Catastrophe keeps coming

[Dur]

(Wall Street Journal) - Mega and not-quite-mega disasters are
happening all the time, so much so that any book about them is likely
to seem timely. With the sudden horror recently visited on Haiti,
"Mega Disasters - The Science of Predicting the Next Catastrophe"
(Amazon.com: http://tr.im/MegaD ) seems eerily prescient indeed. But,
in fact, in the past 60 years � a mere flicker in the history of the
Earth � we have had three of the most powerful earthquakes ever
measured (Chile in 1960, Alaska in 1964 and the Indian Ocean in 2004);
the highest ocean wave in recorded history, when a massive rockfall
pounded the Gilbert Inlet of Lituya Bay in Alaska in 1958 and created
a wave that reached up to 1,720 feet; and the deadliest tsunami � a
result of the 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean. It would be an easy
bet to say something awful awaits us in the near future, but it
appears next to impossible to bet where and when...

Continued: http://tr.im/MDisasters

[Bob Eld]

"Dur" <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]> wrote in message
news:ca6ca7c71001190638u565...@mail.gmail.com...

(Wall Street Journal) - Mega and not-quite-mega disasters are
happening all the time, so much so that any book about them is likely
to seem timely. With the sudden horror recently visited on Haiti,
"Mega Disasters - The Science of Predicting the Next Catastrophe"
(Amazon.com: http://tr.im/MegaD ) seems eerily prescient indeed. But,

in fact, in the past 60 years � a mere flicker in the history of the
Earth � we have had three of the most powerful earthquakes ever

measured (Chile in 1960, Alaska in 1964 and the Indian Ocean in 2004);
the highest ocean wave in recorded history, when a massive rockfall
pounded the Gilbert Inlet of Lituya Bay in Alaska in 1958 and created

a wave that reached up to 1,720 feet; and the deadliest tsunami � a

result of the 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean. It would be an easy
bet to say something awful awaits us in the near future, but it
appears next to impossible to bet where and when...

Continued: http://tr.im/MDisasters

Your observations are really based on the fact that we now measure stuff
that was never measured before the mid 20th century. There have been big
earthquakes through out geologic history (New Madrid), massive volcanoes
(Yellowstone), Massive Tsunamis (Seattle). This is a clear case of
measurement altering perception. Do a little digging and you'll find that
the present era is actually quite quiet. Nothing in human times compares to
an asteroid hit like at the K-T boundary!