SOUL SEARCH

Lessons on Earthquakes and Tsunamis

By Fr. Johnny Go, SJ

School Director

Posted Tuesday, 14-Jun-2005 11:15 AM

Homily delivered by Fr. Johnny Go, SJ at the High School Mass of the Holy Spirit on 14 June 2005

During this long weekend I came across a couple of fascinating articles about the tsunami that struck several countries in Asia last December. We know that the tsunami of December 2004 devastated villages and towns along the coast of the Indian Ocean , destroying over 200,000 lives.

But according to one article, not only has this major natural disaster changed the lives of so many people, but unknown to us, it has also left a lasting impact on the entire planet far beyond all the visible wreckage.

Based on a study done by Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Dr. Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the massive earthquake that caused the tsunami changed the planet earth itself in three ways:

First, as a result of the powerful earthquake, recorded as the fourth largest quake in the last 100 years, the earth’s North Pole has been moved about an inch. According to computer calculations made by Chao and Gross, the location of the North Pole has moved about 2.5 centimeters (or 1 inch) toward Guam in the Pacific Ocean .

Secondly, the earth has also become a little bit rounder. Earth tends to be flat on the top, bulging out a bit near the equator. As a result of the shift in tectonic plates during the earthquake last December, a certain amount of mass was shoved toward the center of Earth, causing the shape of the planet to become rounder.

Finally, this change in the earth’s shape has also shortened the day because it increased the speed of earth’s rotation. The same thing happens when a spinning skater pulls his arms closer to his body: He ends up turning faster. Since the earthquake has made the earth a little rounder, the planet has been spinning on its axis just a little bit faster too. This has shortened the 24-hour day by 2.8 microseconds. In other words, a single day on earth has become shorter.

Obviously, these changes are not perceptible to us at all, but scientists tell us that they are no less significant. What’s fascinating is that we knew that the tsunami has changed the worlds of the hundreds of thousands who lost property and especially friends and relatives in the disaster, but now we are realizing that that same disaster was also literally world-changing.

What can we learn from all this?

From science we learn that earthquakes like this one result from the occasional shifts in the earth’s tectonic plates. During that last major earthquake, the shift was quite substantial: One region of the sea floor near the quake’s epicenter dropped as much as 66 feet, while another region moved horizontally as far as 36 feet. No wonder it such massively destructive waves were generated!

What I find most intriguing about all this is that these tectonic shifts are so natural and common in our world, but they are unique to this one planet Earth. These so-called natural phenomena are found only in our planet, but they are natural or common in no other planet in the solar system. Mars, for example, has no tectonic plates and, therefore, no earthquakes. From all evidences, Mars is a cold, airless, lifeless planet.

It seems that earthquakes seem to be a necessary part of an entire system that makes life possible. It is hardly any coincidence that the only planet in the Solar System that experiences tectonic activities, earthquakes, and tsunamis, is also the only planet that is known to support life. Earthquakes and all its deadly consequences are part of an elaborate tectonic system that allows our planet to recycle carbon, which is essential to life. As the article puts it, “the long fruitful existence of a biosphere may require that a planet be dynamic—and sometimes tragically violent.”

By now, you must be wondering what these science lessons are doing in the middle of this Mass. The point I’m trying to make is that science can teach us a lot not only about the physical world, but also about our world, the human world.

In this case, from these science lessons about earthquakes, we can draw lessons about what life must be like and how we ought to live it. As in the physical world, change and pain are very much part and parcel of our lives. Nobody likes them, but they seem to be a necessary part of life; in fact, they often even provide the very conditions that make life and growth possible. The correct response to situations where change and pain arise is not to run away from them as most of us who are allergic to pain tend to do, but that we rise to face the challenges they provide.

And so, my dear students, I have two messages for you today as we face this new school year:

First, learning, like every valuable human enterprise, is a task that will entail change and because of that it will involve challenges and pain. But take heart. Remember the lesson from the earthquake. We must accept and endure these challenges and pain if we want learning to change us, if we want learning to make a difference in our lives.

Secondly, science—and come to think of it, every single lesson that you will study and learn in school, regardless of the subject areas—are potentially instructive about life if we uncover these hidden lessons. All the apparently fragmented concepts and skills taught in the different subject areas are all interconnected if we try hard enough to dig deeper and to reflect about them.

In the gospel today, our Lord opens the Book of Isaiah and from it reads the Word of God. As we face this school year, the Lord lays before us yet another book which He wants us to open—the book of human knowledge, which is a compilation of your books in science and math, history and literature, a book from which you can draw the insights and knowledge that the human race has acquired in all its history. Our Lord invites you to open this book and to learn from it the accumulated wisdom of the human race.

Let us pray at this Mass of the Holy Spirit that the Lord will grant us the light to learn from this wisdom and to recognize Him and His Word.

At this Mass of the Holy Spirit, let us call on the Holy Spirit to descend upon each and everyone of us, to inspire us and to guide us as we begin this year of learning. Most of all, we ask the Holy Spirit to ignite our hearts so that we may face the new school year with great passion and uncover the hidden lessons in all that we study in class.

JOHNNY C. GO, SJ

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