EARTHQUAKES

And a great earthquake such as had never been since men were on the earth … and the cities of the nations fell.

—Rev. 16:18, 19

1236 Total Quakes Annually

Every year, there are some 500,000 detectable seismic or micro-seismic disturbances around the world. Of these, 100,000 can be felt and 1,000 cause some damage.

1237 Record Of Increasing Quakes

In the 9th century, there was one major earthquake; in the 1lth century, two; in the 13th century, three; in the 16th, two; 17th, two; 18th, five (including the Lisbon); and in the l9th century, nine major earthquakes. So far in the 20th century, there have been over 40 (including the Peking quake).

From the World Almanac comes another set of facts: there were only 6 earthquakes of strength between 1800 to 1896. But in each decade from 1897, until 1947, there were either 2 or 3, and in the decade from 1947 to 1956, there were 7. From 1957 to 1966, there were 17.

Time magazine’s front cover for its Sept. 1, 1975, issue was a split earth with this inscription: “FORECAST: EARTHQUAKE.” Since that date there have been over 30 significant earthquakes—in China, Guatemala, Italy, Indonesia, Soviet Central Asia, Central America, and many other places.

The year 1976 experienced at least 50 significant quakes (intensity 6.5) and 18 major quakes (over 7.0). An estimated 695,000 deaths—the highest in modern history—in 1976 were reported by the US Geological Survey.

1238 Worse Killer Quakes

The earthquake with the greatest loss of life occurred in 1556 in Shensi, Central China, when 830,000 people were killed. The second greatest loss of life occurred recently on July 28, 1976, near Peking, China, when 655,000 people died and at least 780,000 were injured.

The earthquake with the largest recorded intensity since 1930 was the Alaska earthquake of 1964 with a magnitude of 8.9. China’s 1976 killer quake hit 8.2 on the Richter scale. (An 8.9 quake is equivalent to an explosion 100 times greater than the largest nuclear device ever detonated, or nearly 10,000 megatons).

The earthquake which brought the greatest material damage happened on the Kwanto plain of Japan in 1923 with magnitude 8.2. About 150,000 were killed, and the damage estimated at $2,800,000,000.

1239 Seismology

Seismology emerged as a science only in the mid-19th century. Seismographs were invented in 1853 and made available then to record quakes. The term seismology was introduced by Robert Mallet. He proposed a seismic map of the world, and compiled a catalogue of 6,831 major shocks from the year 1606 BC to his time.

1240 The Richter Scale

The Richter scale, named for Charles Richter of the California Institute of Technology, measures the amount of energy released by an earthquake.

The meaning of the scale is often confused by people.

Each step up the scale represents a tremendous increase in destructive power. For example, a quake rated 6.5 on the Richter scale releases 30 times more energy than a tremor rated 5.5. A 6.5 earthquake also has ground waves 10 times as strong as the 5.5 event.

Any earthquake with a Richter value of 6 or more is considered major in magnitude. The one that hit China in 1976 measured 8.2 on the Richter scale.

1241 Modifying Richter

Now a qualification: The Richter scale, used since 1935 to measure the energy released by earthquakes, underestimated the intensity of major tremors, said a Caltech geophysicist. He explained that the scale did not measure the very long shock waves that characterized earthquakes over extensive fault lines. These longer wavelengths were only recently detectable.

The modified Richter scale would more accurately indicate the actual magnitude of major quakes. Thus, the Alaska quake of 1964 would be revised upward to 9.2.

—Associated Press

1242 Quake-Prone U.S. Cities

In the U. S. more than 70 million people live in regions of high to moderate earthquake risk, according to a recent study compiled by a Senate committee. San Francisco and Los Angeles have long been recognized as quake-prone American cities. Experts now add to the list the metropolitan areas of Memphis, Boston, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Anchorage and Charleston, S. C.

1243 Earthquake Zones

Most earthquakes have been confined to 2 main zones. One zone runs from New Zealand up through the Philippines and Japan to Alaska then down the Pacific coast of America. The other zone stretches from Morocco through Greece and Iran along the Indian side of the Himalayas and south to Java.

1244 Alignment Of Planets: 1982

In the Sept. 16, 1974, issue of Newsweek, comes this startling revelation

“As the planets move into alignment in 1982, their gravitational pull may cause huge storms on the sun. These storms could alter wind directions on earth, reducing the speed of the planet’s rotation and triggering serious earthquakes.”

