Post by Northie on Feb 27, 2008 15:36:53 GMT
that person who thought earthquakes were to due to global warming deserves to be shot....
having said that...
mid plate quakes can occur fairly frequently as minor faults are a result of the geological past. it is also thought they can be initiated by human activity. In 1991 i think, there was an earthquake in the region of Maharastra in India which measured 6.5 in the Richter Scale - this was a mid plate quake. it is thought to have been caused by a dam built near the epicentre a few years before and the pressure of the water caused the earthquake. As a result 11 000 or so people were killed. the current concern of this nature s in China where they are building the 3 gorges dam as it lies near a fault i think. also considering the chinese history with dams and the very large city of Shanghai sitting at the mouth of the river the dam is built on its a disaster waiting to happen
geological events can also influence human history - and this one affects two of the worlds major religions.
the old testament teaches that when Moses led the Isrealites from Egypt they were persued by Pharohs army. the Bible then states that Moses then parted the Red Sea for the people to cross, then the sea collapsed in on the following Egyptians. This occurred around 2500 years ago. Around the same time, the Mynoan (sp?) Empire on Crete also disappeared.
These events are linked and the bible story is probably accurate. The beastie which was responsible was a volcano called Stromboli in the Med. It decided it was high time to blow itself apart and the material which fell into the sea caused a Tsunami which destroyed the Myonan Empire. This same tsunami also aided Moses. It is now accepted by most scholars that the term "Red Sea" is actually a mistranslation. It should be "Reed Sea" which is an area of marshland near the Med entrance to the Suez Canal. When the tsunami occurred, the water would have been drawn out of this area for around 20 minutes - creating enough time for Moses and his people to cross the Reed Sea. The tsunami would then have swept inland, killing the Egyptians.
however, this does not disprove that God was acting on behalf of Moses - could it really have been that Moses was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time when the tsunami struck or was it an act of God that caused Stromboli to erupt at that time? there then comes the debate of one nation created while another was destroyed etc
and THAT is what you call interesting geology
having said that...
mid plate quakes can occur fairly frequently as minor faults are a result of the geological past. it is also thought they can be initiated by human activity. In 1991 i think, there was an earthquake in the region of Maharastra in India which measured 6.5 in the Richter Scale - this was a mid plate quake. it is thought to have been caused by a dam built near the epicentre a few years before and the pressure of the water caused the earthquake. As a result 11 000 or so people were killed. the current concern of this nature s in China where they are building the 3 gorges dam as it lies near a fault i think. also considering the chinese history with dams and the very large city of Shanghai sitting at the mouth of the river the dam is built on its a disaster waiting to happen
geological events can also influence human history - and this one affects two of the worlds major religions.
the old testament teaches that when Moses led the Isrealites from Egypt they were persued by Pharohs army. the Bible then states that Moses then parted the Red Sea for the people to cross, then the sea collapsed in on the following Egyptians. This occurred around 2500 years ago. Around the same time, the Mynoan (sp?) Empire on Crete also disappeared.
These events are linked and the bible story is probably accurate. The beastie which was responsible was a volcano called Stromboli in the Med. It decided it was high time to blow itself apart and the material which fell into the sea caused a Tsunami which destroyed the Myonan Empire. This same tsunami also aided Moses. It is now accepted by most scholars that the term "Red Sea" is actually a mistranslation. It should be "Reed Sea" which is an area of marshland near the Med entrance to the Suez Canal. When the tsunami occurred, the water would have been drawn out of this area for around 20 minutes - creating enough time for Moses and his people to cross the Reed Sea. The tsunami would then have swept inland, killing the Egyptians.
however, this does not disprove that God was acting on behalf of Moses - could it really have been that Moses was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time when the tsunami struck or was it an act of God that caused Stromboli to erupt at that time? there then comes the debate of one nation created while another was destroyed etc
and THAT is what you call interesting geology