There
is a story in the bible -Numbers 16- about Korah, Dathan, Abiram and On who
became unruly and openly opposed Moses. The account of how they perished is as
below; The ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and
swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah,
together with their possessions. They went down alive into the realm of the
dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished
and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around
them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” Such is the horror
of the earth cracking and swallowing all that is above the crack.
Cracks and fissures are normal events, caused by earthquakes, heavy rain,
mudslides, and tectonic plates moving. But all that has happened since the dawn
of time. Why all of a sudden are we seeing more of these cracks appearing in
the last few years? Are we actually seeing more cracks appearing? Maybe the
media is reporting more of these occurences than it used to be reported or is
the earth going to swallow us too! It just seems a bit weird that the Earth has
been cracking like a car window and no one seems to have an answer!!!!!
The following is the record of earth cracks
Arizona, USA - 11 Sept 1927
An earth fissure or crack in the ground, believed to be of unusual origin
occurred on or about 11 Sept 1927 at a point some 3 miles south east of
Picacho, Arizona. It was dicovered early in the morning of Sept 12 after a
severe rain and wind storm of the afternoon and night before. The crack has
re-oppened several times.
Iceland -October 1, 2001
Icelanders are accustomed to their land being stretched, split, and torn by
violent earthquakes and haphazardly rebuilt by exploding volcanoes. But
everyone was surprised when a large lake began to disappear into a long fissure
created by a previous summer's earthquakes.
Ethiopia -September 2005
A crack in the Earth's crust – which could be the forerunner to a new ocean –
ripped open in just days. The opening is located in the Afar region of
Ethiopia.It began to open up in September 2005, when a volcano at the northern
end of the rift, called Dabbahu, erupted.It began to open up when a volcano at
the northern end of the rift, called Dabbahu, erupted.
Queen Creek,Arizona, USA - 14 Feb 2010
The well-known "Y-crack" earth fissure near Queen Creek, south of
Phoenix, re-opened last month following heavy rainstorms. The hole opened
around four residential water valves. It is approximately 20 feet deep
according to city's public works staff. This same location opened in August
2005 across a much longer extent.
Birch Creek, Alaska, USA -10 June 2010
One day the land was flat and filled with trees shooting straight into the air.
Twenty-four hours later there's a 600-foot-long crack, 4-feet deep twisting its
way through the woods - and those vertical trees are now pointed 30 degrees
left and right where the earth has mounded 15 feet high.
Menominee, Michigan,USA -8 Oct 2010
A large crack suddenly appeared after what seemed like an earthquake in
Menominee Township of Michigan, US. Locals or authorities dont know what it is
and have also contacted experts that can figure out why such a massive crack
appeared. This crack in the earth is over 600 ft long and 5 feet deep in places
but it is now enlarging and getting bigger.Heat is said to emanate from within
it.
Chucuito Southern Peru - 25 Feb 2011
The sudden appearance early in the morning of an enormous crack, measuring 100
meters wide and three kilometers long, caused confusion among residents of the
Huacullani district in the Chucuito province, department of Puno. The exact
cause of the crack in the earth still unknown.
Sierra-Bullones, Bohol, Philippines -March 7, 2011
The continued land movement causing huge cracks in a barangay in this
municipality alarmed residents as authorities advised them to evacuate to safer
grounds especially during uninterrupted rains.
Purworejo, Indonesia -March 10, 2011
Crack sized 400 meters along western slope of Menoreh hill in Purworejo
district, Indonesia threatens the residents of Sidorejo village. At least 67
families in three villages are threatened by landslide. The crack started to
opening last week after a period of heavy rain . This is the third time that
this sort of soil crack appears. The similar events was recorded around 1970's
and then late 1990's
Nantou, Taiwan -March 15, 2011
A large crack measuring 20 meters long appeared on the ground at a local
elementary school in Lushan of Nantou County. Experts observed that while the
phenomenon does not pose any immediate danger, it may lead to severe landslides
if heavy rains or earthquakes hit the area.
Villa Rivero, Bolivia -16 March 2011
Departmental officials urge families to evacuate the area in which land was
opened after the rains the previous week. The Government commission
investigating the phenomenon explained that it was due to the earthquake in Japan,
many people associate earthquake with cracks. But the Department of Mother
Earth has ruled out such link.
Thanga Samukon, Imphal, Manipur, India -April 09 2012
People were panic-stricken after the earth's surface developed a crack from
which smoke has been billowing out continuously. A crack around 60 feet long
and one foot wide developed near the suspension bridge which connects Thanga
Samukon and Oinam on Samukon side three days back. The crack has been churning
out smoke continuously. However, the volume of smoke has been decreasing as
compared to the first day when the crack developed. In addition to the smoke,
the crack has been ejecting a particular odour.
