Harold Camping: Are Earthquakes in California and Turkey Signs of the End Times?

By Ray Downs, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, October 27, 2011

Harold Camping has been quiet since his failed doomsday prediction, but with earthquakes in California and Turkey, some might be wondering if the constant reports of earthquakes actually mean something.

There have been 25 earthquakes since midnight of Oct. 27 all around the world, including Puerto Rico, the South Fiji Islands, and a deadly tremor in Turkey.

A large portion of the world's earthquakes occurred in the United States, with five in California, three in Alaska, and one in Hawaii, according to the United States Geological Service (USGS).

Robert Fitzpatrick, 60, a trained engineer who uses his mathematics skills to devise numerical formulas based on biblical passages to figure out when the world is supposed to end in the same style as infamous doomsday predictor, Harold Camping, says earthquakes are a staple to rapture scenarios.

"There will be a great earthquake. There will be a resurrection. People who God has saved from Creation until now who have died will be resurrected to life," Fitzpatrick said in a YouTube video.

He added: "People who are not saved will remain behind and they will experience Judgment Day. There will be a tremendous earthquake and life will no longer be able to continue the way it is now. There won't be any electricity, no water, there will be starvation. It will be terrible."

Although earthquakes in doomsday scenarios are almost a cultural cliché, is the high number of earthquakes out of the ordinary?

Not really, according to the USGS. In fact, the average number of earthquakes that occur each day is around 50, with most between 2.0 and 4.0 on the Richter scale, the geological organization says on its website.

What was out of the ordinary, however, is the number of earthquakes that occurred on Oct. 21. Only 35 quakes occurred that day, well below the daily average. The largest was a 7.4 quake in the Kermadec Island region near Polynesia.

The Kermadec Islands are uninhabited, according to the World Wildlife Fund.