As mentioned in the previous post, the frequency and intensity of severe earthquakes around the globe was already getting too much to handle in the past 2-3 years. And now one of the most devastating in history just struck -- in Japan.
To recap just some of the earthquakes, not necessarily in chronological order:
1) The massive 8.8 magnitude quake in Sichuan province
2) The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that essentially destroyed the nation of Haiti
3) A 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook the ocean floor between South America and Antarctica
4) The earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey
5) 2 earthquakes hitting Christchurch, New Zealand in quick succession
6) A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Guatemala's Pacific coast near the border with El Salvador
7) Five magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes in the area of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean so far in 2010.
8) The earthquake that hit Chile recently
9) The most recent Japan tsunami disaster
There are likely many more that I have forgotten. I'm no expert in geophysics, but this strikes me as rather scary, both in terms of the unusually high frequency of earthquakes, and the amount of devastation involved.
Friends were saying to me, well the world is going to end very soon. Maybe they were joking, maybe they were not, but it got me thinking and I'll soon be kickstarting a new blog to offer an explanation on what the "end of the world" means, and how all these recent earthquakes are a telltale sign to that end. The recent Japan quake was the last straw in convincing me of this reality.
It'll take some time to get that blog up and running, but let's just say off the record that I'm not one of those crazy guys who claims the world's gonna end in 2012, or pick whatever date you want. I can offer a well-reasoned argument that the "end of the world" cannot be predicted with any specific dates, but it is certainly very near.
At any rate, whether the world ends tomorrow, next year, or 30 years from now, or whenever, I'm going to continue living the same kind of life and continuing the same active program, whether the earthquakes happen or not. So with that in mind, back to regularly scheduled Shanghai programming.
Hi Steve, just for your information, earthquakes are not getting more frequent: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4774229/PMs-science-adviser-rubbishes-Christchurch-quake-claim
ReplyDeleteI would hazard a guess that the reason people are getting more rattled (no pun intended) about earthquakes is simply because of the nature of our modern information mediums. In no time in history have we been able to get so close to the action than we can today with Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc etc, in such a media-rich way. In the past, there may have been a few pictures on the front cover of a newspaper (which is the premium of premium of media real-estate), and some 'rare' footage of the disaster happening on TV (which was also expensive to get because you had to hire a helicopter/pay a camera man etc). But now, with citizens posting, sharing, recording etc, there is infinitesimally more access to a mass of images, videos, stories, from these disasters. The disasters, which have always been happening, and will continue to happen, hit home much more than they used to.
Add to that the increasingly sensationalist rating-grabbing tactics of the news media (http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/03/22/charlie-brooker-comments-on-sensationalist-media-coverage-of-japan-quakenuclear-accident/), and you've got a lovely cocktail to get anyone feeling assured of their own immunity from the environment shaking in their boots.
Like you say, there is no way to predict if or when the world will end, but based on the frequency of natural calamity alone, I'm confident that there's nothing to be alarmed about. If you ask me, us humans are just another species of animal trying to cope with the reality of our volatile environment.