Narok, Kenya - 18 May 2012
The Kenya Highways Authority on Thursday closed the Maai Mahiu-Narok road
indefinitely because of dangerous cracks. Engineers from the authority will
assess the road and decide what will be done. Cracks, believed to be caused by
weak underlying volcanic soil, appeared on sections of the road a fortnight ago
following heavy rains.
The following could be probable causes
Mining and drilling of oil where a great deal of the earth has been displaced
or underground hollows created due to drilling of oil and exploitation of
underground water. What we are seeing is a result of isostatic readjustment.
Gravity-The cracks are appearing because our earth is under incredible strain
from the pull of gravity from an approaching celestial object. It's alleged
that the earth will be, in 2012, at its closest to the Milky Way’s center and
the black hole that reside there.
Nukes tests - probably a rogue nation has been testing nuclear weapons
underground.
A mini man-made black hole - LHC, Tevatron, and HAARP projects are all firing
up at all time energies and who knows what these guys are doing to the Earth,
the atmosphere, the electromagnetic field of the Earth, probably causing
earthquakes, creating mini black holes. Just who know
Friday, May 18, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
How Tullow oil started, I find it amazing!
It started in a small town called Tullow, about 35 miles south of
Dublin, Ireland. In the 80s there were loads of companies starting off
in the North Sea and Irish Celtic Sea. I was talking to a friend of mine
in the bank one day and he was talking about small oil fields in
Africa, which had been left behind by the majors and had no-one to work
them. That is where the idea came from. I contacted another friend of
mine in the World Bank who told me about a project in Senegal. They had
some small gas fields that they were trying to get people to develop, so
I setup Tullow Oil to rework those old fields. I knew nothing about the
oil and gas industry at the time, which made it more challenging. No
one thought Tullow would succeed because of my lack of knowledge of the
industry, no major backers and I was starting a company in a country
with no oil industry." – Aidan Heavey, CEO Tullow Oil plc
Monday, January 16, 2012
Why Rift Valley Railways Consortium should get serious
The railway in Kenya was built by the British Empire. The railway was formally called the Uganda railway or Lunatic express. The construction started at Mombasa in the year 1896. And reached Kisumu in the year 1901 (The British took6 years to build the Kenyan railway). The rail is 1000mm gauge and all single track. The railway was later run by east Africa Railway Company after 1stworld war and upon the dissolution of EAR Corporation in 1977 the Kenya railway corporation took over the management of all the railway branches in Kenya.
Since the independent Kenya took the management of the railway, there had been virtually new development in this infrastructure. The already outdated infrastructure(well over a century old) continues to age without any major upgrade or expansion.
The rift valley railways consortium led by South African companies took over the management of Kenyan railway in 2006 as a part of contract which is to last for 25 years.
There was hope that the consortium would bring life to the dying infrastructure. It is now 6 years down the line, not much to be desired. One of the expectations was the change of gauge from 1000mm to the world standard of1435mm. The master plan remains on writing and is yet to be implemented.
Railway transport presents several advantages and opportunities. This transport system generally has lower frictional resistance when compared with road transport and several carriages can be coupled into long trains. Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport.Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency especially when high traffic levels are considered. Studies have shown that development of railway in a region has direct positive impact on the region economy.
This mode of transport started with man-hauled railway that date to 6 century B.C. With the British development of the steam engine, it was possible to construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the industrial revolution. Electrified trains were introduced in 1880s. By 1940 most of steam locomotives had been replaced by diesel-electric locomotives. During the 1960s,electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan and a few other countries. Recently monorail and maglev are gaining popularity especially in urban areas.
Whereas there are plans to modernize Kenya railways, there is no mention of electric trains. To me it doesn’t matter whatever type of railway system they will build, as long as it is not an electric train system then they have no business talking about modernization.
RVR consortium is talking of expanding the railway network in Nairobi as part of solution to the traffic problem in the city, no one mentions about building of trams, monorails or maglev. Apart from having targets of freight volumes, there is no definite development plan to make the railway more modern,attractive, competitive or exciting. By now we would have seen the introduction of modern couches that are passenger friendly; it seems we have to wait even longer. As much as it is understood that the capital investment on railway infrastructure is intensive, at least we should see some little progress.
The use of Kenyan road for transportation of heavy stuffs, destined inside the country and in transit is a major reason why roads in Kenya wears off very fast. Lorries are also a major contribution to traffic congestion and several road accidents.
Had the country given the development of railway infrastructure a higher priority, there would have been plenty economic benefits to harvest.
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