On Tuesday afternoon, the east coast suffered an earthquake. While earthquakes are usually caused by the shifting of the tectonic plates that make up the surface of the earth, some (me) have already begun to suspect that there might have been other causes for this earthquake. Television-related causes.
After all, on many small-screen shows, the ground seems to shake almost daily. With the frequency of tremors on television, it seems likely that at least one of these explanations actually caused the August 23 earthquake. Here are a few of our hypotheses.
#5: Peter Petrelli Goes Nuclear... Again
As seen on: Heroes
Why It's Plausible: The season one finale of Heroes saw Peter lose control of his nuclear abilities and almost destroy New York City, until he was flown up into the sky by his brother Nathan to safely detonate. That surprisingly killed neither Peter or Nathan (nor did it leave any nuclear fallout raining all over NYC), meaning that Peter could plausibly detonate again. Now that his brother Nathan has been killed by Sylar, it doesn't seem too likely that Peter would be able to get off the ground. His only hope would be to use the superheroic ability to walk into walls to walk into the ground, where he would be able to explode amongst the tectonic plates, causing, you guessed it, an earthquake.
Why It Isn't: Heroes was cancelled last year. With its flagging ratings and vapid storyline (toward the end, at least), this show wasn't powerful enough to cause any sort of major movement.
Verdict: Not the cause.
#4: Our Universes Are Breaking Down
As seen on: Fringe
Why It's Plausible: You know what happens when things start to go haywire between this universe and the other ones. Things start to look particularly rapturesque whenever Walternate tries to manipulate his machine into destroying this universe. There are major lightning storms, vortices wipe out entire flocks of sheep, and things just get downright scary. An earthquake might just be one of those symptoms of impending universal breakdown.
Why It Isn't: The earthquake didn't happen at 6:02 A.M. EST, the widely known time that Walternate activated the machine. This is pretty damning for this hypothesis's case.
Verdict: Wrong timing to be the cause.
#3: Jack Bauer Doing Something
As seen on: 24
Why It's Plausible: How many explosions were on 24 during its eight seasons? Scientists estimate that number is somewhere in the millions. Jack Bauer was present for a lot of them, or at least nearby. It seems like it would be a scientific anomaly if any sort of tectonic movement was not the work of Jack Bauer, or at least related vaguely to Jack Bauer's activities.
Why It Isn't: In the 24 universe, nobody really notices these explosions. Take, for instance, the fourth episode of the show's sixth season, when a suitcase nuke went off in Los Angeles. Thousands died, but by the end of the day, everyone at least seemed to forget about it.
Verdict: Possibly the cause, though strangely people are noticing.
#2: The Silurians Are Restless
As seen on: Doctor Who
Why It's Plausible: Last year in the Doctor Who serial "The Hungry Earth," we learned that there are entire civilizations of Silurians under the surface of the earth. And whenever they get angry, they decide to come up to the surface and take their revenge. But what if they found a new way to take revenge? Using their massive underground catacombs to create earthquakes would certainly be one way to catch humanity's attention.
Why It Isn't: Most Silurians are still hibernating, to wake up in a thousand years. While there are some pretty resourceful Silurians who aren't hibernating, it doesn't seem likely that they could muster the force to shake the whole east coast.
Verdict: Maybe the cause, but would require some resourceful Silurians.
#1: The Island Moved
As seen on: LOST
Why It's Plausible: We've seen what happens when the Island moves. It goes globe-hopping so much that Eloise Hawking has to have a special machine just to predict where it's going to be. We know that Ben Linus wasn't the first to turn the frozen donkey wheel, and he probably wasn't the last. While Hurley's enjoying his reign as protector of the Island currently, somebody might have gotten the big idea to give it a turn again, leaving it to land off the east coast and create the shockwaves that we all felt on Tuesday.
And will you look at the date of the earthquake? It's August 23 -- 8/23. Irrefutable evidence. Believe me now?
Why It Isn't: I can't think of any.
Verdict: Without a shadow of a doubt the cause.
Amazing article!!! And congrats 4 pulling it together in such a short time frame!
I thought too about a Fringe event or the Island moving… My final theory is that now there's "A new man in charge"(Walt) [see Lost, Season 6 Blu-ray extras] and the earthquake is just a result of Hurley explaining to him how things work on the island…maybe things just got out of his hands a little bit! ^^