Introduction

Perhaps no force on earth creates more fear in the hearts

of those who have experienced it than an earthquake. Those

who have felt the very ground beneath their feet rolling and

pitching will never forget the experience. It is the feeling of total

and utter helplessness.

The forces moving the seemingly unmovable platform upon

which we all live are beyond the wildest imagination of anything

Hollywood can portray on the screen. They are the same forces

that ripped the continents apart and set them adrift in the mol-

ten magma beneath the thin crust of earth.

I can recall descending into the steam caves of San Bernar-

dino, California, and smelling the sulfur rising from the San An-

dreas fault. The heat seemed almost unbearable and was greatly

amplified in my mind, knowing that this crack in the earth s sur-

face could erupt violently at any time. The feeling I had was one

of personal inconsequence. I was but an ant in comparison to

the energy boiling up from the molten earth. I could hardly wait

to ascend out of that closed-in space. And yet, I returned many

times later just to experience the enormity of God s creation.