Ocean falls, and mountain drifts

I'm not exactly too enthusiastic after hearing of the recent 8.9 Magnitude earthquake that just hit Japan very recently. Earthquakes - and actually many other natural disasters - always makes me feeling all depressed. The thought of me sitting here all safe and dry, whereas scores of peoples in a distant (or not so distant) country never fails to get me feeling all down. Yes, that might be silly and all, but that's just the way I feel.

I'm now feeling more depressed than my usual depressed-self, considering how in the face of these natural disasters, there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it (well, there is of course prediction, but that doesn't change the fact that said disaster still takes place).

Anyway, here's something a bit personal: I've (indirectly) felt two earthquake through my very-short lifetime: one is of course the infamous 2004 Sumatra earthquake. I can still remember how my dad had mentioned when she returned home from work on that day, and how he felt the building experiencing some slight shaking. I didn't really thought of it much - I was clearly in a more carefree ignorant period at that time - that is, until the news came in later on that day. I had known of earthquake and tsunamis before then, but I have never expected for the tidal waves to occur so close to our shores.

I've received a taste of earthquake again 5 years later in the year 2009, this time taking place in Java. Unlike the last earthquake, I've actually felt the effect of this one: a shaking of my chair, as if someone was pulling the legs. And of course, we were pretty much unaffected by this earthquake, but the same couldn't be said for the victims in our neighbouring country.


For geologists, earthquake are pretty much time-bombs that are waiting to explode - they could pretty much point out the possible location where the next 'quake might strike, but can NEVER say with any certainty when it will take place, and how large the extent of damage would be. It's a pretty difficult task, that I sometimes pity the seismologists when people start complaining why in the world they didn't warn beforehand about that large incoming earthquake.

Anyway, this very recent earthquake makes me even more depress when I remember the nickname that a certain geologist had coined for Tokyo: the city waiting to die. The reason being is that it sits on the junction of not two, but three tectonic plates:


I suppose the question is not 'what if', but rather, 'when'. I always wondered how the people there could go on with their lives, hoping that the next earthquake would occur not now, not tomorrow, but some time in the far distant future...

Anyone interested in this subject could do no wrong than to watch Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. Let's sit down and ponder on the extent of the earthquake when it eventually strikes the city (but when is something which no one can answer).


Am I biased for this earthquake, since it occur in Japan, home of all things sugoi desu? Do I not give a flying leap to other not very major earthquakes in some countries which I don't really have too much knowledge about? I have no idea to be honest, although like I've said earlier, these kind things never fail to make me depressed.

Still, despite all that nature have thrown to us, life goes on for the rest of us powerless humans...

For some reason, this song came to mind

I was actually saving a post about some ranting on Touhou, but the news of the earthquake had put me off from posting it here. Well, whenever I'm in the mood for it, I'll put it up here alright?