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Ivy, I'm sorry about your Uncle, but I find going from saying it's a "terrible tragedy" to "shit happens" really fucked up.
It's not about my uncle, I just used it as an example. Oh, and the jump wasn't from "terrible tragedy" immediately to "shit happens." Duh.
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Saying it's a release valve because there's too many people in the world, is also messed up.
Pressure is pressure, whether geological or biological. I wasn't trying to be sadistic. It was a point. Duh.
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Could you go up to a mother who lost her kid, or some groveling orphan in the street and say "Sorry, kid. But it's good that all these people died. It was a release valve"?
Fucking hell. I'm sorry if you have family or friends that are/might be lost in it, but contrary to your obvious belief, I am not purposely being a dick. Oh yes, I just love going up to helpless orphans and saying "Your mommy's dead and I'm glad! Ha ha ha ha haaaa you little wretched brat! I hope you die from starvation and disease in the ensuing chaos because the world would be a better place without all your kind!"
There, now do you feel better for exposing me as the hatemongering bitch I really am? Me too.
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Can you imagine if something like this happened where you live?
Yup. Especially since Laramie is in the direct path of the shit that Yellowstone will bring. Personally, I'm rooting for it to happen in my lifetime. Of course we'll get up to 28 days of warning before it goes...
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And actually, tsunamis on this scale haven't occurred in over a century...
Nor was it the last tsunami on that particular scale, not including the ones that happened in the past and will happen in the future that are on a scale that makes this one look like bathwater splash. Like what humans have experienced has been the largest or most destructive of anything. Besides, it's only a so-called "natural disaster" when humans are involved. A tornado hits a town, it's a disaster. It hits the middle of the Mojave, no one notices but a handful of weather experts assigned to/studying that area. Actually it might be noticed more than most that hit in the middle of nowhere since it doesn't happen, but you get the picture.
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It wasn't a "really shallow" earthquake. It was a fucking 9.0.
Ivy's Geology Lesson #1 - Exploring The World Of Vocabulary
shal·low]
adj. shal·low·er, shal·low·est
1. Measuring little from bottom to top or surface; lacking physical depth.
How does this apply to earthquakes, class? Construction Crew A is building a road. They have a biiiiig mountain in the way and they need to find a way through. So they toss some dynamite on top of it and it blows up. But only an itty bitty bit of the mountain is gone. Gee willikers, I wonder why. So they keep tossing dynamite up and eventually the mountain is gone, but they blew all their budget on the dynamite, are way behind schedule, and never get a job again in their entire life.
Construction Crew B has the same problem, but they bury the dynamite deep in the mountain. It takes out half the mountain and in no time, and under budget, they finish the road, get lots of safety awards, and end up millionaires.
Now, why did Construction Crew B's plan work better?
Answer: It's simple fucking physics. Earthquakes don't just happen at some maaaagical spot in the earth's crust. They happen at ALL depths. The deeper the quake, the more destructive power it has, especially at the higher end of the R scale. Shallow quakes, even 9.0s aren't anywhere near as destructive. If this one had been deep at that magnitude, it would have wiped out half the population before the tsunami ever got anywhere near there.
Also, tsunamis can be caused by any number of things, including manmade events.
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That hasn't been recorded in forty years.
And in the grand scheme of geologic time, it won't even have been noticed. Unless some iota of the wave's passing is recorded in the sediment and actually lasts long enough to be fossilized, which is doubtful, given the way humans muck about with stuff.
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And yes, these people are too poor and deprived to move from where they were born and where their ancestors were born.
No. No one is so poor that they cannot move. Even if it means literally walking somewhere else. Unless you are physically chained down or looking across a chasm of molten fire, you can move. And before the "family" line comes into it, not everyone has family or has an immediate family that would be affected.
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A lot of them live in such a state of poverty that no one in this country could imagine it.
Except the people in this country that also live in it.
I don't know their level of poverty, but I do know the kind that sucks your soul into a deep pit and leaves you a useless blob of organs with no hope, no future, and no way out, save one. Four years ago, I would have welcomed a tsunami.
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I guess that means we should evacuate California and Japan.
We don't have to, no biggie. Besides, how many people would actually leave? The people who chose to live there certainly know the risks, so if they do die in a natural disaster, it's not like it wasn't expected. It's realistic to expect that. Not sadistic.
Anyway, that's about it. Unless you want to bring the "global warming" idiocies into it, in which case I will not even be able to beat down the myths and massive inaccurracies without causing my head to explode from the sheer stupidity of all. Though I'm sure my doctor would be thrilled since he's been trying to get my blood pressure up to normal levels for years...
And I know this has taken so long to type that the thread is probably dead, but if I don't get it out, I might also risk making my doctor happy. Besides, since 'flate pointed it out, I felt the need to confirm what a sadistic, cruel bitch I really am by thinking none of those people matter. I just tend to think in global terms, rather than individual ones. In individual terms, it all hurts a lot. In global terms, it really is very little more than a scoop of the bucket. Roughly, 100,000 is 1/6,000 of the population. Bucket.
