# 6.4 Earthquake Strikes Taiwan **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 4, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240 "2010-03-04T03:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240/41 "2010-03-08T21:15:40Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Even atheists do believe in a form of an apocalypse in the form of the “Big Crunch” theory. Not many do, these days, if they keep up with cosmology. The universe is not only not slowing down its expansion fast enough for that to happen, but something is making the expansion accelerate over time. That makes the Big Crunch look unlikely. The expansion of the universe has nothing at all to do with earthquakes. I don’t see how earthquakes could have anything to do with any plausible scenario for worldwide disaster. Well, a large asteroid impact could cause a global disaster, and would cause an earthquake as well, but that’s obviously not what’s happening now. Large earthquakes can trigger other earthquakes, but not to the degree you’d need to threaten life or even civilization all over the Earth. One earthquake triggering another is also not what seismologists think is happening now- they think this string of earthquakes is coincidental. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240/42 "2010-03-08T21:23:09Z")
> **[List of deadly earthquakes since 1900](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadly_earthquakes_since_1900)** > > The following list compiles known earthquakes that have caused one or more fatalities since 1900. The list incorporates high-quality earthquake source (i.e., origin time, location and earthquake magnitude) and fatality information from several sources. > Earthquake locations are taken from the Centennial Catalog and the updated Engdahl, van der Hilst and Buland earthquake catalog, which is complete to December 2005. From January 2006, earthquake locations are from the United States Geological Su... # of 7.0+ earthquakes which produced deaths: 2009 - 0 2008 - 2 2007 - 8 2006 - 3 2005 - 5 2004 - 4 2003 - 3 2002 - 6 Average - 3.875 per year (Once every 3.1 months) 1960 - 3 1959 - 6 1958 - 4 1957 - 6 1956 - 3 1955 - 3 1954 - 1 1953 - 4 Average - 3.75 per year (Once every 3.2 months) ETA: [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php) [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/increase\_in\_earthquakes.php](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/increase_in_earthquakes.php) ---
**Author:** ![d8uv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/71e660/32.png) [@d8uv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d8uv)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240/43 "2010-03-09T05:26:11Z")
> [@Madd\_Maxx](#): > > I’m not sure, but aren’t all of these earthquakes occurring in area’s around the Pacific plate? Maybe the Pacific plate has a greater build up of forces acting on it than usual and as a result there is an increase in seismic activity. Actually, now that I look at the rest of the thread, proclaiming that a few earthquakes in a couple of months isn’t statistically significant… I’m not sure that this observation really is empirically valid. I really doubt that over a long period of time that this “Ring of Fire” hypothesis will really pan out. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240/44 "2010-03-09T05:56:07Z")
> [@d8uv](#): > > Actually, now that I look at the rest of the thread, proclaiming that a few earthquakes in a couple of months isn’t statistically significant… I’m not sure that this observation really is empirically valid. I really doubt that over a long period of time that this “Ring of Fire” hypothesis will really pan out. Hypothesis? It’s not a hypothesis. The Ring of Fire is real. It’s a plate that happens to be surrounded by subduction zones well known for violent earthquakes and volcanism. What part of “90% of the world’s earthquakes occur around the Pacific plate” seems like a hypothesis to you? Now when you say “over a long period of time”… that means very different things depending on whether you want to talk human time or geologic time. The entirety of human civilization to date and the foreseeable future as we know it (our lives, our children’s lives, and our great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren’s lives) will continue in exactly this fashion, yes. Now over a _really_ long period of time, i.e. the next ~50-100 million years or so, things will change significantly as the plates continue to shift. But that seems almost beyond the scope of our concern, considering all of the other problems our civilization will have to deal with during this time period. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240/45 "2010-03-09T13:00:42Z")
We do know there are eruptions on other planets,strikes by meteors etc.,since no one lives on those planets we can say it is just an act of nature, the way the planets work. No punishment by any God! There have always been earthquakes, comet strikes etc. long before man lived on earth. people happen to live in areas where those things occur. Floods, storms. and things happen but they also happen in unoccupied areas. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240/46 "2010-03-09T15:42:10Z")
[Earthquake statistics from the USGS by year.](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php) ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240/47 "2010-03-09T16:09:16Z")
[USGS geologist live online on washingtonpost.com](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2010/03/08/DI2010030802570.html) He discusses why it seems like there are more earthquakes now than years ago: > [@Dr. Michael Blanpied](#): > > There are really three main reasons why we’re seeing more news about deadly earthquakes. First is that the quality of reporting is much higher. Second is that we’re able to record them better due to global digital seismic networks that report data in real time. Third is that more and more people live in quake-prone areas, so earthquakes are more likely to strike vulnerable populations than was the case decades ago. Note that he does _not_ say that it’s because earthquakes are unusually frequent now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/6-4-earthquake-strikes-taiwan/531240.md?page=2)