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WOBLDWA!CB
An Overvi ew of Majar News Events and Trends
GIANT QUAKES
END SEISMIC LULL
The earthquake " lull" of recent
years is over.
The dramati c ups urge in th e
number o f "giant" earthquakes this
year, seismologists say, could in–
dicate a return to a "mo re normal"
higher leve! of global seismic activ–
ity than has been the case during
the past decade and a half.
"The last 15 yea rs or so have been
unusually quiet in terms of large
and g iant earthquakes," says Dr.
Don
L.
Anderson, director of Cal–
tech 's Seismological Laboratory in
Pasadena, Ca lifornia. He notes that
du ring that period there were only
four "giant" (8 .0 or higher on the
Richter scale) ea rthquakes - an av–
erage of one every three or four
years .
But so far this year,
three
giants
have already rocked various por–
tions of the earth! "What's happen–
ing," expla ins Dr. Anderson, " is that
we're coming out of a lull in seismic
activity."
The period 1900-1960 saw almost
two giant quakes each yea r. Having
had three magnitude-S or greater
quakes this yea r - with still two
months to go - it has become clear
to seismologists that, according to
Dr. Anderson, "we are getting back
up to the long-term average of
earthquakes, both in magnitude and
in frequency."
Aside from the three "giants," ten
"major" (7.0 to 7.9) quakes have oc–
curred thus far in 1976, about par
for the yearly average of 12 during
the 1960- 1975 period. By the end of
this yea r, the number could well ex–
ceed that average. But for quakes in
the "maj or" category, this year is
still below the annual average of 18
to 20 in the 1900-1950 period. But
the trend is clearly upward.
This year's quakes have attracted
6
more attention than usua l, however.
beca use severa !. of them have struck
densely populated areas and caused
a great dea l of deat h and dest ruc–
tion . T he death toll fro rn quakes thi s
year has fa r exceedcd tha t of the
past severa! years. each of which a v–
eraged "on ly" 20,000 o r so deaths.
Tens o f thousand . perhaps even
hundreds
of thousands dicd in China
alone t his year in a ser ies of wrench–
ing quakes.
Starting in February. a major
quake rneasuring 7.5 on the Richter
sca le virtua lly tore Guatemala in
half. killing 23.000 and leaving over
a million homeless.
During the next few months,
killer quakes hit lta ly, the Soviet
Union, Mexico, Ba li, and New
Gu inea in rapid success ion.
Then. on July 28. a major temblor
- originally labeled 8.2 but la ter
revised downward to 7.6 - and a
powerful aftershock devasta ted a
wide region of China and leveled
Tangshan, a n industrial center with
a population of one million. At fi rst.
Chinese officia ls wou ld only adm it
to "grea t losses," la ter to 100,000
killed, but many authorities feel the
real to ll could be much higher.
Less than one month later, in
mid-August, more than 8,000 died
o r were reponed missing j n the
worst earthquake to hit the Ph ilip–
pines in recorded history -a giant
q uake registering 8.0. Whole vil–
lages were sucked out to sea by re–
ceding tidal waves, and 175.000
were left homeless.
fn addition to t he Philippine
giant, two other giant quakes oc–
curred this year, centered, fortu–
nately, in the southwest Pacific
Ocean abou t 600 mi les north of
New Zeala nd .
One of the bib lically prophesied
signs of the end of the age is " earth–
quakes in various places" (Matthew
24:7, RSV). Could the current up–
surge in seismic activity signa! the
begi nning of a pe ri od o f mo re
frcq uen t and increasingly destruc–
tive earthquakes, to culminate in the
greatcst earthquake of all history
(Rev. 16: 18)?
o
SELLING
ARMAGEDDON
The re is enough nuclear raw ma–
teria l outside the United States and
the Soviet Union to ma ke ove r 1,500
smal l atomic bombs. This fac t has
led ma ny American a uthorities to
fea r th a t the spread of nuclear tech–
no logy is ge tting out of hand. lt has
also engendered a controversy over
what the U.S. can or should do
about it.
When uranium i used for peace–
ful purposes, such as in generating
electricity, it is not completely used
up. The " unburned" ura nium, if re–
processed, can be recovered for fur–
ther use. The costliness of nuclea r
power makes such " rccycli ng" a t–
tractive. But the catch is that repro–
cessing produces not only usable
u ranium, but a lso plutonium. the
key ingredi ent o f atom bombs.
By 1985 nearly 40 countri es a re
expectcd to have enough plutonium
to become nuclear powers. The key
factor in whether such nations ac–
tually do become nuclear powers is
the efficacy of the various legal
"sa feguard" agreements which usu–
a lly accompany sa les o f nucl ea r
reactors and uranium fue!. Such
agreements are intend ed to account
for all nuclear fue! used up, to make
ce rtain tha t no plutonium genera ted
is " lost" or purpose ly diverted into
unsavory proj ects.
How Safe Are Safeguards?
Since the Eisenhower administ ra–
tion began the Ato rns for Peace pro–
gram, there h as been a heavy
reliance on trea ties a nd agreements
The
PLAIN TRUTH November 1976