Natural disasters are geological activities: not signs of end times.

By Seshie Stanley

Japan and Ecuador were in the news this month as many lives and properties were shattered through earthquakes. Indeed, we have witnessed many earthquakes including tsunamis and other natural disasters in our time. Have you ever come across an adult in 21st century telling you earthquakes are signs of end times? What kind of communication technology is that? Where from this belief that earthquake and other natural disasters are signs for the end time?

The earth is fixed, unmovable and unshakable. In addition, our senses say the sun rises and sets. Accordingly, when few among the multitudes such as Eratosthenes through to Galileo and then Copernicus say that the earth moves, it was a strange unsettling idea. So strange and unsettling that the vituperation of John Calvin of the Church against Copernicus captures the cognitive dissonance of the multitudes, "Who is that upstart who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy upside down? The holy scripture says Joshua stopped the sun, not the earth". That was then. Today, to avoid taking obviously wrong and misleading accounts about how the heavens go from the Holy Scripture as facts, there is Vatican Observatory for astronomical purposes in the Vatican manned by priests who double as astronomers hence scientists.

Similarly, our senses again say we are walking on a solid unshakable landmass. Because the earth is perceptibly a solid unshakable landmass, to religion earthquakes and other natural disasters become supernatural messages from the Gods against our supposedly unapproved attitudes called sins. In addition, the New Testament scribes elevated it to prophecy or signs indicative of end times for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Its occurrence oxygenates the Christian the more for evangelism even at the sites where lives and properties are shattered and beyond.

But if indeed the Lord made it rain on the righteous and wicked to show His love for both, then we could as well say He caused earthquakes to show His hatred for both as well. As the rain brought joy and life, the earthquakes brought pains and death. Yet that will be superstition. We want to move away from that interpretation. Of course, it is not easy to outstrip your mind of many years of loaded superstition from infancy to adulthood especially if the group keeps reminding you of eternal torture for willing to know than believing. Nevertheless, you can if you take interest in how science describes the world.

In the same vein of proposing strange unsettling ideas to explaining observed facts, when in 1912 Alfred Wegener says that we are walking on landmass that is moving under our feet as well, it equally attracted vitriolic responses from the public including some scientists. As expected in science, the scientific community puts the idea on hold in the absence of supporting evidences. Later, the idea resurrected to give a clearer picture of the world in which we live after enough evidences were gathered. The theory of plate tectonics was born. Earthquake and volcanic eruption among related natural disasters were no longer imminent eminent supernatural messages.

They were not signs. Neither were they fulfillment of end time prophecies. They just happen due to the natural laws or forces that equally made it rain on both the wicked and righteous. Imperceptible as it is, the earth does not only move round the sun it also moves under our feet with consequences when it quakes. The Gods if they exist neither deserve praise nor blame for the rains, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and anything that happens on Earth. These are geological activities. This is not atheism. It is simply leaving superstitious interpretation of geological activities behind as adults. Let us walk through the little we know about the earth and how these natural disasters come about in it.

THE EARTH

Scientists use models to illuminate the unobservable and unknown. In the model, the earth consists of three layers namely the core, the mantle and the crust. No one had been to the core of the earth before, but volcanoes and earthquakes provide means to learn about the inside. In particular, a study of volcanic eruption that brings forth lavas or molten magma at very high temperature to the surface that cools and solidifies indicates that the Core as probably rich in iron and nickel related materials. The Core must be at extremely high temperature if not the iron and nickel related materials could not exist in the liquid form as molten magma flowing around.

These two elements will also further explain the magnetic property of the earth, as we all know via the use of compass as amateurs or professionals. The Mantle is a rocky material made mostly of minerals that contain oxygen, silicon related materials and others. It surrounds the core. The Crust is the outer skin made of lowest density rocks such as basalt and granite. This is where all living organisms including humans live by chance and die by chance. With all the construction, mining and drilling machines of modern man, the deepest drill has barely gone beyond 2% of the crust of the Earth.

The Earth is a beautiful planet, looking blue from space and mostly green on the ground due to the rich vegetation. Beyond this beauty, it is a geologically active place. The geological activities such as Volcanism, Tectonics, Erosion and Impact Cratering define the varying surfaces of the planet, forming and leveling mountains, creating water bodies, and canyons among others. They have been going on for millions of years before living organisms came onto the scene and they are still and will continue going on. They make the earth beautiful. They also made it the dangerous place for all existing lives. In sum, the rain and earthquakes are the beauty and danger in the interactive geological activities. Let us explore only two, volcanism and tectonics.

VOLCANISMS

Volcanism is the eruption of molten rock or lava from the interior of the planet onto the surface. This geological activity has created plains and shields all looking like mountains. Examples include Mount Fuji in Japan, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mount Shasta in California among others. These mountains are but sleeping volcanic hotspots waiting to explode someday.

However, geologically volcanism ensures the release of gases trapped in the interior of the earth in the process called outgassing. Since the gasses constituting our atmosphere were not pumped into the earth like how we pump air into balloon or tyres, outgassing was probably the source of the gases making up our atmosphere including the air for the higher animals. In other words, our breath of life, the oxygen was a product of outgassing due to volcanism among other biological activities such as photosynthesis millions of years ago.

To be continued.................

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