This week CNN has been spending lots of air time on the two big earthquakes that occured in Preu and in Utah.
The 8 point quake that hit Preu distroyed about 80 percent of the town (city?) as well as other more remote areas were distroyed, killing as many as 500 people (and more bodies are unearthed daily). Many people died due to the way the houses and buildings were poorly constructed which is a man made factor.
But the Utah mine cave-in was caused by a small 3.9 point quake and CNN is now starting to report that it those two quakes (the last one killing miners that were trying to rescue the burried miners) were "man made" events. The reason being that they have dug so many mines in that mountain that the weight on the top of the mountain is caving in those mines causeing "bumps" (a word use in that business) or earthquakes. quakes that are not due to natural shifts in the earth's plates.
This has caused concern over the whole process by which the government approves a mine as being 'safe'.
Was it science and technology that filed us relative to this mining incident or was it simply greed to make a buck that overpowered the science? In Japan the world's largest nuclear plant had to be shut down due to leaks caused by an earthquake. In a country known for big quakes was that plant really as safe as they thought it was, based on the science and technology behind it's design? Can we still trust such science or the right of governments to approve them as being safe?
I put this here so that it is not just a potical debate, but one well grounded in sceintific knowledge. That is, well gounded until that ground starts shaking! (play on words). These are emotional times for those involved in those quakes and rescue efforts, and I am not just on a witch hunt to blame someone. But to examine our trust in technology and if we should remian all that faithful.
As I write this another monster hurricane is heading into the Gulf of Mexico and it could have a status of 5 which can have distructive effects when it moves inland. If the hurricane shold move north west it might endanger the oil industry like the last big one did ( with expected price hikes at the gas stations resulting - again, with ripple effects on our economy). No one knows yet where the hurricane will go once it enters the Gulf of Mexico. In the last monster hurricane we found out that our "science" and our "governmental concern" about technology failed us, and we lost a whole city too flooding. The water temperature in the gulf is 86 degrees which has led to some speculation that man-made global warming is cauing those superstorms in the gulf to have a much worse effect while governmental policy is turning a blind eye to the scientific evidence.
At the bottom of the page of the link provided is some data about the man-made (unnatural) mine quake. Perhaps CNN will post more details about it tomorrow on their webpage.
Rescue operation at Utah mine turns deadly - CNN.com
Aug 18, 2007, 12:18 am
