So many earthquakes - natural disasters

[IntotheNittyGritty]

The earth is really unstable at the moment and its devastating to see how much our world gets disrupted.

We have recently had the New Zealand quakes which were horrendous and today two quakes in China and Japan.

Recently we also had the severe flooding in Australia

Over the last year there have also been a number of volcanos that have erupted.

The whole globe is being shaken up and its pretty scary.

When its so close to home it has a greater impact on your emotions as well.

Dh & I were discussing it this am.

Worrying. I have lots of family and friends in japan. :(

Everyone's been waiting for a big quake there for years.

Im in NZ and there has been lots of warnings that the big one will hit Wellington.. But it hit Christchurch - that wasnt expected to ever be affected by a quake.

Its been so frightening to experience what has happened recently, and now to see quakes on a bigger scale is beyond all reasoning.

Normally disasters are random, but there are too many at the moment and I am really scared. Unless you have experienced something like this its hard to imagine how you will be affected. We all live in a "it doesnt affect me" mode so we dont really care.

We've even had 2 (very minor, I know but 2 all the same) in this country.

I've always been a bit "oh that's sad, but I'm ok because it won't happen here" kind of attitude, but as Is aid, there's been 2 small ones here, and lots more happening frequently across the world.

Normally disasters are random, but there are too many at the moment

it is in the nature of random events that there will be clustering which looks significant (because we're good at detecting patterns) but probably isn't.

We also have such instant news reporting that we are more aware of these tragedies in other parts of the world.

this was posted on you tube March 8...

If you look at the numbers of earthquakes over decades they will even out as an average. The Earth is not becoming more geologically active. If anything, and taken over millenia, Earth is becoming less active as plate tectonics slow due to cooling of the core and mantle.

That youtube clib is the biggest load of bull btw.

I don't know much at all about geology but I think it might be reasonable to presume that if you get earthqukes in one part of a region it could be putting stress on other parts of that region leading to potentially more earthquakes? and that it could take a long time for that whole region to settle down.

I also think that the world seems much closer to home with the internet and 24hour news coverage.

I think the inhabitants of Christchurch were lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that they were "not as bad as Wellington". looking at a seismicity map it's clear that whilst Wellington is massively active, every other part of New Zealand is amongst the most earthquake prone regions in the world, right up there with California.

Was listening to an expert on bbc news this morning and he said the sendai earthquake was 8000 times stronger than the Christchurch quake last month,he also said it was highly unlikely that they were related.

Google 'pacific ring of fire',it shows a large chunk of countries are at risk in the area.

but you put it more eloquently bran!

Interestring about what the espert said thingumy.

Just been watching the footage on BBC. Just dreadful. No-one stood a chance in front of the tsunami. So shocking.

the nuclear angle is also worrying....that could affect us all!

I am just watching the news and have never seen anything like it can't quite take it in the scale of the devastation.The world does seem to be in turmoil

Where is Dr Brian Cox when you need him? (or does he just do solar?

Watch out for the Supermoon next week!!

I am just south of Tokyo - all OK here, hope the other MNers in Japan are safe....

glad you are ok Tanterose :)

me too

are you getting aftershocks Tante?

we had a few warning sirens for aftershocks throughout the night (its 8am now here) and the tsunami warning is still in place. We are on the coast, about 5 minutes from the sea. The rivers in our town are very swollen, but no major damage.

we had no electricity until this morning, so only just seeing the extent of the devastation on tv they are reporting over 1000 dead/missing now...

keep safe Tante!for you all

Tante, glad you're ok too.

I experienced the cluster earthquakes in Manchester some years ago and I was terrified. I worked in a tall buiding, very scary. It's nothing compared to what Japan and NZ have just been through. My heart goes out to all those affected.

I have to add I am so impressed at some of the buildings that the Japanese have designed to withstand these quakes. It was featured on the news last night. This research and engineering has definitely helped save lives.

I hope your family are all safe and sound plasticspoon

IntotheNittyGritty - These disasters are not natural in the conventional sense, but rather have been caused (so the theory goes) by the following;

The disappearance of sunspots and solar flares. It has been theorised that solar flares can cause earthquakes as well as other severe disruptions on a global scale.

This article does an excellent job in explaining the role the Sun plays in climate control.

I hope this helps somewhat in explaining the increasing frequency of these disasters.

The surprising thing isn't that this stuff happens.

The suprising thing is that so many of us have managed to create a bubble around ourselves where we think we are somehow exempt from the natural world.

The Universe is a chaotic place, and in all this human beings think they can be 'safe'. Nothing is happening that hasn't happened before and won't happen again.