginny Grimes.

When it was over, Sadie said, there was only one thing she could do: 'I started crying.'

Jonathan Lettow was waiting with his 5-year-old daughter and other children for a school bus near their home in Wasilla when the quake struck. The children got on the ground while Lettow tried to keep them calm.

'It's one of those things where in your head, you think, 'OK, it's going to stop,' and you say that to yourself so many times in your head that finally you think, 'OK, maybe this isn't going to stop,'' he said.

Soon after the shaking ended, the school bus pulled up and the children boarded, but the driver stopped at a bridge and refused to go across because of deep cracks in the road, Lettow said.

At Chugiak High School, acting principal Allison Susel said ceiling tiles came down, books and other items fell from shelves, and water line breaks caused damage.

Gov. Bill Walker issued a disaster declaration. He was in an elevator in a high-rise Anchorage office building and said it was a 'rough ride' coming down. He described the quake as a 7.2, though it was unclear why his figure differed from that of the USGS.

Walker says it will take more than a week or two to repair roads damaged by the earthquake.

'This is much more significant than that,' he told reporters at a news conference.

Walker leaves office on Monday, and he said members of Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy's staff had been involved with the earthquake response to ensure a smooth transition.

'This isn't a time to do anything other than take care of Alaskans, and that's what we're doing,' he said.

In Kenai, southwest of Anchorage, Brandon Slaton was home alone and soaking in his bathtub when the earthquake struck. Slaton, who weighs 209 pounds, said it created a powerful back-and-forth sloshing that threw him out of the tub.

UN General Assembly: Resolution Approved Urging Israel To Withdraw From Golan Heights

UN General Assembly Urges Israel to Completely Withdraw From Golan Heights

The vote followed US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley's announcement that Washington plans to reject a UN General Assembly resolution on the Golan Heights region given the document's "anti-Israel bias".

A resolution urging Israel to withdraw from the entirety of the Golan Heights has been adopted by the majority of the countries represented in the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

The Syrian Golan resolution was approved by a vote of 99 in favor, 10 against and 66 abstentions during the UNGA's Friday session.

The document declared that Israel's decision to extend its legislation on the Golan Heights is null and void and that the Jewish state should withdraw from the strategically-important territory.

READ MORE: Netanyahu Still Hopes US Will Recognize Israel's Claim to Golan Heights

Munzer Munzer, acting charge d'affaires of Syria's permanent delegation to the UN, accused Israel of continuing to occupy "a precious part of our land" as Syrian people there "continue to suffer because of this occupation."

"My country reiterates that Syria's sovereign right over the occupied Syrian Golan up to the June 4th 1967 line is not up for negotiation or relinquishment, nor can it ever be subject to prescription, and that our occupied lands and rights will be fully restored to us and Israel and its settlers must leave our lands in the Golan sooner or later," Munzer was cited by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) as saying. 

In mid-November, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley signaled Washington's desire to vote against the UNGA resolution, referring to the document's "anti-Israel bias, as well as the militarization of the Syrian Golan border and a worsening humanitarian crisis."

Earlier, the Israeli newspaper Hayom quoted US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman as saying that he believes that Washington could recognize the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of the Jewish state. He added that he expects the Golan Heights to remain under Israeli control "forever", and that he "cannot imagine a situation" in which the area is returned to Syria.

Israel took control of the Golan Heights in 1967 after the Six-Day War between Israel and the neighbouring states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

The UN, which did not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the region, brokered a Syrian-Israeli armistice in 1974, urging Israel to leave parts of the Golan Heights.

In 1981, Israel adopted a law extending its jurisdiction over the territory, de-facto annexing the Golan Heights. The law has never been recognized internationally, and the dispute between Syria and Israel over the territory has yet to be resolved.

'Criticism Of Migration' Set To Become A Criminal Offense In EU

In Europe "Criticism Of Migration" Set To Become A Criminal Offense

Europeans concerned about borders, language and culture may soon find themselves in the hot seat after Dutch politician and European Parliament member Marcel de Graaff issued a dire warning over the "definition of hate speech" which will criminalize speech opposing mass migration, as first reported by Joe Schaeffer of LibertyNation. 

