Magnitude 7.9 in Eastern Sichuan

[evenwolf]

Death toll rising to 10,000

I think earthquakes are events we have become indifferent to because it seems like there are so many of them.    The last big one I remember was 2005 in Pakistan.  Rescuers had difficulty getting to survivors because of the mountains.  Something like 80,000 people died in Pakistan.   Its magnitude was smaller than the one in China.  (measured at 7.5 -7.7)

Here's the seismic information on the Sichuan quake:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2008/us2008ryan/#maps

8 on the richter scale is HUGE.   The one in China was not 8 and according to this chart there's average 1 per year measured 8.0 - 8.9.

Less than 2.0    About 8,000 per day
2.0-2.9    About 1,000 per day
3.0-3.9    49,000 per year (est.)
4.0-4.9    6,200 per year (est.)
5.0-5.9    800 per year
6.0-6.9    120 per year
7.0-7.9    18 per year
8.0-8.9    1 per year
9.0-9.9    1 per 20 years
10.0+     Never recorded

If you haven't studied the Richter scale you should look into it.   A 5.0 is ten times more powerful than a 4.0.    So 9 or 10 on the Richter scale is unimaginable to you and me.    We have never recorded a 10 but it seems likely we will someday soon.    There was a 9.5 in 1960 and that was only 25 years after the Richter scale was invented.

Luckily I've never experienced anything but the table shaking a little bit.   

[Tuomas]

We don't get a lot of quakes here, if any (except for the game yeah). I can't imagine experiensing one, even moderately faint. I think I would prolly be very scared. And aside from the ground moving about I can't see a reason to these huge quakes...

[evenwolf]

A reason for plate tectonics?  I wouldn't say the Earth has "reasons" but don't forget that the continents are slowly moving.   Pangea, yes?

[evenwolf]

An interesting twist on this earthquake.    There are thousands of people who will drive cross country in the US to protest a silly torch in the name of the inhumane treatment of Tibet.     But what can any of us do for the victims of this earthquake?     Send money to Red Cross?    Say our sympathies?

The leaders of China actually responded to this earthquake very fast.   Compared to say Bush's two weeks to get around to Katrina.    I just think protesting a torch is a damned silly thing in the greater scope of things.

[Gilbert]

Luckily we don't have real earthquakes here. Some people here did report that they felt the quake during the process though.

[evenwolf]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/13/china.quake/index.html

death toll climbing.  people are still trapped. 

[jetxl]

...
I just think protesting a torch is a damned silly thing in the greater scope of things.

Are people protesting for other's liberation really that shallow? If so, it's just as damned silly to care for an earthquake you didn't even feel.

[evenwolf]

Protesting the government of China?    Or lashing out violently against an innocent jogger? 






Sometimes humanity is sacrificed in the name of peace.

[radiowaves]

An interesting twist on this earthquake.    There are thousands of people who will drive cross country in the US to protest a silly torch in the name of the inhumane treatment of Tibet.     But what can any of us do for the victims of this earthquake?     Send money to Red Cross?    Say our sympathies?

The leaders of China actually responded to this earthquake very fast.   Compared to say Bush's two weeks to get around to Katrina.    I just think protesting a torch is a damned silly thing in the greater scope of things.

How do you mean protesting a tourch is silly? You think we should do something more? Yes, but what and how?

In Tibet, people CAN make a difference, but earthquake is pretty much unavoidable. We can only help people to recover from it, which is a different thing. Or should we protest against China that it didn't evacuate its people???
Lashing out into innocent joggers face may be stupid yes, but at least it brings attention.

One of my relatives was in Peking when the earthquake happened, walls shook, but luckily nothing else happened in there.

[evenwolf]

I am referring to relief efforts.   Not preventing earthquakes.


I suppose lashing out against joggers does get press.   But it sends very mixed messages.

[radiowaves]

Well, then this comparison has not much relevance.

[evenwolf]

So Free Tibet isn't a relief effort?   "Relief effort vs. Relief effort" seems relevant to me.

Look.

When you said "we can only help people recover from it" [regarding earthquakes] did you realize that there are thousands of families still homeless from the Pakistani earthquake in 2005?  As of last March, Red Cross was still providing shelters and food to these people in order so that they may survive the winter.

Pakistani Earthquake Survivors

You speak as if these relief efforts are well represented.   They're not, especially in the media.   An earthquake gets a couple of days in the headlines.   The torch has gotten weeks and weeks.    Free Tibet is a great message that deserves to be heard.    But apparently the group mindset that drives indifferent people outside and to these rallies will never work for disaster relief.

"Come on Joe!  People are dying over there!  Let's pack up our things and help!"

"What's that?   Oh... isn't that what Red Cross is for?"

It's not the cause that drives some people.  It's the simple act of rebellion that people crave.   Dissent.   And that force will never motivate actual relief efforts.