What can one say about the earthquake and tsunami that has hit Japan? Very little. It is all very humbling and scary to witness the raw death-dealing power of the planetary body that is supposed to house and sustain us.
What will happen next? We will see more earthquakes because that is the way of the Earth. We can also be assured that various marketers and religious leaders will find a cynical way to exploit our fear and questions to their own benefit. There are already a slew of books talking about 2012 being some kind of a apocalyptic date. (I had to chuckle as I was browsing these kinds of books at a local store and along side the various 2012 books was one that talked about the end of the world being in 2009). :-p
For the record, here is a list of all recorded fatal earthquakes. It proves that while the Earth gives us life, it is also a ruthless betrayer. We are just guests in its home and the host is erratic and prone to fits. Earthlings beware.
By my approximate count, that makes about 1,350 earthquakes with recorded fatalities since 1900. Of these, only 3 occurred in Canada, or 0.0002 percent (that’s 2/10,000 of one percent).
I realize that statistically, just because a coin toss comes up tails 99 times in a row, it doesn’t mean that it can’t come up heads on the 100th time. Therefore, just because in Canada it has only come up ‘fatal earthquake’ 3 out of 1,350 times in the past 111 years, it doesn’t mean that it can’t come up ‘fatal earthquake’ thereafter. I also don’t want to sound like I have any Schadenfreude towards the parts of the world where earthquakes have occurred more frequently than they have in Canada. I neither wish earthquakes with fatalities to happen in Canada or any other country. That said, I am oddly comforted by the fatal earthquake table to which you linked.
I am, however, looking forward to saying ‘I told you so’ after December 21, 2012, when the world just keeps on ticking past the end of the Mayan calendar, in much the same way as when you recently chuckled to yourself upon seeing the book prophesying the end of the world in 2009. Personally, I think that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 because the Mayans just got tired of updating it.