Asia's Devastation

It's all over the news - the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that has devastated Asia. 11,300 dead so far, and millions affected. This could almost be a post for WorldChanging.com - like this. However, Cameron Sinclair beat me to it, and continues to here at Architecture for Humanity.

Joe Broadhurst notes:

...The world's worst tsunami in recent history struck on July 17, 1998, when three waves ripped through Papua New Guinea's northwest coast, killing 2,500...

More details are available at the Wikipedia entry, '2004 Indian Ocean earthquake'.

Well, that's been beaten - unfortunately. But this really is very interesting from a variety of perspectives. First - it would seem that no country in the world would have been able to detect the tsunami. Because of the fact that Tsunami's only gain height as the grow nearer the coast (at directly proportional level; consult this entry in the Wikipedia). Since this particular earthquake happened at sea, it caused the tsunami at a great depth.

The depth below sea level could be seen as a good thing - an earthquake of 8.9 on the Richter Scale, at sea level, could have wreaked devastation in a populated area. But it would have been isolated; in this case it affected more by being underwater.

Another interesting thing to realize is that the people who inhabit coastal areas in this region are typically poor people. The more financially stable (and buoyant!) members of society tend to live inland - which is markedly intelligent, in a case such as this. And yet, in the United States, the reverse is actually true. This is a very interesting reversal of financial ability and geographic location. Sadly, this was something which I only have noted because of the incident.

Another perspective to look at this from is one of the 'mood' of the Earth over the last year. Consider the hurricanes of 2004, and even the recent minor earthquake in Trinidad and Tobago. Something is happening. The tectonic plates are moving, the weather systems are changing. This may be food for the doomsayers, and yet... humanity has a long history of survival. The question now becomes, "How?"

For the millions affected, for the people who have lost family members - condolences are not enough, but there is some solace in the fact that what could be done was done - nothing. And what is being done is being done by agencies seasoned by past disasters.

Is the planet finding a new balance? And if it is, what is our place within this new balance?