What's Shakin'? Powerful Earthquakes and Their Effect on the Earth

Humans, we get stressed out everyday and most of us try to release that stress through different ways of exercises or just screaming! Well, the Earth is almost the same as us. The Earth gets stressed out too, and when it does, it releases all the stored up energy it has and causes earthquakes.

Some of these earthquakes can be of a small magnitude that barely even causes a ripple in the water, however some earthquakes have the ability to damage millions of homes and shake the ground very violently that hundreds or thousands could die from chain events caused by that quake.

I'd like to take a closer look into those high magnitude earthquakes that shook our planet.

Chile. May 22, 1960. A registered 9.5 magnitude earthquake, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, struck near Valdivia, Chile. The cracks in the earth caused the Nazca plate, which is considered to be at the southern most part of Peru that is a 'plate' of the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle, this large section of the Earth had a downward movement that caused it to move under the South American continent. This overriding of the plates of Earth caused this severe earthquake.

The center of this quake was pointed out to be a hundred miles out into the Pacific Ocean about sixty meters below the ocean's floor. Because the quake began out into the ocean, the reaction of that, was the shores of Chile, Argentina, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, eastern New Zealand, and the Aleutian Islands to be hit by a tsunami that hit the coasts with waves measuring up to 82 feet in height.

The impact of this massive earthquake killed more than two thousand people, injured more than three thousand, and caused over two million people to be homeless. Chile suffered over $550 million in damages, Hawaii $75 million, Japan $50 million, and even the United States western cost got hit with over five hundred thousand dollars in damages.

Earthquakes of this magnitude not only can cause the above, it can also trigger landslides, rock falls, flooding, and even volcanic eruptions. In the case of this event, that very thing occurred. On May 24^th, just two days after the tsunami's and earthquake, the Volcano Puyehue erupted, and continued for several weeks. Cordon Calle volcano also erupted two days after the quake. This volcano however was within 200 km of the center earthquake's origin. The Andes suffered from rock falls that formed a lake on the Rio San Pedro as well.

With every colossal quake, there are aftershocks. Aftershocks are those earthquakes that occur within the same place that the original earthquake took place in, however aftershocks are normally at a smaller magnitude. These earthquakes normally occur as the Earth tries to adjust the plates that shifted themselves. Chile suffered through several dozen aftershocks that ranged from a 5 magnitude to a 7.9 magnitude.

Four years later in Alaska, on March 28^th, 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake struck. The cause was the Pacific plate moving North West. Every year the Pacific plate has compressed causing the land to be lifted up, after so many thousands of years; this compression is calmed by the coasts of Alaska pushing it back in the opposite direction. This is what caused the earthquake. The center of this quake originated at Prince William Sound about 25 km below and was felt by a majority of Alaska and parts of the Yukon and British Columbia, Canada.

Liquefaction occurred from the quake; this is when the sand and silt soils of Anchorage, Alaska turned into almost clay or wet concrete type mixture and cause landslides.

As for this quake, just like the last that hit Alaska, created a tsunami, which were reported to be as high as 70 meters. The change in water height were seen far away in South Africa. This earthquake wasn't just any strong quake. This earthquake moved the Latouche Island eighteen meters to the southeast, uplifted Montague Island nine meters, lowered Portage by three meters, and created a hundred thousand mile area deformation. The Pacific Plate is now nine meters or more under the North American plate.

Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon, and California combines lost over 120 lives and suffered from over 90 million dollars in damages. As for aftershocks, there were about one dozen of them that lasted about three weeks and had magnitudes up to 6.0 in strength.

Off the coast of Indonesia's Island of Sumantra, the Indian Ocean felt a 9.0 earthquake in which the sea floor in the origin area of the quake was lifted up by several meters as the India plate was shoved beneath the Burma plate. This earthquake lasted over ten minutes and was large enough that our planet Earth vibrated about a half an inch. This earthquake was felt as far away as Alaska, Bangladesh, India, and Singapore.

This global earthquake triggered the tsunami that arrived thirty minutes later. Another tsunami from the same quake hit Thailand two hours later and Sri Lanka three hours later.

Eyewitnesses have stated that it was a sight that could have only been described to be from the movies. Many stated that the water on the shore retreated before there was a rise in the water that created waves as high as 20 meters high and traveled 994 miles. Over 300,000 people perished and over a fifty thousand still missing.

This size of earthquake even was brought to NASA's attention. According to NASA, the Earth's rotation was affected as much as decreasing the length of the day by 2.68 microseconds as well as changing the Earth's shape by decreasing it about one part per ten billion. Not to mention the North Pole shifted one inch eastward.

If an earthquake this large, changed our planet, then just think about the possibilities of what could happen or has happened with the previous nine pointer quakes.

In March of 2005, Sumatra, Indonesia was devastated again. Only three months after their first 9.0 quake when the experience another 9.0 earthquake. Originating eighteen miles below the Indian Ocean, this unfamiliar rumble was felt as far away as Bangkok and Thailand at a distance of almost one thousand kilometers. Fortunately this quake caused a small tsunami and caused moderate damage.

And the last earthquake to address, just occurred on August 15^th, 2007 in Peru. The Pacific Ocean was the center and at 8.0 magnitudes, four hundred people were killed and 80 percent of homes were destroyed.

So after all of this information and all of these statistics, what does it mean?

Well, many geologists and scientists are stating that we are in the middle of a deadly cycle that consists of massive earthquakes, tsunamis, polar reversals, and more dangerous occurrences by Mother Nature. The continental earthquakes have gone up by 62 % in the last three years as well as the intensity of them. If one 9.0 earthquake was enough to alter the shape of the Earth, push our North Pole around, and decrease our day, then what could several 9.0 quakes could do? Five earthquakes striking the Indian Ocean at a magnitude of 9.0 could hypothetically move the North Pole 5 inches.

Hypothetically saying, many hundreds of years down the road, or thousands of 9.0 magnitude quakes down the road that polar shift could happen, the North Pole could reach the South Pole.

In conclusion, the Earth's rotation is slowing down, and the plates that make up the grounds we walk on are silently shifting. Islands are getting smaller, continents are moving, and our planet is reforming itself right in front of our very eyes. The planet has its own agenda and we are just innocent bystanders. Our losses of our homes, our businesses and our friends and family due to these changes are a sad way for the Earth to take its course. In the end, some may refer to it as the circle of life.