January 24, 2010
--EARTHQUAKES--
Haiti Now
And When Mississippi Ran Backward
Time and place makes a world of difference when earthquakes strike.
The Earth is a restless planet. Scores of tremors occur every year. Most are so mild we hardly notice them. However, a dozen or so are so large they collapse buildings or trigger tsunamis -- ocean waves that wash away, or severely damage, seaside towns.
Haiti -- the tiny, impoverished nation east of Cuba and U.S.A. Guantanamo Bay -- suffered a devastating 7.0 quake on January 12.
Two days later, a magnitude 5.9 after-shock tremor killed scores more people, including some foreign-led rescuers.
As this is written, it is estimated that nearly 200,000 people have been killed and twice that injured.
International rescue teams – led by the United States of America – are on the scene with cargo planes and a U.S. Navy hospital ship. U.S. Marines in helicopters were the first to arrive with food and drinking water.
Many orphaned children have been air-lifted to mainland U.S.A. for adoption.
So far, 111,000 human bodies have been pulled from the wreckage, registered, and buried. It is expected that many more victims will be discovered.
LARGEST U.S. QUAKE
The largest recorded earthquake in the United States was a magnitude 9.2 that struck Prince William Sound, Alaska, on Good Friday, March 28, 1964. As that quake fault was under water, there were no human deaths. However, the deaths of ducks and sea birds were enormous.
Compare the Haiti earthquake to some other notable tremors noted by the U.S. Geological Survey:
- The largest recorded earthquake in the world was a magnitude 9.5 that struck Chile on May 22, 1960.
- The earliest reported earthquake in California was felt in 1769 -- near the future Los Angeles -- by the exploring expedition of Gaspar de Portola
EARLY EYEWITNESS
The best-recorded account of an early United States earthquake is the eyewitness deposition of Firmin La Roche, a French fur trader of St. Louis, Missouri, and by Eliza Bryan, a New Madrid resident, four years after the event in which the Mississippi River flowed backward for a few minutes.
Click here to read "WHEN THE MISSISSIPPI FLOWED BACKWARD."
PARTING SHOT
“The education of a person is never complete until he/she dies.”
- Robert E. Lee
By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist
