Earthquake Prediction (2004-09-17)
Before we moved to Tokyo, I only experienced earthquake twice. Both times happened in San Jose, California where I was living and attending high school. The first one was kind of big and caused things on the shelves to tumble onto the floor. I was quite scared.
Since we came to Japan, we've gone through numerous
earthquakes. Although they have been "mild", they used to startle
me a bit. But after experiencing over a hundred of them, a
shaking room doesn't stir me up as much as it used to anymore.
However figures released by seismologists in Japan recently did stir
me up. These scientists have predicted that Tokyo is
overdue for a major disaster. The chance of a catastrophic
earthquake hitting this city in the next thirty years is 70 percent and
the probability jumps to 90 percent in the next fifty years. They
also predict that during that apocalyptic earthquake, 140000
buildings will topple, 380000 fires will rage through Tokyo, 7000
people will die and 150000 people will be injured. If old age
hasn't killed me by 2054, I could still witness such a monstrous
disaster.
I don't know which is more disquieting for me, seeing such a devastating earthquake or having to live that long to see it?
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