Important Takeaways:
- Earthquakes Are a Special Kind of Nightmare
- There is something uniquely nightmarish about major earthquakes that strike under or close to villages, towns, and cities
- Tragedies born of geologic forces can be simultaneously extreme and swift. Volcanic eruptions can produce rivers of scorching gas, ash, and debris that move at breathtaking speed, igniting and scouring anything in their path. Tsunamis—caused by the dramatic twitching of tectonic plates and their faults, or by immense landslides, or by volcanic explosions—can, and have, effortlessly swept entire towns and villages aside in a matter of minutes.
- The essentially immediate, invisible arrival of an earthquake is almost supernatural. Science tells us that earthquakes arise from the sudden release of energy accumulated over years, decades, or centuries.
- A tsunami voyaging quickly across the ocean will set off alarms in distant countries, giving those who receive the warning some time to flee or brace themselves.
- Volcanoes usually give off warning signs hours, days, sometimes even months or years in advance that an eruption is likely on its way.
- But we currently do not have any way to know when the next significant earthquake will strike, precisely where it will strike, how powerful it will be, how much shaking it will cause, or what kind of damage it will do.
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