When massive traumatic planetary events occur on Earth, specifically those which strike down thousands if not hundreds of thousands of humans in a fell swoop, people like myself feel compelled to defend the planet.

It's not any attempt to minimize the suffering and death that occur in places like Haiti or Indonesia; I would never do that. What happened in Haiti a couple weeks ago is a genuinely tragic historical phenomenon.

But the "culprit," namely planet earth, is designed in such a way that events like Haiti's earthquake have happened countless times before, they will happen again this year, and they will happen plenty more in our future. There is no surprise there.

I would argue, though, that the process which shakes our surface is the same process that makes this such a beautiful place to live.

You will recall that out planet has a thin, thin layer of solid rock - just miles thick - on top of gooey innards. This thin layer, our crust, is broken into a couple dozen plates which float about very slowly across the top of the planet.

As the plates slide into and by and away from each other, there is, of course, a whole lot of shaking going on. We in Southern California know well and first-hand what can happen when two tectonic plates scrape by each other.

The same thing happens when plates crash together head-on, or split apart. You may remember that although it was massive wave that killed all those people in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, it started from a slipping of two plates.

But the movement of the plates is absolutely necessary.

The movement provides us with separated continents and high mountains and islands and oceans. With no uplifting forces our planet would have eroded down to a smooth sphere long ago and we would be completely covered in water. Plate tectonics have also been involved in the steady removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the eons, helping to insure we would not end up like our hellishly hot, carbon dioxide laden sister, Venus.

Earthquakes should not take us by surprise. In fact, if I may be so bold, I feel confident in predicting there will be massive earthquakes in the near future in places like Persia, Turkey, Indonesia, Oregon/Washington, and of course, our own Southern California. When? I have no idea; but they will occur.

Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and floods are all by-products of the design of this awe-inspiring planet and we can live through them all if we are prepared. Tragically, our neighbors in Haiti were not. Will we be ready ourselves when it is our turn?