(Subsequently proven unfounded)

1245 Parts Of U.S. Sinking

Parts of the United States are sinking, and the problem is expected to increase as greater supplies of underground water and petroleum are tapped in future decades, a government researcher said.

The US Geological Survey, in a news report, said at least 4,300 square miles of land in California’s San Joaquin valley had subsided more than a foot (. 30 meter) since the 1920’s.

The area around Baytown, Texas, near Houston, has suffered from tidal flooding because the land surface there subsided more than eight feet (2.4 meters) since 1920, a second report said. It could drop another three feet (. 91 meters) by 1980.

—United Press International

1246 India Pushing China Into Pacific

Geologists say that satellite pictures indicate India is pushing China into the Pacific, and that this sideways shoving could account for China’s unusual pattern of earthquakes.

The earth scientists working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say the Indian subcontinent is nudging northward, pressing against Eurasia.

Caught in the squeeze, China is moving eastward at more than an inch a year, they say.

SOME EARTHQUAKE STORIES

1247 New Sickness: Earthquake Jitters

“She’s afraid to go to sleep, and she wakes up every time the bed moves. Her eyes get huge, and she quivers and shakes. Sometimes she walks in her sleep.” This 8-year-old victim of a new ailment that has hit both adults and children in Southern California—earth-quake jitters. The psychological damage is widespread and has affected many.

Afflicted adults show extreme exhaustion, an unusual need for emotional support, and inability to sleep. The common denominator in many of these symptoms is excessive anxiety triggered by the realistic fear of a quake’s havoc.

Causes of anxiety: the unexpectedness of the quake, and the fact that there is no place to hide.

—Time

1248 Ancient Theories Of Earthquake

The Lamas say that the earth is placed on the back of a gigantic frog, and when the frog stretches its limbs or moves its head, it shakes the earth. Other Eastern mythologists place the earth on the back of a tortoise.

Greek and Roman mythologists ascribe earthquakes to the restlessness of the giants which Jupiter buried under high mountains. Thus Virgil ascribes the eruption of Etnato to the giant Enceladus.

—Brewer

1249 Nailing It Down

There is a very primitive tribe inhabiting the Satpura plateau of India, which has a unique custom. After an earthquake, the gentlemen go about driving nails into the ground to make it firm again.

1250 Earthquake In The Deeps

On April 1, 1946, an earthquake shook the abyssal plain deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. The wave it generated traveled the 2250 miles to Hawaii in 4 hours and 34 minutes, an average speed of 490 mph. When it struck the town of Hilo the wave was more than 45 ft. high. It killed 173, injured hundreds more and caused 10 million pounds worth of damage.

1251 Great Lisbon Earthquake

One of the most disastrous earthquakes ever hit the city of Lisbon on Nov. 1, 1755. If seismographs, invented in 1853, had been available then, it would have been accorded a magnitude of 8.75 to 9.

The shock was felt all over Portugal and Spain. Three successive strokes of movements destroyed all houses in the lower part of the city. The sea was forced back and then rolled in at a height of 40 feet above usual sea level. And this enormous ebb and flow continued all day and most of the night!

Similar tidal waves were observed all along the Spanish coast, at Tangier and Funchal, along the coast of Holland, on the south and east coasts of the British Isles, and even across the Atlantic in Antigua, Martinique and Barbados.

Even inland waters were agitated. Lakes in Switzerland and Italy were set in oscillation. Even Loch Ness in Scotland—over 12,000 miles away—was affected.

John Wesley issued a pamphlet entitled “Serious Thoughts Occasioned by the Great Earthquake at Lisbon,” seeing it as a sign of divine displeasure and impending judgment.

1252 Destruction Of Port Royal

Port Royal, once situated on the island of Jamaica, has been called “the richest and wickedest city in the world.”

It was the natural rendezvous for most of the pirates and buccaneers of the day. Liquor, gambling, women, dope—every vice thrived in Port Royal “in greater extravagance than anywhere else in the world.” Perpetual brawls raged in the streets and the blood of murdered men flowed endlessly. Rape and theft were commonplace.

Then on June 7, 1962, two terrific earthquakes struck. With the second, the sea was driven back half a mile. The city was split open in a dozen places and into the crevasses toppled scores of screaming men, women and children. Choking sulfur fumes sifted through openings in the earth. Then as the sea returned, a great wall of water swept into Port Royal, smashing ships, washing buildings from their foundations. Suddenly, and with a sullen roar, the whole city slipped slowly into the sea with most of its population.

To this day one can go down to the site and look down through several fathoms of clear water and see some of the coral-crusted remains of Port Royal—”The wickedest city in the world.”

