Close watch

Johnny Cash kept a close watch on "this heart of mine" but my heart needs no extra attention so I keep a close watch on this earth of mine. Would you believe that for the first half of March 10, the day of the birth of my number four child, there were ten - yes ten - earthquakes around the world! Earthquakes are movements of the crustal plates that are constantly moving against, over, or under each other, around the hot liquid core of this odd little blue dot that Carl Sagan called our home. Many of these quakes this day are deep within the ocean floors and hardly noticed. How they affect the whole scheme of things we do not think upon.
One such quake that brought memory recall was off to the east of Tromski, Norway, where I spent a day in the land of the Midnight sun. A truly unusual experience. No night! And truly, no fatigue. What magic the sun has! These crustal movements surely have an effect on the ocean currents and why not on the winds and weather that affect us all? The great rift in Africa opens by millimeters. The Atlantic is spreading as well. And the Himalayas rise. Yet we contemplate that humans cause it all!
Such arrogance! Should be humbling, really. We are small and insignificant and yet we think we have an effect on global warming or anything else worldwide. Ludicrous!
Many of the quakes occur in the ring around the Pacific Ocean, dubbed the Ring of Fire, but all parts of the earth's crust move as well. A quake will occur in Kenya in the rift valley, and in the north Atlantic, and in the Himalaya area. But remember the earth is as alive as we are and its crust (the outer 35 miles) is moving around the inner liquid core with the law of physics as we all are.
Some day I am going to ask how the crust boundaries came about.
Knowledge is fascinating. Science was created by human curiosity and the knowledge is more exciting than any fantasy our imagination can create.
Naomi Sherer