Bombing Our Way to Earthquakes?
Since experiencing my first earthquake here in Greece in 1999, I toyed with the idea that earthquakes could be caused or triggered by bombs especially nuclear bombs.When today's earthquake off the coast of Indonesia happened, I decided I wanted to test my theory. After a bit of cursory research into my hypothesis, I found out that this is just not the case.
Since July, 1945, there has been a total of 2,044 nuclear weapons tests globally by the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China. Then I checked out how many earthquakes happened prior to 1945 (941) as opposed to post 1945 (861). So, the number of earthquakes has decreased since the creation of the first nuclear bomb...not increased as I had expected to find.
Bruce A. Bolt, a leading expert on seismology also concludes that earthquakes are not triggered or caused by bombs.
Therefore, I must also conclude that, although nuclear bombs can kill people by direct hits, radiation and radiation fallout, they do not cause earthquakes. And even though the US, Britain and France regularly have conducted nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific, they did not contribute to this latest devasting earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Sumatra just happens to be located on the Australian quake plate and is bound to suffer earthquake damage anyway.
Even if it appears that earthquakes are more deadly now than they've ever in history, they really aren't for two reasons. Earthquakes and the damages caused by them haven't been recorded with any great accuracy before the 19th century so any information we might have for that time period would only be "guesstimates". Since the 20th century, there has been a population explosion on our planet and when you have more people (especially in densely populated cities), it only stands to reason that we'll have more deaths and damages as a result.
Despite all the evidence otherwise, there is still a part of me which believes that you can't continually pound the earth and not have some cause and effect type of relationship.
References
http://www.moorlandschool.co.uk/earth/images/Earthquakefaq.htm
http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/ctbt/read9.html
http://geology.about.com/cs/eq_hazards/a/aa033102a.htm
Since July, 1945, there has been a total of 2,044 nuclear weapons tests globally by the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China. Then I checked out how many earthquakes happened prior to 1945 (941) as opposed to post 1945 (861). So, the number of earthquakes has decreased since the creation of the first nuclear bomb...not increased as I had expected to find.
Bruce A. Bolt, a leading expert on seismology also concludes that earthquakes are not triggered or caused by bombs.
Therefore, I must also conclude that, although nuclear bombs can kill people by direct hits, radiation and radiation fallout, they do not cause earthquakes. And even though the US, Britain and France regularly have conducted nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific, they did not contribute to this latest devasting earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Sumatra just happens to be located on the Australian quake plate and is bound to suffer earthquake damage anyway.
Even if it appears that earthquakes are more deadly now than they've ever in history, they really aren't for two reasons. Earthquakes and the damages caused by them haven't been recorded with any great accuracy before the 19th century so any information we might have for that time period would only be "guesstimates". Since the 20th century, there has been a population explosion on our planet and when you have more people (especially in densely populated cities), it only stands to reason that we'll have more deaths and damages as a result.
Despite all the evidence otherwise, there is still a part of me which believes that you can't continually pound the earth and not have some cause and effect type of relationship.
References
http://www.moorlandschool.co.uk/earth/images/Earthquakefaq.htm
http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/ctbt/read9.html
http://geology.about.com/cs/eq_hazards/a/aa033102a.htm
I think that fishing is probably such a large industry for those nations that it also plays a role by its effect of the natural relocation of family, or cuntinuance thereof to the shore or nearby it. And beaches are top tourist draws. And I do wonder about the structurtal integrity of some of the buildings. I do not know if much of that region is modernised to the extent Hong Kong And Singapore are. Well, there are myriad factors to consider.
Posted by
Anonymous |
26/12/04 14:25
The results you came up with today actually surprised me as well because I always assumed that bombings and bomb testings would have a major impact on when earthquakes happen. When Athens was hit in 1999, I remember thinking "I wonder if the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia had anything to do with it". I still think maybe it does. After all, I think your last sentence sums it all up perfectly! It's got to have some kind of effect on the it!
Happy Christmas SeaWitch!
Posted by
Anonymous |
26/12/04 18:55