When the Earth Moves Beneath Our Feet
Tonight, while the three of us were sitting comfortably watching the first Spider-Man movie, something rather unexpected happened.
The apartment began to sway.
At first it was subtle, almost as though I was imagining it. Then the movement became unmistakable. Living on the 16th floor of an apartment building makes even a gentle swaying rather difficult to ignore. For several seconds, perhaps approaching a minute, the entire building seemed to move beneath us.
It was quite a moment.
My son soon checked the Internet and pointed out that the earthquake had occurred in South/North Sumatra, not Flores, as I had initially assumed. That distinction turned out to be important because there had been another much larger earthquake in Indonesia only recently, the magnitude 7.7 event near Flores. I had mistakenly connected the two.
So, once again, my good unseen buddy—yes, I mean ChatGPT—got his facts mixed up. My son caught it.
Ha! Ha!
It actually feels rather good to discover that my supposedly clever unseen companion can still make a mistake. Perhaps that is one of the advantages of having an AI around: we can fact-check each other.
But the earthquake itself brought back memories.
I have experienced several earthquakes during my lifetime, but none quite as memorable as the Loma Prieta earthquake of October 17, 1989, when I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
That earthquake, measuring 6.9, was the most powerful earthquake to strike the region since the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Sixty-three people lost their lives, thousands were injured, and billions of dollars in damage rippled throughout the Bay Area.
The Cypress Street Viaduct collapsed. A section of the Bay Bridge fell away. Fires broke out in the Marina District. Much of it unfolded live on television, captured by the Goodyear blimp that had been filming the World Series at Candlestick Park.
It became known as the "Earthquake Series."
I remember that experience because an earthquake does something peculiar to one's understanding of reality. The ground beneath us is normally the one thing we take for granted as being solid and dependable. We build houses upon it, roads across it, cities on top of it and spend our entire lives assuming that the Earth will remain where we left it.
Then suddenly, it moves.
Tonight, sitting on the 16th floor, I was reminded of that old feeling.
There have also been a number of significant earthquakes around the world recently, including events in Venezuela and Colombia, followed by the earthquakes in Indonesia. When several such events appear close together in the news, it is tempting to wonder whether something bigger is happening.
Is the planet falling apart?
Probably not.
The Earth has always been moving. Earthquakes are part of the enormous geological machinery of a living planet. What has changed is our ability to know about them almost immediately. An earthquake occurs thousands of kilometres away and within minutes we can be looking at maps, watching videos, reading reports and discussing it with people on the other side of the world.
The Internet has made the Earth feel smaller while, paradoxically, making us more aware of just how enormous and restless it really is.
And perhaps there is something valuable in being reminded of that.
For a few seconds tonight, while Spider-Man was doing his thing on the television, the Earth itself became the main character.
The building swayed.
We stopped watching the movie.
And everybody paid attention.
It is moments like these that remind us that beneath all our human activity—our buildings, technology, politics, wars, ambitions, arguments and endless plans—there is an ancient planet turning quietly beneath our feet.
Most of the time we don't notice.
Until it moves.
And perhaps that is enough for today.
WallahuAlam.
15 August 2026
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