The latest ZT Newsletter is circulating that the west coast of Luzon, the main island in the Phillipines and home of the city of Manila, are flooding because of a 40-foot drop in elevation. I searched the internet and didn't find anything on an elevation drop, so I asked someone who lives there. It was news to that person, who said that Manila is several feet below sea level and they are having heavy rains. See http://ketsanaondoywatch.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/elevation-is-no-guarantee-for-protection-in-metro-manila/. Here is an article about Luzon and how the heavy rains are causing dam personnel to release water so the dam doesn't overflow: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/249103/central-northern-luzon-brace-ahead-of-new-storm.
The latest ZT refers to this article: http://www.zetatalk.com/info/tinfx341.htm, to give you some background.
Since the current ZT states that the 40' loss of elevation had already occurred prior to the October 6, 2011 MODIS image that was "glanced at," I went direct to MODIS to review the next images back from October 6, 2011 (which were August 18, 2011), and spent hours following the coastline looking for signs of elevation loss. I didn't find any, but what I did find were signs of heavy rain run-off, as well as docks in Manila which were not submerged...
For images leading up to this close-up view, see Manila-loss-40%27-elevation-docks-manila-not-submerged-08182011.doc.
Manila had been experiencing heavy rains then (2011) because it was the middle of monsoon season plus a typhoon had passed through mere days before the above image was shot. Here are some news links and facts about the weather:
http://www.goodfilipino.com/2011/08/august-2-2011-suspension-of-classes-in.html
Manila was swamped by it: http://english.sina.com/world/p/2011/0802/385097.html
And before the August typhoon, it had experienced more rain. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_in_the_Philippines#August, so there was an overload of rain...
May 8–9 - Typhoon *"Bebeng" entered the Philippine area of Responsibility, and hits Bicol region where 20 people reported dead while 2 still missing.
June 20–27 - Tropical storm Falcon dumps heavy rain in Luzon led to a series of floods leaving 2 people dead and 5 missing.
July 26 & 27 - Tropical Storm Juaning hits the Philippines where 31 died while 27 still missing.
July 31 - Tropical depression Lando sighted in the West Philippine Sea, and it joined with Kabayan, which they are the cause of rain in some parts of Metro Manila.
August 2 – Typhoon Muifa swamps Manila
August 8 – youtube of rain pouring... *** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3mWfp5MbPk
And, remember, August 11, 2011 was five months after the Japan earthquake.
***“After being hit by 48 hours of consecutive rain and flash flooding across the majority of Metro Manila, on the third evening the rain began to increase, not only in the intensity of the rain storms, but also the length of the rain storms. This video was taken 5 minutes into the storm and 15 minutes later the intensity is the same.”
Currently, August 2012, shows similar conditions existing.
So, that which is being claimed to be a loss of elevation appears to be submerged coastlines caused by run-off from heavy rains, similar to the study done done in 2011 regarding Kronja, near Jakarta, Indonesia. See here: https://earthchanges.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tectonic-plates-collapsing. And how does the runoff get to the coasts? By the 37 rivers in Luzon, three of which are in and around Manila. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_in_the_Philippines.
I didn't follow all the coastlines, but since Manila was considered as having the same 40' foot elevation loss--no distinction was made, the entire western side of Luzon had the exact same 40' elevation loss (which is odd all by itself), I think the docks not being submerged in Manila speak for the rest of the coastlines.
I looked around for how high the platform a commercial dock is from the waterline and that information is one of the few things on which Google fell short. I did, finally, find this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Heavy_Industries. "The largest of the three docks, Dock No. 3, is 640 meters long, 97.5 meters wide, and 13 meters deep (42ft 713⁄16in]. Mostly ultra-large ships are built at this dock...." Remember, this is a supertanker size dock.
I'm not sure how far above the waterline the main dock or pier is, but from the pictures it didn't seem like it was all that much (link below). It seems that a 40' drop in elevation would submerge most docks. Thus, the August 18, 2011 image shows five docks that are not submerged, which lends weight to the conclusion that a 40' elevation loss has not occurred. In fact, less than a 20' loss would likely submerge most docks.
Then I got to thinking whether the 42'8" was the thickness of just the platform, which might be up on pilings like smaller docks are. So I went to Google Earth and zoomed in on one ship at a dock in Manila and the elevation was around 19 feet above sea level, depending on where the cursor was. The range was 13 to 22 feet when I rolled the cursor all around the ship, higher on the dock side, less on the far side of the ship.
Here's the above image zoomed out a bit. It says the elevation is 20'...
The image in this next link about Manila's South Harbor shows the pier is not much above the water line...
http://mcgutib.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/featured-ports-pmo-south-harbor/. And this next link indicates South Harbor has a 13m (42ft 713⁄16in) depth alongside the piers: http://webapps.dpworld.com/portal/page/portal/DP_WORLD_WEBSITE/Marine-Terminals/Locations/Asia-Pacific-and-Indian-Subcontinent/Asia-Pacific-Overview/Philippines-Manila. The images above, I think, are of South Harbor.
Conclusion. If the coastline had sunk 40' then this pier, at an elevation of around 20' above sea level, should be under 20'+ of water.
And to really beat this dead horse, here is an image of a large river that flows behind the port for miles over to the Laguna de Bay. Notice the color of the river and the color of the water as it enters the bay. It's obviously runoff submerging low-lying land...
And here's the other end, where the river empties into the Manila Bay, the greenish water to the left of the piers...
Comments
I mean man's abuse of the earth.
I agree sizzle. Mother nature is not happy with man's crap.
Flooding is bad around the Phillipine Islands. According to MODIS, two typhoons are out there:
"On August 23, 2012 two typhoons spun in the Philippine Sea,
each carrying a wide path of heavy rainfall, strong winds and rough seas...."
http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/