what's shakin'? what's quakin'?
the myths we made for volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis
Hello!
It’s geology week! Woohoo!
Every four weeks I write about geology, the science which inspired me to write and record a whole album of songs about tectonic movements, volcanoes and fossils (coming 2024! read more about the recording process here).
I love taking this time to share with you some stories, further my own research and understanding of geology, and also show how people and geology are interconnected in so many more ways than we realise.
What does the wind, a whale, a catfish, and an angel all have in common? Read on to find out…
As we know, the earth has been quakin’ since the dawn of the planet. And the civilisations that have come before us have all had to deal with the shockwaves and aftermath. In fact, people quite often chose to build cities near tectonic boundaries, as the volcanic activity there produced fertile soil and precious metals. So humans have been living with earthquakes and volcanoes for quite some time.
But we couldn’t fully explain this phenomena. Plate tectonics were only discovered in the 1960’s. Yep, that’s pretty late to the game!
So how did we make sense of geological events before then? This is what I’ve been wondering lately. How did humans explain earthquakes, floods and volcanoes before we developed geology to what it is today?
After some research, here’s some of the more interesting folklore and theories:
⚡️Thunderbird & Whale
One of the songs I wrote for my geology concept album (coming 2024!) is called Juan de Fuca, and is about the small tectonic plate which is subducting under the North American plate. This border lies 15 miles off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, and stretches from British Columbia to northern California. Juan de Fuca has historically caused one of the largest earthquakes modern America has seen, with a magnitude 9 going off in January, the year 1700. There was geological and other natural evidence of this earthquake and the subsequent tsunami, but no written records. However, the Indigenous people of America have passed knowledge from generation to generation through stories, and some of these stories from various groups describe earthquakes and tsunamis. And some of these stories line up with the timeline of the Cascadia earthquake in 1700.
One of these stories is about the fight between Thunderbird and Whale, and is told by groups such as the Quileute people in Olympia, Washington, as well as people that lived in Vancouver Island, all the way down to Oregon.
There are several variations of the Thunderbird vs Whale rumble. These two animals are supernatural beings of immense power and size, and some stories tell of Thunderbird digging their claws into Whale’s back and being dragged underwater, which caused great rumblings of the earth and water. Another rendition is that Thunderbird picks up Whale (poor whale!) and drops them on the ground, making the ground shake immensely. Thunderbird and Whale have also been involved in stories which explain glacial moraines, landslides, thunderstorms and rain.
🌊 Giant Catfish
Across the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese were also telling stories about gigantic, godlike fish, and their ability to make the ground shake. Yes, a giant catfish! Since the 16th century, catfish have been associated with earthquakes in Japan. There is a legend that earthquakes are caused by a giant catfish that lives in the mud underground. This catfish is called Namazu, and it kept under control by a stone placed on top of him. When the god in charge of watching Namazu is distracted (or on holiday, to visit the other gods), Namazu sets himself free and thrashes about, causing the ground above to rumble and shake.
Funnily enough, there had been recorded instances in Japan of catfish becoming agitated before earthquakes. So researchers in Tokyo put together an experiment that lasted 16 years, studying the connection between catfish and earthquakes. Unfortunately the project was cut off by its sponsors as they thought the results weren’t becoming any more conclusive. Fund the catfish earthquake data, goddammit! Researchers, studying seven fish at a time, said that five or six of the fish started becoming more active before 60-70% of the earthquakes recorded. They believed there was enough evidence for a continued investigation into the link between catfish and seismology.
🌋 The Notorious G-O-D
Who’s our favourite being to blame when it comes to the world’s mysterious ways? (I don’t know why I started thinking of the Shaq soundtrack when reading that sentence back over) Good ol’ Bible God, and his Old Testament wrath, that’s who! In the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah were razed by God and two of his angels. Fire and brimstone consumed the naughty cities! Various accounts in the Bible talk about fire raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the land going up in smoke. Historians wonder if this is an account of an earthquake or volcanic eruption which actually happened near the Dead Sea.
The most popular hypothesis is that an earthquake levelled Sodom and Gomorrah. The Dead Sea lies along a transform boundary, which means two tectonic plates are rubbing up against each other, going in different directions. This, naturally, has caused earthquakes.
There’s also some other theories about this story: one is that ascending magma from an imminent volcanic event ignited some oil deposits in the earth. And another theory backed by archaeological evidence shows two settlements in this area whose existence were impacted by basalt lava flows. Perhaps the animals and people of these towns escaped a direct eruption, but died as a result of inhaling the volcanic gases.
