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In the light of Qur’an, Hadith and Modern Seismology
Numerous Doomsday signs and events have been mentioned in Qur’an and hadith, which encompass vast fields such as social, historical, geological and astronomical. Among the geological signs mentioned are the increasing frequency of earthquakes, volcanoes and sinking of some of crustal plates.
Increasing Frequency of Earthquakes
One of the hadiths regarding the frequency of earthquakes runs as follows:
“Abu Hurairah narrates from Prophet Muhammed (Pbuh) that he said: Doomsday will not come until the frequency of earthquakes will not increase.”
Another hadith describes this scenario as:
“Salma ibn Nufail Al-Sakuni narrates from the Prophet Muhammed (Pbuh) that he said: Prior to the doomsday there will be intense epidemic, and then years of earthquakes will follow.”
This hadith describes two doomsday events: One is the outbreak of epidemic. I have dealt with this topic in another article. The other sign is the increase in the frequency of earthquakes, which has in fact begun to happen and increasing day by day.
Relationship Between Global Warming and Earthquakes
The most surprising thing in this regard is that global warming is not only causing the earth’s climate and its natural systems to change, but it is also exerting an immense effect on its tectonic activity and the isostatic equilibrium of crustal plates. Thus opening a new way for the occurrence of devastating geological events.
Modern seismological studies show that the global warming is causing the increase in the frequency of earthquakes and volcanoes. The root cause for their increase is said to be the melting of polar ice sheets, which have started melting at a great pace due to the ongoing global warming. In fact, two kinds of earthquake activity has been observed in this regard. One is local and the other is global.
The local earthquakes are also called “glacial earthquakes”, according to scientists:
“Glacial earthquakes” are caused when the rivers of ice lurch unexpectedly and produce temblors as strong as magnitude 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale.”
A new study shows that the majority of the total 182 moderate earthquakes [between magnitude 4.5 to 5] occurred in Greenland between 1993 and 2005 were caused by the movement of glaciers. The frequency of this sort of earthquakes is increasing each year. The occurrence of such glacial earthquakes has doubled annually since 2002.
According to NASA and US Geological Survey (USGS), the glacial earthquakes are occurring everywhere where glaciers exist such as Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska.
The retreat of glaciers is not only causing local earthquakes but their impact is also being felt globally. Its logic goes this way… the retreat of glaciers will lessen the weight on the crustal plates, and this will go on to trigger such geological events. University of Alberta’s geologist Patrick Wu explains:
“What happens is the weight of this thick ice puts a lot of stress on the earth. The weight suppresses the earthquakes but when you melt the ice the earthquakes get triggered.”
Patrick says that the melting of glaciers in Antarctica have already triggered the occurrence of earthquakes and submarine landslides. The further increase in global warming will further increase the occurrence of such events both in frequency and intensity.
NASA and USGS after studying retreat of Alaskan glaciers too have confirmed that glacial retreat is increasing the frequency of earthquakes:
In a new study, NASA and USGS scientists found that retreating glaciers in Southern Alaska may be opening the way for future earthquakes. The study examined the likelihood of increased earthquake activity in Southern Alaska as a result of rapidly melting glaciers. As glaciers melt, they lighten the load on the earth’s crust. Tectonic plates, that are mobile pieces of the earth’s crust, can then move more freely.”
The crust of the earth on which the continents and oceans are standing has proved to be very sensitive to the weight it sustains. There are well-documented cases of dams causing earthquakes when the weight of the water behind a dam fills a reservoir.
In fact, a cubic metre of ice weighs nearly a tonne and the area covered by all the glaciers of the earth is about 10.2 million cubic kilometres (9 million cubic miles). Hence a melt of small amount of these gigantic mountains could bring enormous devastation. It is estimated that an increase of mere 3.5 oC in the annual average temperature could melt down all the earth’s glaciers.
Increase of Volcanic Activity
The current seismological studies show that the climate change is also causing increased volcanic activity. According to Alan Glazner, another geologist, the retreating glaciers are also causing increasing volcanic activity. He explains:
“When you melt glacial ice several hundred meters to a kilometer thick… you’ve decreased the load on the crust and so you’ve decreased the pressure holding the volcanic conduits closed. They’re cracks, that’s how magmas gets to the surface… and where they hit the surface, that’s where you get a volcano.”
A British geologist Bill McGuire concludes this whole new situation in the following words:
“All over the world evidence is stacking up that changes in global climate can and do affect the frequencies of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and catastrophic sea-floor landslides.”
One must bear in mind here that Qur’an and hadith both treat the earthquakes and volcanoes as one event, and only earthquakes have been mentioned to describe the occurrence of this dual event. Modern seismology has proved the significance of this prophecy of the Qur’an and hadith in the sense that all the earthquake activity on the earth is caused as a prelude to the eruption of volcanoes. Thus there exists a strong connection between earthquakes and volcanoes and treating them as a single event as the Qur’an and hadith prophesised is perfectly scientific. Hence, the increase in earthquake activity as predicted by the hadith does include, explicitly, increase in the volcanic activity too.
Earthquake Record of the 20th Century
It is useful to have a look at the record of earthquakes of the 20th century, which reveal the fact that the frequency of earthquakes had started to increase at least from past several decades, which was hitherto strongly denied by the scientific community, and was heatedly argued that the seismic activity of our planet is going on as usual. The following table provides the record of all the earthquakes occurred in the last century. This data has been obtained from the database of ANSS, a subsidiary organization of USGS.
This table shows a clear increase in the occurrence of earthquakes before and after 1960s. But, according to ANSS, it is due to the fact that a number of seismograph stations were established around the globe only after the 1960s; hence, a lot of earthquakes before that period went unrecorded. Regardless of this, the earthquake record of at least after 60s shows a clear increase in the frequency of earthquakes of all magnitudes, especially in the earthquakes of magnitude 4 to 4.9.
As far as the cause is concerned for this increase in the last century itself, the glacial retreat itself could be regarded as the root cause because the glacial retreat had started to happen due to the global warming from the late first half of the last century itself.
(The writer can be reached at Furqania Academy Trust, Bangalore. Email: anees_nadvi2003@yahoo.com)
(To be continued)
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