In the open sea, far from the

The Strength of Nature

The earth can produce forces which, if it’s put into numbers, our brains couldn’t really understand. The numbers behind such forces of n a t u r e e x i s t b e y o n d o u r m e a n i n g f u l understanding.

Our physical bodies, in comparison to those forces of nature, have virtually zero weight and resistance. If that energy was converted into a mathematical equation, our human body wouldn’t even be a rounding error. We would be statistically insignificant.

Luckily, most of us never need to endure such immense power. We might feel a strong wind, or a large wave at the beach might throw us like a rag doll. Some of us, heaven forbid, might experience a car accident. Then, we would get a small sense of what its like to be acted upon without our choice; to be utterly passive.

But, every so often, a small group of humans stands witness to the raw forces of nature that come to pass. They become the few who truly realize that nature doesn’t live alongside us. We live in nature. Our existence, and everything we’ve ever achieved, can be wiped away in a matter of minutes. And it’s as if we were never there to begin with.

The Force of a Tsunami

The 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean was one of the most murderous natural phenomena in all of human history. The earthquake which caused it was the third strongest earthquake ever recorded. The tsunami itself is nearly in the top ten deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Of all natural disasters we even know about, this tsunami is one of the deadliest. I doubt many people appreciate the scale of what happened in 2004. Look at the graph below.

The force of the 2004 earthquake is 12% of the energy produced by all the earthquakes of the 20th century. There were over 10,000 “strong” earthquakes in those 100 years, and our Indian Ocean earthquake was more than ten percent of the force of all of them put together.

The death toll was astronomical. 230,000 people died in the tsunami.

In comparison, 28,000 people died in the Japanese tsunami in 2011. That’s 28