Page 62 - Signs Of The Last Day

Earthquakes

There is no doubt that there have been no other natural events in

history that have affected people to the extent that earthquakes have.
They can happen anywhere and at any moment. Throughout the cen-
turies, they have caused many deaths and great material loss. For this
reason, they have been greatly feared. Even the technology of the twen-
tieth and twentyfirst centuries has been able to prevent earthquake dam-
age only to a certain extent.
The 1995 earthquake in Kobe serves as an example to those who like
to think that technology will make it possible to harness nature. It will be
remembered that this earthquake came unexpectedly upon Japan’s

largest industrial and transportation center. In spite of the fact that it on-
ly lasted 20 seconds, as Time magazine reported, it caused about 100 bil-
lion dollars in damage. 8
In the last few years, major earthquakes have occurred repeatedly
and are among the foremost fears of people around the world. If we look
at the data collected by the American National Earthquake Information
Center for 1999, we find that 20,832 earthquakes happened somewhere

in the world. As a result, an estimated 22,711 persons lost their lives. 9
Several earthquakes that took place in the last 30 years are as
follows:
On July 28, 1976 an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude took
place in China, in which 242,000 people lost their lives and
164,000 were injured.
On December 7, 1988 an earthquake in Armenia cost the
lives of 20,000 people and 500,000 were left homeless.
On June 20, 1990, 40,000 people died and another 100,000

were injured in an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 in Iran.
The Kobe earthquake in 1995 lasted for only 20 seconds
though more than 6,000 people lost their lives and the econom-
ic damage caused was put at 132 million dollars.

Signs of the Last Day
60