Earthquakes

Earthquakes have been with us since the beginning of time. It has formed the continents and created the Oceans. The mountains were formed due to the fact that the earthquakes caused the teutonic plates to move against each other,
thereby forcing one plate to expand above the other.

Most people think that volcanoes formed the mountains but again it was the movement of the plates that caused the magma to lollow the easy way through the cracks of the plates until they formed volcanoes and islands. They have also been responsible for the volcanoes that have formed within the great continents. All over the world you hear of old dormant volcanoes erupting and distur bing the lives of thousands. Sometimes taking some of the inhabitants with them.

Scientists know where the major fault lines are and can estimate where the next earth quake/volcano will occur. They (the scientists) are learning daily more and more on how to predict when and where they could occur but are still a long way off from really understanding what really causes these events. They have created earthquakes by pumping water into fault lines thereby causing it to shift and release the pressure in such a way that it causes none or very minor damage instead of letting it go on until it becomes a cataclismic event.

I lived along the Mississippi River in Minnesota and really didn't know that the reason we had to keep straightening the pictures hanging on the wall was because of the water flowing along the Mississippi that it was releasing the pressure in the fault line that runs deep underground of the river.

Man has learned how to build tall buildings and homes in an area that has the potential of having large quakes but there is no way that they can safeguard us against an 8.0 or greater quake. Then again it must have been a 9.0 or worse quake at least to have made all the continents to move away from each other, thereby creating the world as we know it today.

Scientists are busy studying the shifting of the continents with the help of the GPS system. Now it has been announced that the GPS and the European system will work together, thereby creating a more accurate reading of just how much the continents are shifting and in which direction.