The "Ring of Fire" is one of the most amazing and sometimes frightening factors in geology and the make up of this world. The level of energy that is produced by the build up of pressure within the earth is awesome and must always be reckoned with. It's a hot world beneath us and the gradual cooling that has been continuous can result in horrific upheavals that show themselves probably more dramatically in this area than anywhere else on the face of the earth.
Beginning in New Zealand, going under the Carolines, New Guinea, the Philippines, Coastal Asia, including Japan and the eastern portion of Siberia, the "Ring of Fire" continues over the Bering Straits into the Aleutians, Alaska's mainland, western Canada and our own west coast, before finishing its circuit through Latin America and western South America, ending its course in Chile. Earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruption, generally all related to one another as the earth shifts and changes, have been lived with in every nation in that ring. People have developed a view that it is just a fact of life, so they go about their loves forgetting what can happen in a moment, something that will change their lives forever.
The "Ring of Fire" is in the news today because of the Kilauea volcanic activity which is wreaking havoc on the Big Island of Hawaii. And the poor citizens of Leilani Estates near the city of Pahoa are continuously being assaulted by opening fissures with molten lava destroying homes, roads, forests and farms anywhere in its path as the lava flows push toward the sea. It's heartbreaking, but it just proves that bad things can even happen in places more akin to paradise in the eyes of many. But volcanoes, earthquakes and all the havoc they wreak are just an indication of how the earth changes, just like life, and those changes can be dramatic to the lay of the land if the circumstances are just right.
Events like those unfurling in Hawaii are just good indications of how susceptible we are to the forces of nature which we still don't fully understand. After all, we build great cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco very close to major surface faults, other large cities like Miami, Houston and New York in areas susceptible to the whims of a major hurricane, yet we just keep building in the same places. And as the population increases in those areas dramatically, we pray we will not face another crisis while we continue down the same path. Frankly, it's the height of chutzpah and that never turns out well when forces combine directly against it.
My personal take is that we are routinely sent these events to remind us of our frailty and weakness, and while we do for a time remember and pay heed, how quickly we forget and continue back onto the path of folly and foolhardiness. And when the time comes again, there isn't a weather forecaster, an engineer or a grand developer who can protect us, for what will be done will, indeed, be done.
So, hey, LA, will tomorrow be your truly devastating day? Or Miami, will it be something other than the moon hovering over your metropolis, flooding homes and snapping trees like toothpicks when you least expect it? Think about it and prepare yourself, for whether you live in what you think is a paradise in Hawaii or on a beautiful Atlantic beach when your number is up, if you aren't prepared you might be facing terror all alone. And that, my friends, isn't something any of us look forward to. Stay alert out there and act wisely, not with arrogance.
Beginning in New Zealand, going under the Carolines, New Guinea, the Philippines, Coastal Asia, including Japan and the eastern portion of Siberia, the "Ring of Fire" continues over the Bering Straits into the Aleutians, Alaska's mainland, western Canada and our own west coast, before finishing its circuit through Latin America and western South America, ending its course in Chile. Earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruption, generally all related to one another as the earth shifts and changes, have been lived with in every nation in that ring. People have developed a view that it is just a fact of life, so they go about their loves forgetting what can happen in a moment, something that will change their lives forever.
The "Ring of Fire" is in the news today because of the Kilauea volcanic activity which is wreaking havoc on the Big Island of Hawaii. And the poor citizens of Leilani Estates near the city of Pahoa are continuously being assaulted by opening fissures with molten lava destroying homes, roads, forests and farms anywhere in its path as the lava flows push toward the sea. It's heartbreaking, but it just proves that bad things can even happen in places more akin to paradise in the eyes of many. But volcanoes, earthquakes and all the havoc they wreak are just an indication of how the earth changes, just like life, and those changes can be dramatic to the lay of the land if the circumstances are just right.
Events like those unfurling in Hawaii are just good indications of how susceptible we are to the forces of nature which we still don't fully understand. After all, we build great cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco very close to major surface faults, other large cities like Miami, Houston and New York in areas susceptible to the whims of a major hurricane, yet we just keep building in the same places. And as the population increases in those areas dramatically, we pray we will not face another crisis while we continue down the same path. Frankly, it's the height of chutzpah and that never turns out well when forces combine directly against it.
My personal take is that we are routinely sent these events to remind us of our frailty and weakness, and while we do for a time remember and pay heed, how quickly we forget and continue back onto the path of folly and foolhardiness. And when the time comes again, there isn't a weather forecaster, an engineer or a grand developer who can protect us, for what will be done will, indeed, be done.
So, hey, LA, will tomorrow be your truly devastating day? Or Miami, will it be something other than the moon hovering over your metropolis, flooding homes and snapping trees like toothpicks when you least expect it? Think about it and prepare yourself, for whether you live in what you think is a paradise in Hawaii or on a beautiful Atlantic beach when your number is up, if you aren't prepared you might be facing terror all alone. And that, my friends, isn't something any of us look forward to. Stay alert out there and act wisely, not with arrogance.
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