Is 2012 a significant year? Many of us have seen the movie, but is there any credibility to any of these catastrophic events? Some say that the end of days will happen on December 21, 2012. It seems like the only thing we can do is assume this theory is not true rather than let it cause us anxiety. I was doing some research online in an attempt to learn more about these popular conspiracy theories and find out whether or not there is reason to worry that the world as we know it will come to a halt in the year 2012.
Conspiracy theorists claim that one or more of the following events could take place in 2012: “Planet X” will pass earth by a mere few miles leaving behind mass destruction, an asteroid will hit the earth, the earth’s core will stop rotating, and so on. We know for a fact that the famous Mayan calendar ends on 12-21-12. Some say this because they believed the world would end on this day, though plenty people of the modern Mayan culture don’t necessarily support this idea. Some say it might just be the sign of a major change such as a religious transformation or a one-world government.
The concept of the entire world coming to an end is a difficult one to grasp, not to mention the fact that thinking about it all the time could be enough to drive someone insane! The fact that the Mayan calendar has proven to have reliable predictions over many years is interesting, but it also makes it unnerving that their calendar stops on this very date. One thing we do know is that the Mayan calendar that was created over 2300 years ago was extremely advanced. The calendar predicted every lunar and solar eclipse that has occurred to this date and provided explanations on how and why they occur. The ancient Mayans made the astounding prediction that in 1996 we would have the technological advances to be able to see people and communicate with them from half way around the world. I’m sure you would agree that this sounds very much like webcams.
The Mayan calendar has proven itself to be a reliable tool for many years. Let’s just hope that there will be a transformation of some sort rather than a huge natural disaster in two years. The reason that the calendar ends on this date remains unexplained so there is a chance that it could be cyclical. Perhaps the whole series of events simply starts over again on 12/22/12. There could be a huge variety of explanations as to why the calendar ends when it does so this alone is not necessarily proof of the end or beginning of anything significant.
The asteroid named 433 Eros is the second largest and the closest asteroid to earth and it is expected to pass us on January 31, 2012. This has people concerned simply because it is an event that is beyond our control and some fear that this could be the big bang everyone’s talking about. The fact is that it’s expected to pass the earth by 16.6 million miles, which is 70 times farther away than the moon. This asteroid is mentioned on most of the Internet websites pertaining to the year 2012. Why is this scary when it seems so far away? It shouldn’t be. This is just a way to get you riled up about the end of days. The truth is that the asteroid will be too far from earth for you to worry about a “near miss” and too far to cause any damage to our planet!
There is also the idea that the earth’s core could stop rotating. Geophysicist J. Marvin Herndon claims that the 5-mile wide rotating ball, or nucleus in the center of the earth, acts as a nuclear reactor and one day it could run out of radioactive material causing it to die out and this would lead to the collapse of the earth’s protective magnetic field. Your average compass will cease to work and birds won’t know where to fly and we would be more susceptible to the sun’s harmful rays. Some websites advertise that this could happen in 2012, though I haven’t found scientific explanations supporting this claim. I am not a scientist so I had to do some research on what could happen should this reverse take effect. There is literature that claims nothing disastrous would happen but I’ve also read articles stating that this magnetic reversal could be apocalyptical, bringing about massive earthquakes and tidal waves that will destroy civilization completely. I’ll have to do a little more research before I fully understand the ramifications this event could cause.
Are there valid scientific predictions for 2012 that we should be concerned about? You might find it interested to know that the Yellowstone super volcano has a history of erupting every 600,000 years and we are forty years over due. If the super volcano erupts it could have catastrophic effects on our continent. The show called Supervolcano that aired on the Discovery Channel explained the consequences we would experience should Yellowstone erupt. The entire United States would be covered with 1 cm of ash. The eruption would destroy everything within 1,000 kilometers and what seems to be a small layer of volcanic ash would be enough to destroy much of our plant life. There are articles out there claiming that the ash that flies out of this super volcano could be enough to create a blanket across the sky, blocking the sun and cause temperatures to decrease by 21 degrees.
The ground at Yellowstone is 74 cm higher than it was in 1923 leading scientists to believe that the pressure underneath is building. This is where this idea is drawing some attention and this is more concerning to me than an asteroid passing the earth by a huge distance. Yellowstone seems like a viable concern, but what does it have to do with the year 2012? I’m assuming that people are attributing this ticking time bomb to the possible cause for a major catastrophe in 2012 simply because it’s eruption is long overdue and many predictions state that the world will end that year. I wasn’t able to find any reliable data stating that there will definitely be an eruption of Yellowstone in the year 2012 but I’ll be crossing my fingers.
By: Francis David