Think Green Live Clean

Photo Credit: Xinhua, Global Times

While we are usually concerned with the harm we as humans pose to the Earth, let’s take a step back to consider the instances when Earth returns the favor.  After two earthquakes hit California yesterday accompanied by plenty of aftershocks, the Earth really has us wondering what is going on under that surface we so readily walk upon- and forces us to think about what it means for us above ground.

Multiple destructive earthquakes have hit the globe in the last couple months, including Haiti, Chile, Taiwan, and Turkey amongst others.  It has been suggested that because many large earthquakes are often connected, global seismic activity may have already entered an “active era”-though it has not been proven that quakes on one side of a plate are linked with those on the other side.

However, a recent AP report suggests the real problem may not be as much underground as it is above. Society is moving into megacities built on fault lines, where substandard buildings unable to adequately withstand earthquakes are being readily constructed.  For example, the Tapei 101 building weighs 700,000 tons, and has strong implications for future mega structures like Japan’s Sky City 1000.  The Taipei basin was a very stable area with no active surface earthquake faults previously.  But once construction began, the number of earthquakes increased to around two micro-earthquakes per year, and two larger earthquakes (magnitude 3.8 and 3.2) occurred directly beneath the building upon completion.

Large structures are but minor threats compared to others.  Dams and underground waste deposits pose greater threats if they become too large.  Consider the following instances:

-       Koyna Dam earthquake of 1967 where 120+ people died when a magnitude 6.5 earthquake shook the ground around the recently constructed dam in Maharashtra state, India where the huge weight of water changed the stresses in the ground.

-       Magnitude 5 earthquake of May 2001 in the North Sea thought to have been caused by a release in pressure from oil and gas extraction.

-       Magnitude 5.5 earthquake under Denver in Colorado in 1967 set off by mountains of waste that had been injected into the Rocky Mountains.

While the earthquake volume in recent times may not be of any concern or deviation from the natural cycles of Earth, it is important to consider the relationship between modern civilization and natural disasters.  We may have slightly more responsibility than society tends to realize.

To find out more on the issues surrounding earthquakes today, visit The Global Times and The Guardian.