My story

Summary:

My Story and questions below

My story

Cade (guest) 07 Apr 2010 02:03

Well, I have really been bothered by the 2012 hoax for a very long time. It started in 8'th grade actually during my reading class. I can't exactly remember what we were talking about, but I remember one kid saying, "The Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012."

At first I shrugged it off as I remember a year ago my cousin saying aliens would come by and kill us all. Then later on, it started to bother me. I would always playback that moment in my head and people were bringing it up, even my friends. So from then on out, I ignored it, then thought about it, eventually making it to where I thought about it every day! I would get depressed but still pick up and move on, but even so it took me down from time to time and then one day, last year, I saw an IHC ad on TV and it just looked so real and its slogan "ensuring the end, is just the beginning" scared me horribly. So by then, I tried my best to ignore it thinking it was just a hoax (which it was, but I didn't know at the time) to where the next day in Algebra class I asked one of my class-mates, "You dont really believe that 2012 crap do you?" trying to hide my fear. The person I asked isn't really a good person to talk to, but I really wanted to know if others believed it. He said, "Hey, if they are advertising it, its true! I saw a program on TV where they advertised it so if 2012 is my last years alive I am going to be the meanest person I can be!" He even at one point mentioned the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull story. If anyone can give some background about that, I would be more than welcome.

After about 20 minutes later I asked to call home and my mother picked me up. She asked what was wrong and I started to cry saying about the commercial and how they said there were predictions. She made me feel a little better after that, then I looked on Wikipedia for some help and it said it was Psuedoscience and so it started to make me feel more comfortable. For awhile I started to disbelieve it more and more and even make a joke or two about it. But then, after becoming paranoid with checking CNN articles this year, I saw we had Earthquakes more and more and it started to worry me… What made things worse were the comments below it with a bunch of people saying there were "signs" and saying it is out of the ordinary. I really started to feel uncomfortable and sometimes I would just stop doing what I was doing and refresh YouTube and forum pages constantly for no reason. I even sometimes felt like crying. But then I just Google searched, "The world is not ending" and on the third page I found this site. Now I feel confident about other things.

Although really, I guess I am new to the Earthquake stuff as I never really payed attention to them in the past until I got in my World History class. But please, can someone give me a more comforting saying on the recent Earthquakes?

Re: My story

Alene Y 07 Apr 2010 03:15

Hi Cade,
I'm very sorry to hear that you have been frightened for so long just because the hoaxers and Sony Pictures only care about making money. I gather our site has helped you with most of your doubts. Here is some information I got from the USGS. I have also seen a number of answers posted by a professional geologist saying essentially the same things. I hope this helps. Come back and ask if you start to get scared again.

The number and magnitude of earthquakes is not increasing. Our ability to detect them is greatly increasing. They are also being reported by the news media more rapidly and covered more widely.
Earthquakes of the magnitude of the Haiti and Chile quakes happen on the average 2 to 3 times per year. It is just coincidence that these two occurred closely together.

"The USGS estimates that several million earthquakes occur in the world each year. Many go undetected because they hit remote areas or have very small magnitudes. The NEIC now locates about 50 earthquakes each day, or about 20,000 a year.

As more and more seismographs are installed in the world, more earthquakes can be and have been located. However, the number of large earthquakes (magnitude 6.0 and greater) has stayed relatively constant.

A partial explanation may lie in the fact that in the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more than 8,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by electronic mail, internet and satellite. This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate earthquakes more rapidly and to locate many small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years. The NEIC now locates about 20,000 earthquakes each year or approximately 50 per day. Also, because of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in the environment and natural disasters, the public now learns about more earthquakes.

According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year."

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/increase_in_earthquakes.php
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php

Re: My story

Cade (guest) 07 Apr 2010 03:50

Thank you so much, I guess I will just have to avoid reading comments from CNN's website from now on. Its amazing on what people do when they have nothing to do.

Re: My story

Alene Y 07 Apr 2010 05:46

I'm glad we could help. That's our purpose here, to combat the 2012 hoax and help people by giving them the scientific truth about it. As for CNN, they are reporting what sells and that is sensationalism. If they said "The Earth is doing what it has always done," it wouldn't garner much interest.

Re: My story

Astrogeek 07 Apr 2010 15:16

Hi Cade;

I can't add much to what Alene has already told you. I will say that after a couple of 'big' earthquakes (Haiti and Chile) that the news media tends to go bat-crazy over earthquakes. The local stations near where I live (San Francisco Bay Area) have taken to interrupting programming to announce earthquakes as low as 3.0. That's about as much shaking as when a train goes by. This tends to reinforce the mistaken idea that there are more earthquakes than usual.

---

"Do you ever think about things you do think about?" - Henry Drummond to Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind

Re: My story

Cade (guest) 07 Apr 2010 21:19

Oh I see. I guess alot of things get out of hand from time to time then. I am new to that sort of thing.

As for the Earthquakes, for the Pacific Ring of Fire, I presume ones like 7.0-7.8 aren't out of the ordinary then?

Re: My story

Keith (guest) 08 Apr 2010 00:51

Not at all. With all the continental plates and volcanoes associated with the Ring of Fire, earthquakes are par for the course.