ZetaTalk: Most Terrible Day
Note: written on Jul 15, 1996.
The day of a significant pole shift, such as will occur on this next passage of the 12th Planet, is one no human on Earth will be able to ignore. For most, it will be a
most terrible day.
- Those who have had no forewarning will be no worse off then those who have heard rumors but been unable to make changes in their life to prepare. In fact,
having no forewarning will almost be a blessing for those unable to prepare, as in this way they will not agonize over choices made. Those who have
prepared will be in a state of high anxiety, imagining the worst. Regardless of whether a human realizes what is about to happen but has been unable to take
themselves to safety, or has no realization, the effect is the same. They wait for what is to come next. As we have described, this waiting can take the form of
distractions such as parties or denial such as continuing with the daily routine as though everything were normal, but for most this waiting is a type of breath
holding. They are in shock, from the time they realize that the Earth has stopped rotating until the pole shift, they are essentially in shock, for days.
- For those along coast lines, the hour when the Earth's crust moves along with the core to its new position is not the time of trauma until the Earth's core and
crust stop. It is then that massive tidal waves roll slowly up into the coastal areas, first on one side of a body of water and then, later when the water sloshes
back, on the other side. Both tides are equally as devastating. Being on high ground along a coast line is no safety factor if the water has nowhere to go, as
the press of water behind the wave head will force the water up when meeting a barrier, so one is flooded anyway. Riding the wave results in being dashed
against barriers, and allowing the wave to engulf one is a certain drowning, fortunately a painless death. Thus, those along the coast lines die from tidal
waves, almost invariably, if they are not dead already.
- For those inland beyond the reach of tidal waves, the earthquakes are devastating. All but the flimsiest of housing is wrenched so violently that it collapses,
crushing and trapping those inside. Those inside tents or straw huts will find themselves, along with their housing, jerked sideways, but aside from scrapes
and bruises, relatively unharmed. Lying on the ground during this time is in and of itself a protection, as friction along the ground prevents one from being
hurled. In the cities, structures collapse, creating the scenario seen after major earthquakes in the extreme, everywhere. The injured die from lack of
treatment and the living soon sicken from drinking sewage contaminated water, and with transportation blocked on all sides, starvation soon takes its toll
also.
- Those living on subducting plates that border the oceans will find themselves covered with a depth of ocean water that they cannot resist. They will surely
drown. Those situated where rapid subduction occurs on areas above sea level may themselves on hot earth during the moments following a pole shift when
the crust stops moving and the plates in essence slam into each other like a train whose engine suddenly comes to a stop. Here height helps, as the greater
the distance from where friction between the crusts is creating heat, the better. The heat can be great enough to melt rock, as witnesses who have survived
such terrifying sights attest. Volcanoes, active and inactive, will explode violently, covering the surrounding areas in raining rock and dust and superheating
the air so that all life nearby is extinguished in a wink.
- Lightning and firestorms from falling walls of flaming petrochemicals, formed during the interaction of gasses with volcanic heat and continuous lightning,
cannot be predicted. They can happen world wide, and as with the hurricane force winds are a factor of the atmosphere, not the land mass. Where they are
rare, these firestorms are devastating, and burn all beneath the falling wall of flame in a holocaust. The horrified victims have little chance to even realize what
is happening before they are engulfed and lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. As with spontaneous human combustion, the victim is unconscious during
the burning process. Protection from this rare chance of devastation is best attained by sheltering under a metal roof, which will not burn.
- In rural areas survivors find themselves dealing less with the collapse of civilization than with climate changes. At first, stores are eaten until gone, and then
real concern about the inability to grow crops sets in. Will the Sun never shine through the clouds? More than any other reason, this is what causes pole shift
survivors to wander - they are seeking a land where the sun shines as it used to, sure that they are simply on the wrong side of the Earth for some reason.
Starvation soon has survivors eating everything in sight, chewing on old leather, eating the branches of dead trees, but still the gnawing hunger continues.
Death by starvation is also relatively painless, as a stupor sets in. The mind is dulled and languor envelopes the human, who is essentially asleep when death
comes.
