Explaining Earthquakes, the Dummies Version

Aftermath of major earthquake

One recurring complaint about the current state of American education is the generational decrease in scientific literacy. Whether one believes this to be a devil's bargain between Christian conservatives and the Republican Party to make Fox News viewers believe climate change is a Chinese hoax, or just an outgrowth of the dwindling attention span of the average teenager, all we have to do is look at the output of modern-day self-appointed freelancer writers for evidence that these people know darned near nothing about science. We called the Antisocial Network's staff geologist out of her semi-retirement to dissect the scientific illiteracy of one longtail, who (pretended to) explain "What Causes Earthquakes" for his (or her) readers at HubPages.com. Sadly, he didn't do very well...

Longtail introduces the topic by telling us, simplistically, that

"Earthquakes originate where rock structures beneath the surface of the land break up and move along lines known as faults."

Which is sort of true. What should come next is a discussion of why those faults occur and what mechanism causes them. Longtail tries, sort of, by next saying that

"Earth tremors... are almost all limited to certain regions. These regions correspond to the major mountain ranges, volcanoes, and deep sea trenches where land is still being built up and where subterranean, or underground, activity is therefore most frequent."

Longtail's key statement, of course, is that "land is... being built up." That's where his train of knowledge, such as it is, first leaves the tracks. It stays off the tracks for the remainder of the article, in fact. Oh, sure, longtail makes some bold statements about "the creation of large crevices in the surface of the earth" and tsunamis, but if you read this article carefully, you notice that the moron doesn't say jack about the topic of causation. Although the post is titled "What Causes Earthquakes," the closest longtail gets to discussing cause and effect is a copy-reword-paste job about shallow-focus earthquakes, about which he boldly states, "The shallow quakes are thought to be the rapid release of slowly accumulated strain along fault lines extending over a wide region. The rupture of a fault and the friction between faulting rock surfaces produces the elastic waves."

After which we wanted to ask longtail, "What shallow quakes?" and then immediately follow it up with, "Cite your sources so we can learn from someone who knows the difference between an earthquake and a hole in the ground." In other words, you're a dumbass, longtail: you're our Dumbass of the Day for publishing this load of crap.

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