" And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove towards the north, and half of it toward the south. " Zechariah 14:4.

From 1959 to 1965 the International Council of Scientific Unions conducted a sea-floor mapping expedition of the Indian Ocean. Research vessels from Britain, United States and Russia participated as well as geophysicists, biologists and oceanographers from many other countries.

Several remarkable discoveries were made. A hitherto unknown undersea mountain range was found to extend 3000 miles running almost due north and south along the 90 degree east meridian of longitude from the Bay of Bengal to Australia. Some of the peaks range 13,000 feet in height.

It was also discovered the islands of Mauritius and Reunion both volcanic outcroppings, the tips of great towers of basalt thrown out over the ages through cracks or fissures in the ocean floor.

The single most significant feature charted by the expedition was the extent of the incredible split which extends north and south across the entire Indian Ocean basin up to 1500 miles wide with towering peaks 10,000 feet or more in height, still covered by 3000 to 6000 feet of water.

For the first time, the survey mapped this section of the world-girdling fracture that rambles 40,000 miles around the globe. The mid-Atlantic fault was known to have a rift valley running along its crestline. The expedition discovered the mid-Indian ridge had this same feature.

This oceanic rift follows with remarkable exactness, a path that geologists earlier marked out by plotting the epicenters of ocean-bottom earthquakes around the world.

All along this crack, earth-shaking forces are at work, new molten rock is constantly welling up through the rift.

One branch of this open wound in the earth's skin, the Great Rift Valley , slices Eastern Africa, forms the Red Sea and reaches across the Holy Land .

This tremor-wracked rift, reaching as it does into Palestine , could easily be the physical cause of the expected cleavage of the Mount of Olives which will coincide with Jesus Christ's return to this planet.

Matthew tells us of "earthquakes in divers places". One tremendous upheaval in the depths of the Indian Ocean, reverberating along the great fault could cause the famous Palestinian Mountain to split asunder.

Watch for it - for these days in which we live, are indeed the "last days".