In the past 40 days, the French Alps have been rocked by 140 quakes which has led officials to warn locals that a more powerful tremor may be on the way.

Earthquake observation organisation Sismalp says that the strongest tremor was a 3.8 magnitude quake, but such a large swarm can be a precursor for a massive earthquake.

Martine a resident of the village of Montgellafray told Europe1 radio: ”The noise is like a storm coming from far way. Everything shakes. I said 'that's it, all the tiles are going to break.

"The last earthquake was really frightening. Since the end of August it has never stopped.

“Every two days there is one and they are getting more common.”

Another local, Yves, said: "Everyone is asking questions. Everyone in the village is talking about it.”

As residents prepare for a potential massive earthquake, conspiracy theorists coincidentally are warning that the mysterious Planet X could cause devastating quakes across the globe on November 19.

A stellar body known as a Brown Dwarf – which has become known alternately as Nibiru, Planet X, Nemesis and Black Star is claimed to be pulling at the Earth’s tectonic plates triggering the current glut of earthquake and volcano activity around the world.

Website Planetxnews.com has been charting the movements of the so-called Black Star, which is believed to have massive gravitational influence pulling and squeezing the Earth.

Writer Terral Croft said seismic activity is ripping apart the Earth’s crust which will culminate on November 19.

He added: “Global seismic activity reaches a peak in the second two weeks of November moving into December 2017.

“The predicted backside alignment quake event is scheduled for November 19, 2017, when the Earth passes behind the Sun relative to the Black Star.”

He predicted massive tremors along a fault originating in Indonesia and terminating near Gibraltar would strike Europe – especially Italy and France.

A big French tremor would also be felt in the UK.

He said: “This scenario can easily lead to new earthquake and volcanic activity for Italy and France.”

Last week the 6,591ft tall Bardarbunga volcano was shaken by four of the largest earthquakes since its last eruption was sparked in August 2014.

A lava field and huge volumes of sulphur dioxide erupted from the volcano, plummeting air quality in Iceland and reaching as the UK and Ireland, according to the nation’s Met Office.

The eruption period was not officially declared over until six months later in February 2015.

Now experts fear that several earthquakes, measuring magnitude 3.9, 3.2, 4.7 and 4.7 on the Richter scale, which struck the caldera region last week may be signs of an imminent eruption from the 10,000-year-old Bardarbunga volcano.

The 2014-2015 eruption had been preceded by a swarm of around 1,600 earthquakes over 48 hours.

Páll Einarsson, a volcanology expert at the University of Iceland, revealed the latest quakes were part of a series that have been “in progress for two years” as he warned Bardarbunga is “clearly preparing for its next eruption” within the next few years.

According to the Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes – a joint project run by Iceland’s Met Office, the University of Iceland and Civil Protection Department of the National Commissioner of the Iceland Police – Bardarbunga’s activity level is high although the warning code is green – meaning the volcano is in a normal, non-eruptive state.

The Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes revealed that if the subglacial stratovolcano Bardarbunga was to erupt again it would likely trigger flooding in the region after hot ash and lava melted up through the ice cap of the Vatnajokull glacier.

It said: “A large fissure eruption on the southwest (SW) part of the fissure swarm may extend across Tungnaa river, obstruct water flow and cause temporary dams and unstable lakes. Floods through breached dams could be of the order 10,000 m3/sec.

“Warning period for an eruption on the SW part of the fissure swarm is unknown, but likely to be similar to that in the northern part of fissure swarm.

“Eruptions on the ice-free fissure swarm outside the Veioivotn area will be predominantly effusive and could release 1 - 4 km3 of lava and significant amounts of tephra. Lava can extend tens of km from source, eg the 35 km long Frambruni lava flow in 13th century CE.

“Depending on the location of the erupting fissure, lava flows can reach power stations on the Tungnaa river. A considerable amount of magmatic gases will be released from the erupting fissure and the cooling lava.”

Disaster expert Dr Simon Day, of University College London, said the earthquakes could “precede a large explosive eruption and consequent widespread ash fall”.

But he told Daily Star Online that “it is statistically unlikely to do so”.

Mr Einarsson said magma has been building beneath the volcano since 2015.

The geophysicist said: “The reason for the earthquakes in this place is that the volcano Bárðarbunga is inflating, i.e. the pressure of magma in the magma chamber is increasing. It has been doing this since the last eruption ended, in February 2015.

“The volcano is clearly preparing for its next eruption, that may happen in the next few years.

“The earthquakes last week are just the symptoms of this process, they do not cause the volcano to erupt.

“It is impossible to predict what the next eruption will be like, but statistics says it is most likely to be rather harmless.

“Very few people have died in Icelandic eruptions in the last centuries.

After the US sent a nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bomber from Missouri on a long-range mission to the Pacific at the weekend, Russia has followed suit by sending its own high-tech jets to the region.

The Russian Defence Ministry announced US and Japanese jets had escorted two of its missile-carrying Tupolev-95MS strategic bombers as they conducted flights over the Sea of Japan and the Pacific.

In a statement, Moscow’s defence ministry said: "Two strategic bombers Tupolev-95MS of Russia’s Aerospace Force have carried out routine flights over international waters of the Sea of Japan and the western part of the Pacific Ocean.

“At certain sections of the route the Tupolev-95MS crews were accompanied by a pair of F-18 fighters (of the US Air Force), and a pair of F-15, F-4 and F-2A fighters (of the Japanese Air Force).”

The Tu-95MS is an improved version of the older Tu-95, a Soviet-era four-engine, long-range, turboprop, strategic bomber that can be armed with a wide range of weapons including stand-off nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

Russia’s own Sukhoi-35S multirole fighters escorted the bombers during the mission, the Defence Ministry confirmed.

The Defence Ministry said: "Long-range aviation crews make regular flights over international waters of the Arctic, the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Pacific Ocean. All flights are in strict accordance with international rules of using airspace, without any violations of the borders of other countries.”

It comes after North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear testing facility suffered a devastating collapseearlier today, leaving around 200 people dead.

It is believed 100 people were killed when an unfinished tunnel collapsed at Kim Jong-un's main nuclear testing site.

And another 100 people subsequently died while attempting to rescue the first group of entombed workers.

Experts had warned a collapse was likely, highlighting the danger of a cloud of radioactive fallout escaping from the site and spreading across "an entire hemisphere".

The disaster was revealed by Japan’s TV Asahi today, although they could not clarify when the accident and subsequent doomed rescue attempts took place.

Asahi said North Korean sources told them the collapse occurred as workers were working on the new tunnel. A second collapse took place as workers tried to rescue their colleagues.

Punggye-ri was the site of North Korea’s sixth-ever nuclear test on September 3. Kim's regime tested a huge 100-kiloton explosive which was around seven times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War.