Oh, I don't know... might have put a lot of unhappy poeple out of their misery. I think devestation like this is essential to growth. I know what you're thinking, "But, breaking stuff doesn't help it grow, it breaks it! MORON!" And, you're right, but you're wrong as well. Sometimes things need to be destroyed to make way for better things. Forest fires are a great example. They suck, but they are actually good for the environment. The tsunami destroyed many people and a lot of homes, lands and business. At the same time, however, it brought the survivors closer together, many of whom were at odds with each other. It hurt, but I think it was necessary.

~X

Jp wrote:

Er... Earthquakes don't set off chain reactions.

Sure they can. They can hit a sensitive area, fault line, or another unstable tectonic plate or volcano.

They OCCUR on unstable faultlines. They're caused by a fault line BECOMING stable. They can't hit another one because of that. And though volcanos and things could be set off by them, that ISN'T a chain reaction, because it DOESN'T keep GOING. I like RANDOM capitalization. It is FUN!

They were talking about it on ABC News tonight (that's Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for you Americans). I'm no expert on earthquakes, but according to the people that they interviewed and the information they gave, it was sort of like a chain reaction; the Boxing Day earthquake relieved some of the stress, and then the recent earthquake relieved a different part of the stress in a slightly different location.

Seismologists expect more quakes, and they expect them to travel southeast along the fault line (closer to Australia, in fact, though still way up north, so we're both safe =)).

Elation wrote:

"Cheesus"?

Yes. Cheesus Crust all Milky.