Bill Nye on Manmade Earthquakes, Tectonic Plates, and Fracking | Big Think

Bill Nye on Manmade Earthquakes, Tectonic Plates, and Fracking

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Earthquakes are usually pretty scary, but they are a natural part of life on Earth. The reason they are devastating to humans is because we have built buildings and cities on top of ground that is often not as stable as we'd like it to be. And here's an important perspective: "Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do," says Bill Nye, as he explains what causes this geological phenomenon. Beneath the oceans' water, our planet has big slabs of land called tectonic plates that sit atop the earth's lava (a layer of molten rock that scientist call magma). There are gaps between these tectonic plates, so they slide and move over the magma and at times collide, causing a natural earthquake. But there are also manmade earthquakes, like the ones in the American Midwest. Bill Nye explains what's going on with these quakes, the basics of what to do if you're ever in an earthquake, and how science and smarter architecture can help humans survive the clashing of these tectonic plates beneath us. Bill Nye is the author of Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World.

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BILL NYE:

Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life.

In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live.” This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate.

While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children’s books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye’s Great Big Book of Tiny Germs.”

Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries” airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye” airs on PBS stations across the country.

Bill’s latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens.” It’s about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you’ll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There’s also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It’s fun for him; he’s an engineer with an energy conservation hobby.

Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest space interest organization.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Riley: Bill, this is Riley. How does the Earth have earthquakes?

Bill Nye: Riley. This is a fabulous question. How does the Earth have earthquakes? Well nominally, or just thinking about it the first way, the Earth is made of these big slabs of land that move around on the lava or “magma,” which is what geologists call that molten rock when it’s underground—magma. And they move around and they just bump into each other.

Four and a half billion years ago, when these objects formed out of dust—it is interesting to notice, Riley, that not only is the dust on a bookshelf being pulled down by the Earth, but the dust is ever so slightly pulling the Earth up. They are attracting each other. It’s quite a thing to get your head around, as we say. So the Earth was formed from dust. It came like this and it started spinning. Then that compressing it, it got hot, and now these pieces of land are bouncing off each other. So the ocean sits on top of plates of land. The ocean is on top of solid stuff. You may not have thought about that but the ocean is relatively shallow compared to how deep the Earth is, how big the Earth is.

So along this line, that’s one way we get earthquakes. Right now humans are causing...

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