Learn

Have you ever been sleeping in your bed at night and then suddenly you start to feel your room shaking, pictures fall off the wall and things start falling off your shelves?

If you live on the coast of California you are probably familiar very familiar with this phenomenon called an earthquake. But do you know what causes the ground to shake? Also, imagine living on our planet thousands of years ago before our modern technology and knowledge of science… how do you think these ancient civilizations explained the shaking and rumbling of the ground beneath. Continue reading and learn about some ancient myths and legends that attempted to explain earthquakes and learn what causes these ground-shaking events.

For thousands of years ancient cultures have attempted to explain why the earth periodically shakes. Remember, these people did not have the scientific understanding of the world that we have today so they tried to explain these occurrences through stories and legends. In some West African cultures, they believed that life existed on a giant’s head-the plants and trees were his hair and the people and animals were the insects who wandered around on his scalp. They explained that earthquakes happened when the giant sneezed or turned his head suddenly.

In Japan, they believed that the ground floated on a sea of water and a monstrous catfish named Namazu kept the ground afloat. Whenever the catfish would move or flip around the ground would shake. In another version of this story, the wild catfish Namazu lived in the mud beneath the earth. This catfish had to constantly be restrained by the Kashima god who protected Japan from earthquakes. The Kashima god kept Namazu under control by pinning him under a powerful rock with divine powers. Whenever the Kashima god let down his guard for a minute or was distracted, Namazu would trash around and cause earthquakes.

In some Indian cultures they believed that the earth was a giant platform that was supported by eight mighty elephants. Earthquakes were caused by one of the elephants getting tired and lowering its head thus disrupting the balance of the earth. Other stories say that the earth was supported by four elephants who balanced on the back of turtle who balanced on a cobra. Earthquakes would happen when any of these animals would move.

In Greece, they believed that wild animals were trapped in caverns under the ground. Earthquakes were caused by the animals running around trying to escape.

In New Zealand they believed that Mother Earth had a child (the god Ru) inside her womb. Earthquakes were caused by the baby stretching and kicking.

Now that you know about how some ancient cultures tried to explain earthquakes…how do we explain earthquakes in our modern times? Well, the earth is made up of several layers… the earth’s inner core is a solid ball of nickel and iron surrounded by an outer core of molten metal. Surrounding the inner core there is an area of rock called the mantle (the upper mantle is solid rock; the lower mantle is molten rock).

The earth’s surface is called the lithosphere and the most brittle upper section of the lithosphere is called the crust (the land that we stand on and the land beneath the ocean are part of the crust). Over millions of years, the earth’s lithosphere has cracked forming seven large (and many smaller) tectonic plates that float on top of the molten rock below. The areas where two or more of these plates come together are called faults. Earthquakes occur when these plates slip against each other or one plate is driven up and over the other.

There are many more interesting things that you can learn about earthquakes…like where they usually occur and why, how they are measured and how to prepare for one. If you are interested…read on and learn about the shaking and rumbling of our active planet.