Whether it is an earthquake, or a volcano under the outer crust of our beautiful planet earth, there is a lot of activity going on, from rocks and slates moving to very hot liquid lava seeping through the crevices, and sometimes too much shifts to fast and the devastation is horrendous.

            We all take our planet for granted; we never stop to realize the magnitude of its power, starting with the earth’s core. The earth at its core is so hot that it is liquid, which flows through the cracks and crevices of the entire planet. As this liquid finds it way to the surface it find the weakest points. These weakest points over time build up so much pressure that it explodes; a once quiet volcano now becomes alive with fury. Hot liquid is thrown toward the ski, falls back to the earth down the side of the mountain, and flows along, a river of red-hot lava. Some volcanoes have been silent for many years, while others erupted on more regular basics.  Most of Hawaii’s islands were formed by an under water volcano eruption, some of the volcanoes are still active with the largest and most active one being Mauna-Lao, in Hawaii. When a volcano erupts it destroys everything and anything in the path of the hot lava, igniting fires along its way. As the red-hot lava cools, it darkens, becoming very black and hard stones. Volcanoes may be a lovely place to visit, according to many travelers; but I would never choose to live anyplace within a fifty miles radius.

Lava after it has cooled

Image via Wikipedia

Within the earth is made of many levels, from the inner core, to the outer part, which is called the Crust.  The inner core is where the liquid hot lava flows, the outer crust in what we see no matter what part of the earth we travel. In between those two layers there is a lot going on. The layer under the crust is called the mantle, which is made up of very dense rock. Some of these rocks are thick slates, while others are huge boulders that are always moving, just as the earth is always spinning. With the slates of stone, huge boulders and liquid hot lava constantly moving, there is a constant creation of pressure building; causing slates and boulders to clash, and “fight”, to occupy the same space. As these items move, plates of stone will bend, as boulders push forward; over time the pressure becomes so intense that the stone plate can no longer bend, and it snaps, creating a shift of stones, and slates, causing what we call an earth quake.

            The slate breaking is just the beginning, because the boulder or other plate of stone continues to move into  different position, while other rocks, stones, plates and slates readjust themselves. Usually there may be a few small after shocks, or small earthquakes until everything settles. It is being explored to determine if an earthquake can create volcanoes, since there is a lot of movement occurring under the crust and even the mantle. This could allow the red-hot lava to make it way to the surface. It may not create a volcano at first, but over time that area that has been weaken can become a new volcano. Most earthquakes last about two to four minutes, but the damage can range from very mild to devastating.

 In the early 1900’s John Milne designed a seismograph; it measured the earthquakes by graphing the strength of the tremors, from the depth to the width of the area hit. It is believed that millions of years ago all the land on the planet was connected as one piece. A German scientist by the names of Alfred Wegener, decide to cut all the landmasses off a globe and he was able to place them together like a puzzle. Which means at one time there was only one continent, with earthquakes, volcanoes, along with other changes in the earth the land masses broke up. Creating new island and other continents, water began finding new pathways creating oceans, seas and rivers.

It is believed that as time goes on, parts of California will break away from the main land of North America, which is understandable possible since California is known for having earthquakes. A very frighten fact is that New York City, mostly Manhattan is on a fault line, and if that for any reason shifts, the damage would be very intense. Manhattan, which is an island, has a least two million people on it at any given time. New York City, which includes Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island have approximately eight million people living there, so if the fault line under the upper part of Manhattan was to shift, the after shocks would be felt throughout these boroughs. Staten Island may suffer a mild tsunami, created by the shock waves of the earthquake. The bottom line is, New York would be devastated if it was ever to be hit with a major earthquake.

Image via Wikipedia

Earthquake strike all over the world, from Mexico City, to Portugal as well as Japan and China, so we need to really step back appreciated the vastness of such a powerful planet.