I am going to stray from sports in this post to talk about something much more serious and important. As most of you must know by now, hundreds of people died today when a brief but catastrophic 8.8 earthquake hit Chile.
According to the Richter Scale, earthquakes of this magnitude only happen once a year. The scale goes from Micro (less than 2.0, happens every day) to Epic (10.0+, hasn't happened YET). Chile had a "Great" earthquake, which only is said to happen once a year.
However, studies are done expecting some kind of trend and predictability, not what happened on Saturday, February 27. Besides the Chilean earthquake, there also was a 6.1 earthquake which lasted ten seconds in the Argentinean provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Tucuman. Keep in mind, Argentina is right next to Chile.
Japan also had an earthquake of its own, a 7.0. Fortunately, neither killed anybody or left structural damage. Meanwhile, Hawaii had to issue a tsunami warning because of the earthquake in Chile.
All of this comes on the heels of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12 and the minor earthquake that hit Chicago on February 10. One or two quakes in a month and a half are the norm, three of them are an alarming trend, five of them(two of them major) should raise deep concern.
This aren't isolated incidents, these earthquakes are hitting all over the world as if waiting for us to get up only to knock us back down. Mother Nature is pissed at us, no doubt about it, but the most important question is what we can do about it. Earthquakes aren't like hurricanes, they don't give you a five-day notice to run away.
I am just a sportswriter, I don't claim to have the solution. All I'm hoping for is that the scientists that are studying this issue can come up with an explanation before something truly catastrophic happens and kills millions of innocent people.
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