Children know what happens when they throw a rock into a puddle; the water goes everywhere and much of the life in the puddle (e.g., tadpoles) is destroyed. Were that rock also cooking hot from a fire, the water would also boil and bubble, which would result in more suffering and death. In the vision John saw, the rock was indescribably big—“like a great mountain”—and hot. But the point is not the rock; the point is the effect the rock has on the puddle—or in this case the effect this huge rock has on the sea. We may think of a tsunami or a hurricane. Over the centuries so many ships and communities have perished in the face of a hurricane or tsunami, with immeasurable loss of human life.
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.