2010 the Year the Earth Moved

Earthquake Magnitude 8.8 Chile 2010.  Photo from US News

While the March 11th magnitude 9.0 earthquake that rocked Japan this year is still fresh in our minds, and seeing major quakes still popping up now and then, I am reminded of the massive quakes that shook the entire globe last year. The Haitian earthquake has left those people still working to rebuild their lives and the Chilean 8.8 quake moved the earth off its axis by a few inches and shorted the day by a few millionths of a second.

I made a video mash-up of these events last year and I'm posting it here to remind us all of the destructive and sudden power that the earth can deliver. The New Madrid fault in North America had 4 major quakes between 1811 and 1812 that was so powerful that the Mississippi river ran backwards for a short time. That was only one hundred years ago, a hick-up on the geologic time scale. No one can say with certainty what causes an earthquake and predicting them is nearly impossible.  In the 2010 video below, I also have the Iceland Volcano stories that happened the same year and can only wonder at the connection. This video is missing the Gulf Oil spill which was around the same time. Coincidence? We should all remain vigilant, especially during the most peaceful of geologic times.

Japan March 11th 2011 Tsunami from magnitude 9.0 quake