Let me begin by saying that I am by no means an Earth Scientist. The extent of my Earth science skills include the following:

• Studying rocks as an undergrad (Fools gold anyone?)
• Visiting Kilauea Volcano located on the Big Island of Hawaii
• Watching Planet Earth on DVD (over and over again)

Like I said, I’m not qualified even a little. But I have some thoughts on the recent Icelandic volcano, which grounded air traffic all over Europe and is still erupting and the recent earthquakes in Haiti, Chili, China and California that I would like to share.

I’ve been hearing that there is no connection between the string of earthquakes and the volcano. How is that possible? From where I’m sitting it looks like the insides of the earth are wrestling with itself and the winner is blowing ash out of a volcano in Iceland.

I don’t want to start walking down the “the sky is falling” path. I’m feeling too optimistic this morning to do so and I don’t think that is happening anyway. But I do think we are seeing the results of stress on the Earth and the results of our ways of living as well as our attitudes towards how we live despite any science or opinions that says this is all a natural occurrence that we are merely observing. It’s a natural occurrence alright that we (humans) a helping along at a very unnatural pace.

You don’t need to looks any further than the below to see the trending of frequency and severity of earthquakes. If you want to look further, by all means, and if you have comments, please leave them. I will get to them eventually.

Frequency and severity of earthquakes
http://research.dlindquist.com/quake/historical/?mag=6&type=num&freq=year&style=raw

Where earthquakes are happening. They are happening all the time. Many are no big deal.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

Earthquake trends (one view) from http://research.dlindquist.com

Again, I don’t think the sky is falling, but I do think we are seeing result of our actions. Earth Day is tomorrow. Some people view this as a day to do your inconsequential part for the environment (It was also a headline from The Onion in 2006).

I agree with the sentiment to a degree. It’s one day. And who cares that you recycled your one can of Pepsi (ok Coke, easy Coka Cola drinkers)? But the day is a chance to renew values and change habits. From where I’m (still) sitting, that’s one of the big benefits of Earth Day.

But back to my initial thought that started this whole rant. These earthquakes and erupting volcanoes have NOTHING to do with each other?? Really. So, the Earth isn’t one big ball connected by oceans and tectonic plates anymore? Apparently my Earth science knowledge is worse than I thought.

It’s all connected. All systems are connected one way or another. Just because we don’t have the evidence to link everything together in some type of linear diagram doesn’t mean they are not connected. You don’t have to be a Rocket (or Earth) Scientist to figure that out.