In a press conference, de Graaff raised the alarm over an international conference in Marrakech, Morocco on Dec. 11 and 12 where the U.N. Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is to be signed. Though the pact is said to be non-binding, it is meant to establish the groundwork for an Orwellian campaign to cement mass migration as a human right legally above any and all criticism.

“One basic element of this new agreement is the extension of the definition of hate speech,” de Graaff says. “The agreement wants to criminalize migration speech. Criticism of migration will become a criminal offense. Media outlets that give room to criticism of migration can be shut down.” -LibertyNation

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner posted a transcript of a November 20 speech from Andrew Gilmour, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, entitled: "Words Matter: Role and Responsibility of the media in shaping public perceptions about migrants and refugees and promoting inclusive societies."

Gilmour calls "hate crimes against migrants" an "especially unpleasant manifestation of what I see as an almost global backlash against human rights." 

Gilmour explains how his office will help states “to distinguish free speech from hate speech” that, of course, has no right to exist. He points out that media reporting that is not sufficiently pro-migration cannot be tolerated. “It is clear to us all that many media outlets are deliberately failing to promote the concept of common humanity,” Gilmour says, again defining mass migration as a basic human right. “Words obviously do matter: dehumanising racist rhetoric frequently leads to hatred, tensions, violence and conflict. It requires a greater effort from the international community to confront those in the media who seek to stir up hatred.” -LibertyNation

The EU is set to criminalize speech that criticizes migration.
“The criticism of migration will be a criminal offense.”
“Media outlets that give room for criticism of migration,can be shut down.“
Insane & this is what people want to bring here? BTW censoring is the start of it pic.twitter.com/eiFoqrhIkZ

— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) November 30, 2018

Iran Creating A 'New Order' In Syria As Presence Strengthens In The Area

A new order emerges in southern Syria as Assad rises back into control

Evidence emerging from southwest Syria indicates that the Assad regime has begun to settle accounts with former rebels who worked with Israel and with Western countries during the years that this area was outside of regime control.

A number of prominent former rebel commanders in Deraa and Quneitra provinces have recently disappeared after being apprehended by regime forces. Other former rebels have been prevented from leaving the area for opposition-controlled Idlib province in the country’s northeast.

What is returning to Syria’s south, however, is not the status quo antebellum. Iran and its allies have a central role in the emergent power structure. Indeed, the emergent reality is one in which it is difficult to discern where precisely the Syrian state ends and Iran and its allies begin. Syria’s southwest, which was the cradle of the uprising against Assad, is now being transformed into the birthplace of a new Syria, in which Iran and its allies form a vital and inseparable component.

DERAA AND Quneitra provinces were among the first areas of Syria to break free of regime control. The demonstrations that launched the Syrian uprising began in Deraa city in mid-March 2011. By the end of the year, the regime had lost control of the greater part of both provinces.

In the subsequent six years, a flourishing post-regime reality came into being. International NGOs began to operate projects in the areas. A provisional local authority functioned. Unlike in northern Syria, militias aligned with Salafi- or Muslim Brotherhood-style political Islam did not swallow up all other elements. Rather, groups aligned with these streams existed alongside other less ideological formations.

Israel, determined to prevent the arrival of Iran and its proxy militias to the border with the Golan Heights, developed relations with a number of non-jihadi local rebel groups and assisted their control of the border area. Organizations such as Fursan al-Joulan and Ahrar Nawa, among others, benefited from the Israeli connection. Further east, Western governments, including the US and the UK, offered assistance to the opposition in Deraa province. Through projects such as the Free Syrian Police force, the West sought to aid the development of rudimentary civil society structures to replace those of the Assad regime.

A recent report on the Syrian Observer website provided details of a large Iranian base under construction in the Lajat area of Deraa province. According to the Syrian Observer, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Hezbollah, operating on behalf of the Iranians, “destroyed about 650 houses and cleared out a number of villages in Lajat, leveling them to the ground, to create an area of 30 square kilometers. In these villages, the Iran-backed militias prepared training barracks and warehouses for weapons and ammunition, in order to make this area into a military base for foreign Iran-backed militias to be based. The first batches of weapons and ammunition reached the militias in the area by this route at the beginning of October.”

The report went on to describe the route taken by Iran-associated fighters from the Iraq-Syria border crossing at Abu Kamal to Lajat, under the supervision of IRGC personnel.

