This past Sunday afternoon, another huge earthquake struck our planet, this time more close to home than the one in Haiti. The earthquake struck in Mexico, about 116 miles southeast of Tijuana, the closest major Mexican city to California. The earthquake was of a 7.2 magnitude and was felt all the way to San Diego.

Then there was a series of earthquakes that struck the Baja California region, which began on Wednesday, March 31, with a 4.2 magnitude earthquake and continued until Monday with the aftershocks.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that three major earthquakes this extreme is the greatest thing in the world. Luckily, the Mexican quake did not do as much damage as the one in Haiti, since it did most of its damage in the rural areas of Mexico.

The oddest thing to me is that all three earthquakes occurred relatively close to each other, in both time and distance. All of the earthquakes centered around three different tectonic plates, large masses of objects in the ground that move and shape the earth, which are within the general vicinity of one another.

I think that despite the severity of these earthquakes, no alarm should be rung quite yet. It seems like things are getting worse and that we should find a way to build an earthquake-proof shelter; however, these earthquakes are relatively normal. According to the United States Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program, there are approximately 17 earthquakes a year of magnitude 7.0-7.9, while earthquakes of a magnitude greater than 8.0, like the Chilean one in February, occur about once a year.

These earthquakes are just a natural part of life and should be expected for nations along fault lines, the areas where the tectonic plates interact, such as California, Chile and coastal nations in the Pacific Ocean. To worry over earthquakes is natural and understandable; to worry over major earthquakes killing millions is a bit overboard.

With that said, a catastrophic earthquake could occur in a major city rather than a rural area. Places like Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tokyo and Tehran all lie in areas susceptible to earthquakes, and each is a densely populated area. The odds of a major catastrophic earthquake of at least 7.0 magnitude seem almost like a long shot of a chance; however, stranger things have happened.

These recent earthquakes have caused major damage in many areas; one struck parts of southern California and Arizona. The damage near the epicenters of the earthquakes is horrific, with much of the areas’ infrastructure and buildings destroyed. These places need help in recovering from these tragedies.

We need to help each country that has recently suffered from the earthquakes so that each nation can rebuild and prosper, allowing them to work with us to build a better planet.
 

Bryan Manderscheid is a freshman engineering major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].