🌬 Winds
Here’s a more scientific explanation for earthquakes. Let’s go back to Ancient Greece, and hang out with Aristotle for a while. Who was a major fan of winds? Aristotle was a major fan of winds! To him, winds explained many things.
What caused meteorites to fall from the sky? Winds! Aristotle reasoned that meteorites weren’t extraterrestrial objects, but were in fact rocks which were picked up by a strong wind and dropped elsewhere on earth.
And what caused earthquakes? Winds! For Aristotle, there were various ways in which winds could cause this. He reasoned that evaporation was a type of wind which could get trapped within the earth and then release itself elsewhere, causing the ground to shake. He essentially compares these subterranean winds to the winds within, uh, ourselves (yes, I guess we are talking about farts, Aristotle), and says that the longer the winds are trapped within the earth, the stronger the earthquake:
The severity of the earthquake is determined by the quantity of wind and the shape of the passages through which it flows. Where it is beaten back and cannot easily find its way out the shocks are most violent, and there it must remain in a cramped space like water that cannot escape.
- Aristotle, Meterology
🪶 And now for something completely different…
The original idea behind this newsletter was the Colossus of Rhodes, and the earthquake which brought him tumbling down. Contrary to our collective imagination, there’s no way the statue could have stood astride the port of Rhodes, as this would have been a feat of engineering that was not yet possiblein Ancient Greece. So it was most likely that he was standing off to the side.
In 266 BC Colossus was toppled by an earthquake. The people of Rhodes considered rebuilding, but were warned by an oracle that this was a bad idea, as Helion, the god the statue was based on, wouldn’t have been too happy about it. To be fair, Helion was probably behind the whole “knocking it down” in the first place.
It was in my research about this statue story that I came across the writings of Strabo, a Greek philosopher, geographer and historian (Strabo also had some theories on the former locations of Sodom and Gomorrah!). He wrote about a trip he took to Rhodes in the first century, and noted that the ruins of Colossus still remained in Rhodes, the statue having snapped at the knees.
Then, he went on to tell this story, which I think is one of my new favourite stories from history:
Strabo made a note of other popular artworks which gathered a lot of attention in Rhodes: paintings by the artist Protogenes. Protogenes’ painting of the ancient city Ialysus and his Satyr were very popular, however the satyr painting caused a bit of trouble for him, the poor fella. This painting depicted a lil goat man (think Philotetes from Disney’s Hercules) standing next to a pillar, upon which perched a plump partridge. Much to the annoyance of Protogenes, who was probably like, “Look at this amazing satyr I painted,” the partridge was rendered so beautifully that it became the star of the show. People would look at the painting and say, “hey! That partridge looks like a real partridge!” and word spread about the partridge painting— so much so, that partridge-keepers actually would bring their own partridges to the painting and everyone would laugh when the real partridges would look at the painting and go “coo,” mistaking the painted Protogenes partridge for one of their pals, or, a potential paramour. This attracted, as Strabo writes, “a mob of people,” all wanting to see the partridges go “coo” at the painting partridge, and it annoyed Protogenes to the point that he eventually went “fuck it, fuck this stupid partridge” and scrubbed over the the partridge on the pillar, probably much to the dismay of everyone whose favourite new pastime was to go down and look at the partridges “coo” at the partridge painting.
📝 So what do ya make of that??? Tell me!
Please answer any/all questions in the comments, or just add your own thoughts.
Invent your own mythical creature that causes earthquakes. Tell me about them.
Have you ever experienced an earthquake, or seen a live volcano?
Is there any weird story from history which is your favourite? Tell me.
If you were Protogenes, would you have painted over the partridge?
My partridge on the pillar is my music! Support me like this:
buying a ‘Gneiss Guy’ tote bag on my Bandcamp
listening to my music on Spotify and adding it to your playlists
forwarding this newsletter to a friend!
and if you haven’t already, subscribe:
Til next time! Be the goodest,
Olivia 🌈✨🏔🎶
This is so so good, keep up the most excellent work ☺️
I lived all of my life except the past 4 years in California so I have experienced many earthquakes, including two major ones. They’re not so bad, and kind of fun. I could tell within the first few seconds whether it was going to be a bad one or not. After the first jolt, it either tapers off or it gets worse. As I said, I’ve only experienced two times where it got worse, in 1971 and in 1994. Yep those were bigguns.