—Christian Victory

1253 Slow Earthquake

The city of Pozzuoli, Italy, has been riding the crest of a slow earthquake. The phenomenon has raised the city some 28 inches during the last seven months. Pozzuoli is the place where the Apostle Paul first stepped ashore in Italy on his way to Rome. In the Scripture it is called “Puteoli” (Acts 28:13).

More than half of the city’s population of 70,000 panicked and fled in consternation recently. They feared that the city would be thrown down in destruction or swallowed up by the heaving earth. While the thousands fled from the city, other thousands of tourist curiosity-seekers flocked in to see the fissures in the ground from which hot mud and sulfur fumes were issuing. Pozzuoli has from ancient days been called the “gateway to hell.”

—Selected

1254 Whole Depot Swallowed Up

A curious freak of nature occurred near Learned, Kans., Nov. 18th, 1897. The railroad station at Rosel, on the Jetmore branch of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad, was swallowed up by the earth, and on the morning of the 19th there was only a dark and stagnant pool of water where, twelve hours before, there had stood a depot, a grain elevator and several small buildings. This happened during the night, when no one was near. The next day the longest ropes obtainable were lowered into the depths of the pool without touching bottom, and sticks of timber thrown in were sucked down out of sight as by an immense undertow.

—Omaha Christian Advocate

1255 Spy Plane Pinpoints Damages

On February 4 occurred what is now being called the most disastrous earthquake in Latin America’s history. “Destruction was so widespread that efforts to provide aid were hampered by ignorance of just how serious the situation was. Roads were impassable and communications almost non-existent. Special assignment teams from the U. S. military were dispatched, but they could only work on small pieces of the puzzle at one time.”

Finally, Daniel Parker, the U. S. President’s Special Coordinator for International Disaster Assistance, secured per mission to use a U-2 spy plane to photograph the earthquake disaster area. Two flights were made and the entire area photographed. “Exact locations of landslides over railways and highways were established. Damage assessments of more than 150 cities on a block-by-block basis were made. All this was done in a matter of hours instead of weeks or months required for ground inspection. Priorities in dealing with the damage were made realistically.”

1256 Japanese House That Stood

Frank Lloyd Wright was given the impossible task of building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. No comparable construction job ever before had been undertaken. With patience he laid plans for the immense building in the land of earthquakes and terrible tremors. After carefully reviewing the situation, he found that eight feet below the surface of the ground lay a sixty-foot bed of soft mud. Why not float the great structure on this and in some way make it absorb the shock of the earthquake?

After four years of work, amid ridicule and jeers of skeptical onlookers, the most difficult building in the world was completed, and soon arrived the day which tested it completely. The worst earthquake in fifty-two years caused houses and buildings all around to tumble and fall in ruins. But the Imperial Hotel stood, because it was able to adjust itself to the tremors of earth.

—Arthur Smith

1257 Only Heaven Stood Firm

One who was in the great earthquake at Charleston, S. C., says that he had a strange experience of feeling that he had nothing to stand up or to hold on to. He looked at the most solid structures, and they were toppling and falling. He rushed out into an open space, and the firm ground was heaving. He looked to the great forest trees, and they were swaying like reeds in the storm. The hills were reeling. The sea was rocking in a raging tumult. It was only when he looked up and saw the firmament and stars that his eyes rested on something that was steadfast.

—A. H. Mecklin

1258 A World-Shaking God

During an earthquake, a few years ago, the inhabitants of a small village were very much alarmed.

One old woman, whom they all knew, was surprisingly calm and joyous.

At length, one of them said to her, “Mother, are you not afraid?”

“No, I rejoice to know that I have a God who can shake the world.”

—New Century Leader

1259 When Einstein Missed Quake

In 1933 Albert Einstein visited Dr. Geno Gutenberg, the senior seismologist at the California Institute of Technology. Einstein was greatly interested in the science of earthquakes and asked many questions as they strolled around the campus. Suddenly an excited professor broke in on their conversation. They looked around to see people rushing from nearby buildings and the earth quaking under their feet.

Gutenberg later confessed that they had become so involved in talking about the science of earth movements that they failed to notice the famous Los Angeles earthquake taking place around them.

—The Scientist

See also: Heavenly Phenomenon ; Jer. 4:24; Zech. 14:4; Matt. 24:7, 29. Mark 13:8. Luke 21:11. Rev. 6:12; 8:5; 11:13, 19; 16:18, 19, 20.