Science

Upon waking I check outdoors for stars or rain. Regardless of the weather I come back to the computer and check cyberspace. Earthquakes? This week those registered form a semi-circular shape beginning in Alaska at the Aleutian Islands swinging westward in an arch like the blade of a scythe along the western Pacific shore, turning southward east of Australia and ending like a handle at New Zealand. These are the areas showing dozens of quakes, from 2.5 to 5.7 on the Richter scale. Of the six shown within the US the one in Georgia along the Mississippi yesterday and one in Yellowstone were in the 2.5 range. Over a dozen are shown along the edge of California. A very graphic location of the weakness in the earth’s shell.
The lines of quakes show where the earth’s crustal plates are making adjustments as one plate slips under another rather than pushing it up. That’s at the west coast. In India the plate has been shoving the land into the ridge we call the Himalayas, not sliding under. To me it is fascinating that the skin of the earth, estimated at about 35 miles thick, is on the move – not enlarging or shrinking - the circumference holding its own. Science is defining reality with technology created by the only animals with the ability to communicate and record changes all around. The more we learn, the more questions arise. And the answers show the progress made. Good show.
Naomi Sherer