Earthquakes Essay -- Natural Science

Earthquakes Throughout history, man has made many advancements. These advancements have been made to make life easier. The one thing man can't do is to control Mother Nature. Mother Nature can cause many things such as earthquakes. The causes of earthquakes have been theorized in many ways. According to the book Predicting Earthquakes by Gregory Vogt, the Greeks, "blamed the earthquakes on Poseidon, god of the sea"(25). The Hindu believed that "the earth was a platform that rested on the back of eight great elephants. When one of the elephants grew weary, it lowered and shook its head causing the ground above to tremble"(Vogt 25). Margaret Poynter writes "many primitive people thought that the earth rested upon the back of some sort of animal. When that animal became restless, great cracks appeared in the ground, and tall trees swayed and fell. In South America, the animal was a whale. In Japan, it was a great black spider or giant catfish. One ancient tribe thought that four bulls supported the earth on their horns. To amuse themselves, they sometimes tossed it from one to another"(6). In the same book, Poynter says "The Chinese believed that monsters lived in the caves inside the earth. When the creatures fought, the surface of the earth trembled (6)." "In Greece, it was not an animal, but a titan named Atlas who was condemned to support the world upon his shoulders. Later, about the third century B.C., a Greek philosopher, Aristotle, had a more scientific explanation. He thought that earthquakes occurred only when hot air masses tried to escape from the center of the earth. Two centuries later, Lucretius, a Roman, wrote that underground landslides caused the earth's surface to move"(Poynter 7).2 Today, scientists have found a more logical reason to earthquakes. Scientists say almost 600 million years ago, all the continents were connected to form a huge super continent called Pangaea. At about 220 million years ago, Pangaea began to break up into sub-blocks. According to the book Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and the Formation of Continents, these sub-blocks were called "Gondwana (which corresponds approximately to the continents of the present southern hemisphere) and Laurasia (the northern hemisphere)" (Kohler 15). According to Pierre Kohler, "The earth's surface is divided into 13 plates: seven large ones (the largest corresponding to the Pa... ...te long-term predictions of where earthquakes will occur. They know, for example, that about 80 percent of the world's major earthquakes happen along a belt encircling the Pacific Ocean. This belt is sometimes called the Ring of Fire because it has many volcanoes, earthquakes, and other geologic activity" (Earthquakes; Karen C. McNally 38). WORKS CITED Aylesworth, Thomas G. Geological Disasters "Franklin Watts" 1979: 14-15. The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia "Grolier Electronic Publishing Inc." 1993: No Johnson, Thomas P. When Nature Runs Wild "Creative Education Press" 1986: 12-14. Kohler, Pierre Volcanoes Earthquakes and the Formation of Continents "Barron's Educational Series, Inc." 1987: 14-22. Marcus, Rebecca B. The First Book of Volcanoes & Earthquakes "Franklin Watts, Inc." 1972: 62-64. Poynter, Margaret Earthquakes "Enslow Publishers, Inc." 1990: 6-7. Putnam, William C. Geology "Oxford University Press" 1964: 439-450. Vogt, Gregory Predicting Earthquakes "Franklin Watts" 1989: 24-25. Walker, Bryce Earthquakes "Time Life Books" 1982: 94-100. Karen C. McNally Earthquakes World Book Encyclopedia "World Book Inc." 1994: 38-39.