Why Predictions of Earthquakes and Tsunamis Seem To Come True (Is This The End?)

Because there is always a 100 percent chance of earthquake everyday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), you can say that there will be an earthquake tomorrow and it could happen. If you have read my comment in the previous post in this site,  that I dreamed of torrents of water drowning my relatives, would you say that I "saw" the tsunami in Japan before it really happened? Not really. The truth is, we can expect an earthquake to happen any day like we can expect a red car to pass the street any time. Japan knows this. Though Japan is now facing enormous devastation brought by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, it could have fared worse if not for the country's disaster preparedness which has saved the lives of thousands of its people.

More than a thousand earthquakes are expected everyday. The USGS explained in their website: 

"It may be so light that only sensitive instruments will perceive its motion; it may shake houses, rattle windows, and displace small objects; or it may be sufficiently strong to cause property damage, death, and injury. It is estimated that about 700 shocks each year have this capability when centered in a populated area. But fortunately, most of these potentially destructive earthquakes center in unpopulated areas far from civilization. Since a major portion of the world's earthquakes each year center around the rim of the Pacific Ocean (Ring of Fire), referred to by seismologists as the circum-Pacific belt, this is the most probable location for today's earthquake. But it could hit any location, because no region is entirely free of earthquakes."

It's not surprising that the occurrence of three very destructive earthquakes in the past two weeks can make so many people wonder if we're experiencing what they call "the end of times" or movie scenes coming true (if you watched "2012"). My mother, for instance, was asking why we are having all these disasters plus the Middle East conflict. (Right, she have been watching the news closely these days.)

Because I grew up in the North where super-typhoons are just ordinary events, I am more afraid of earthquakes because nobody really knows when and where it's going to happen and whose lives it will take. While I can cope with storms, I find earthquakes and the resulting tsunamis so much more unsettling. Obviously, the furious shaking of the ground and the movement of the ocean or sea in one definite direction are monstrous sights to behold.

Are there more destructive earthquakes today than in the past? Dr. Daniel McNamara, a USGS seismologist, told the "Huffington Post" that:

"The 1960s were more active than now," he said. "One of the issues is that we have much better technology than decades past, so we can report on earthquakes more than ever before."

The frequency of strong earthquakes has not changed. Because we have all the means to communicate and receive news from all over the world, we are more aware of what is happening around us. On March 11, how many millions of people were glued to their TV and computers to wait for updates? In the past, there were earthquakes around the world that we didn't even know. Now, we are also able to record more tremors because we have more seismograph stations in different locations.

For a day, it was scary to consider having sort of "predicted" the onslaught of water engulfing Sendai and then I thought it was just one bad dream that I remember too well because it was very frightening. I may have been afraid of something else when I slept but my brain fancied staging a tsunami-like catastrophe so I had a dream of a huge water pipe bursting with torrents of water. Earthquakes happen everyday and tsunamis are always possible. What a coincidence. It's just too bad that I had a double dose of fear all in one day.

People all over the world respond the same way to any earthquake of this magnitude.  If you look at videos of disaster victims, you can see in their eyes mixed feelings of awe, fear and perhaps acceptance that any moment their world could change and will never be the same again.

In short, there's really not much we can do except to pray (if you believe in prayers), extend our assistance and prepare to face nature's wrath. 

One question haunts me. Philippines, like Japan, lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Is this country prepared for big earthquakes?

Our prayers and thoughts are with the people of Japan, China and New Zealand.