blog 48

Blog 48

Hurricanes that flood cities. Tornadoes that level towns. Tsunami's that completely derail one of the most technologically advanced nation's on Earth. The power of nature fascinates me. Even as humans become incredibly sophisticated and seemingly capable of solving any problem, we will never be able to tame the raw power of the natural disasters of this world. Almost every day, we hear of some sort of storm, earthquake or flood that tears lives apart. While it is always incredibly sad to hear of these terrors, it is at the same time very intriguing. It makes me realize how insignificant the little problems in my day are. While I wake up and worry about how I am going to get my coffee before I hurry off to class, people elsewhere may have just had their town washed away by a tsunami, or flattened by a tornado. The awesome power of these storms is at the same time terrifying and beautiful. But possibly the most amazing feature of natural disasters is that even though they cause incredible destruction, some are extremely beneficial to the surrounding environment. Take floods for example, rivers such as the Nile in Egypt and the Mississippi flood periodically and therefore cause the surrounding soil to be extremely fertile. This periodic flooding of the Nile was the reason the ancient Egyptian civilizations were able to thrive in what would otherwise be an inhospitable desert. Wildfires provide the heat to crack the otherwise dormant seeds of certain types of pine trees. The paradoxical destruction and benefits of the natural disasters of this world are simply fascinating.