Evidence is also emerging of the presence of Hezbollah personnel and other pro-Iranian Shia militiamen in Syrian Arab Army uniforms among the regime forces returning to the border area with the Golan Heights. This is despite the nominal Russian commitment to keep such elements at least 85 kilometers from the body.

This Iranian activity close to the border goes hand in hand with Tehran’s activity further afield, including the transfer of Shias from southern Iraq to deserted Sunni neighborhoods.

All this adds up to an emergent new postwar order in the regime-controlled part of Syria. Those who hoped for one kind of new Syria are being rounded up, detained and disappeared. 

Iran, meanwhile, is busy creating a very different kind of new order. In it, an independent Iranian presence is intertwined with, and largely indistinguishable from, the body of the Syrian state itself, in a way not coincidentally analogous to the situation in Lebanon and Iraq (minus the nominal institutions of representative government).

Mysterious Rumble Rolled Around Earth - Strange Earthquake Waves

Strange earthquake waves rippled around Earth, and nobody knows why

On the morning of November 11, just before 9:30 UT, a mysterious rumble rolled around the world.

The seismic waves began roughly 15 miles off the shores of Mayotte, a French island sandwiched between Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar. The waves buzzed across Africa, ringing sensors in Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. They traversed vast oceans, humming across Chile, New Zealand, Canada, and even Hawaii nearly 11,000 miles away.

These waves didn't just zip by; they rang for more than 20 minutes. And yet, it seems, no human felt them.

Only one person noticed the odd signal on the U.S. Geological Survey's real-time seismogram displays. An earthquake enthusiast who uses the handle @matarikipax saw the curious zigzags and posted images of them to Twitter. That small action kicked off another ripple of sorts, as researchers around the world attempted to suss out the source of the waves. Was it a meteor strike? A submarine volcano eruption? An ancient sea monster rising from the deep?

“I don't think I've seen anything like it,” says Göran Ekström, a seismologist at Columbia University who specializes in unusual earthquakes.

Nobody knows why the Earth just rang like a bell

Seismic sensors first picked up the event originating near an island between Madagascar and Africa. Then, alarm bells started ringing as far away as Chile, New Zealand and Canada.

Hawaii, almost exactly on the other side of the planet, also picked up the “event.”

Nobody knows what it was.

Meteorite? Submarine volcano? Nuclear test?

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it,” National Geographic reports Columbia University seismologist Göran Ekström as saying. “It doesn’t mean that, in the end, the cause of them is that exotic.”

At the center of the mystery is the tiny island of Mayotte, positioned about halfway between Africa and Madagascar. It’s been subjected to a swarm of earthquakes since May. Most have been minor, but the biggest — on May 8 — was the largest in the island’s recorded history, topping at a magnitude of 5.8.

But the earthquake swarm had been in decline before the mysterious ringing was detected earlier this month.

Ekström, who specializes in unusual earthquakes, points out much about the Nov. 11 event was weird. It was as though the planet rang like a bell, maintaining a low-frequency monotone as it spread.

Earthquakes, by their very nature, usually register as short, sharp “cracks.”

As tensions in the Earth’s crust suddenly release, pulses of clearly identifiable seismic waves radiate outward from where the slippage occurs.

The first signal is called a primary wave: high-frequency compression waves that radiate in bunches.

Then comes a Secondary wave: These high-frequency waves tend to “wiggle” more.

Only then comes the surface waves: These slow, deep rumbles tend to linger, and can circle the Earth several times.

The Nov. 11 event is notable in that no primary or secondary waves were detected.

All that registered was the deep, resonant surface wave. And it didn’t rumble as an earthquake’s surface wave tends to. Instead, it maintained a much cleaner — almost musical — frequency.

National Geographic reports the French Geological Survey suspects a new volcano may be developing off the coast of Mayotte. While the island was created by volcanic activity, it’s been dormant for more than 4,000 years.

The French believe the weird ringing may have been generated by a movement of magma some 30 miles off the coast and deep underwater. This is supported by GPS sensors detecting that Mayotte has moved some 2 inches to the southeast in less than five months.But it’s a poorly mapped region. Exactly what’s beneath the ocean can only be guessed at.

Ekström believes the unusually pure signal could have been caused by magma sloshing about inside a chamber, or being forced through a gap in subsurface rocks.

But he’s not certain.