Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period
… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)
Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

Volcano Just Shot Out a Mushroom-Shaped Cloud So Big It Could Be Seen from Orbit

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | June 26, 2019 06:37am ET. Live Science.

A towering mushroom-shaped cloud of ash and smoke recently rose from a volcano on an island in the Pacific Ocean, and an astronaut on board the International Space Station (ISS) captured a spectacular view of the eruption from high above.

The volcano Raikoke sits on the Kuril Islands, an archipelago of volcanic peaks that lies between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan’s Hokkaido Island. On June 22 at approximately 4 a.m. local time, Raikoke exploded for the first time since 1924, expelling a dense plume that could be seen from the ISS, NASA Earth Observatory reported.

The towering plume extended to an altitude of about 43,000 feet (13 kilometers); it rose from the volcano’s crater and formed a spindly column that puffed out at the top

In this highest zone of a volcanic plume, known as the umbrella region, the ash cloud’s density equalizes with the density of the air around it, and the plume’s rise slows and then stops, according to NASA. Circular gravity waves are visible in the plume’s flattened top; they form as pulses of air from below push briefly above the plume’s maximum height and then settle back down, an effect similar to the spreading ripples displaced by a stone dropped in water, according to the volcano-tracking website Volcano Discovery.

Because the ISS photo was taken at an angle and not directly above the volcano, the impressive height, girth and structure of the ash plume is visible, as is the shadow cast by the plume on the cloud cover far below. Clusters of bright white clouds ringing the bottom of the plume are likely water vapor condensation, “or it could be a rising plume from interaction between magma and seawater, because Raikoke is a small island and [magma] flows likely entered the water,” Simon Carn, a volcanologist at Michigan Technical University, told NASA.

Raikoke is a stratovolcano, which means its slopes are built up from numerous layers of hardened lava and ash. It reaches 1,808 feet (551 m) above sea level, and prior to Raikoke’s 1924 explosion, the volcano’s last recorded activity was in 1778, according to the National Museum of Natural History’s Global Volcanism Program.

Another image captured by satellite on June 22 shows dense concentrations of ash on the western half of the plume, while circulating storm winds over the Pacific tug at the plume and draw it eastward. Along with the ash, Raikoke’s eruption also discharged a plume of sulfur dioxide that winds stirred into the stratosphere, Carn said.