Earthquakes for a California Dummy

Earthquakes as envisioned by Hollywood and English majors

We see some pretty cockamamie ideas cycling through the internet, compliments of the folks at Leaf Group (formerly Demand Media, parent company of eHow.com, aka "the mother lode of misinformation"). The rubbish that liberal arts graduates have pumped out under the category of science is some of the worst, however, garbage such as that from today's DotD awardee. She's Brit Hayley Ames, proud possessor of a "Bachelor of Arts in English language and literature," which curriculum apparently skipped any science – even rocks for jocks – as she demonstrated in "What Happens Underground During an Earthquake?" for Sciencing.com (a site whose very name is a travesty).

According to Ames,

"The plates that cover the surface of the Earth are constantly moving due to changes in the molten rock deep within the Earth. The type of activity that takes place between these moving plates can result in earthquakes. Less often, the underground activity that takes place during an earthquake is volcanic. Earthquakes occur on the earth’s surface, far away from the site of the action, as a result of seismic waves."

Besides being vague – "the type of activity"? really? – that's utter rubbish since it follows the typical scientifically-illiterate notion that the center of the earth is a gigantic puddle of molten rock. But we digress... let's see what Hayley says about, well, what happens during an earthquake.

"Tectonic Plates: ...Movements within the Earth caused by variations in temperature cause gradual movements in these plates..." "Plate Boundaries: In some places, the edges of tectonic plates are rough and brittle..." "Volcanic Activity: ...More rarely, earthquakes may be caused by volcanic activity. When magma moves into a new area underground, it encounters objects that may stop it flowing smoothly... When magma moves underground, it can also cause rock to move into the empty spaces that were once occupied by magma but have now been left behind as it has moved on."

So far, nothing about "what happens during an earthquake." Oddly, though the notions of "variations in temperature" and "rough and brittle" are laughably sophomoric, the fact that moving magma bodies can cause earthquakes is demonstrably true (our chief geologist was heard muttering something about blind pigs and acorns).

As for the facts? What happens underground during earthquakes is that there's sudden movement along part of a fault; the amount of movement dies out laterally in all directions but the shock propagates outward in the form of seismic waves – those are what's sensed at the surface. There's no "big hole" opened up, no underground "empty spaces" smashed closed; there's just a JERK! and that's all she wrote.

Well, at least that's what people who've studied science say. As for people who have a BA in English lit? Well, they just reword some vaguely related stuff to get paid for spreading misinformation. That's the reason we hand out a new Dumbass of the Day award every day to people like Ames.

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SI - EARTHQUAKES