Devastating Blip

The image of Earth that we have been accustomed to seeing since the 1960s is the green and blue and white globe photographed from Apollo spacecraft and the moon. How placid, smooth and compact the Earth seemed, how cool and serene. We know differently, of course, as the devastating volcanic eruption in Colombia has reminded us.

In fact, the Earth is in constant turmoil just beneath the surface. Plates of the Earth’s crust, floating on molten rock, drift and plunge, scrape against each other and collide. The result is the thrusting up of mountain ranges and the opening of oceans--and the origination of earthquakes and volcanoes. Italy was once part of an Adriatic plate, driven into Europe by Africa. The West Coast was in Wyoming. California someday will be an island. As residents of the Pacific Rim, we all live literally on the edge.

Measured against geologic time and the massive shifting of continents, the Colombian eruption was a mere blip. This is scarcely solace for the lamented, unnumbered victims and the grieving survivors in that passionate, tragic country. But it may be useful for us to recognize from time to time how fragile and transitory human life can be--perched on the stressed skin of a largely inorganic and indifferent spheroid spinning through space.