The Catalyst

By Chase Martin, Photo Editor

The air temperature intensity may be cooling with the arrival of fall, but in some areas around the globe, the intensity of earthquakes has increased dramatically. On Tuesday, September 29, an earthquake of 8.0 to 8.3 struck 120 miles off the coast of American Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. In the Indian Ocean area of Sumatra, two other earthquakes struck just one day apart, rattling the Indonesian people.

The Earthquake off of the coast of American Samoa struck in the early morning hours, local time. The massive earthquake caused a shift in mass beneath the ocean surface great enough to trigger a tsunami, a massive amount of water, like a wall, devastating anything in its path. In this case, the shores of Samoa and American Samoa were in that path. According to The Washington Post, approximately 99 people are considered dead, with many more missing.

President Obama wasted no time in issuing a major disaster declaration for the area later Tuesday night. The main issue with aide getting to the islands is their isolation, being around 2,300 miles from Hawaii and 4,500 miles from the west coast of the United States.

Not to leave American Samoa alone in the world of disaster, the Sumatran earthquakes occurred only one and two days after the tsunami in the Pacific Ocean. This time, the ring of fire along the Indian Ocean unleashed it’s fury with two earthquakes, one of magnitude 7.6, and the other of magnitude 7. The first of these quakes has left a current body count of about 200, according to the BBC News. Even though the second quake was almost as big as the first, there has been no immediate report of further damage causes by this second earthquake. According to the same BBC report, much of the damage caused by the quakes is due to fires from electrical malfunctions.

Even though the three major earthquakes within three days of each other are a coincidence, it may not seem that way to some people who have had to deal with the suffering. It just shows that anything can happen at anytime; there’s a sense of randomness in the world regarding this concept.