We think Earth is just an abode for all, not realising it evolves just like us. There has been continental drift, and it has endured climate changes where it has seen lands change features from having glaciers to deserts.
When we hear about events happening in faraway places, we are often unable to relate to them—until it happens to us. Just as November 2024 wrapped up, on November 30, just before noon, there were frantic inquiries being exchanged. “Did you notice anything? A tremor?”
A friend described the incident like this: “Yes, I did. It was a little severe for three seconds and earlier felt like someone was drilling the floor.” He lives in the Wilayat of Muttrah. He found it a bit shocking. His description is apt. More than anything else, we take the ground beneath us for granted. A vibration from underneath can unsettle everything.
They tell us to be grounded. And then you experience a tremor.
The Earth just made us know its presence. Engrossed in our daily thoughts, affairs, and emotions, aware of the sun and the moon defining our days and nights, we so easily forget about what we are perched on. The bird is aware of the branch it is resting on, and it knows if the branch is to snap, it has wings to fly.
The Science Daily described it so well: “The solid Earth breathes as volcanoes 'exhale' gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), which are essential in regulating global climate, while carbon, ultimately from CO2, returns into the deep Earth when oceanic tectonic plates are forced to descend into the mantle at subduction zones.”
The trees are Earth's lungs. Yet we forget their importance for our own existence when societies focus more on building urban habitats. What is even more interesting is that scientists believe oceanic plankton produce more than half of the oxygen on Earth. We don’t even see them, but our negative actions reach them too, in the form of water pollution.
Oceanservice.noaa.gov notes that, though they are invisible to the naked eye, they produce more oxygen than the largest redwoods. “Scientists estimate that roughly half of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean. The majority of this production is from oceanic plankton—drifting plants, algae, and some bacteria that can photosynthesise.”
But Earth is also known to shift and rearrange landscapes, and its interior structure is an active system with the crust, the mantle, and the core. Plate tectonics prove that the Earth has been on the move internally. Externally, we are an extension of Earth. Nevertheless, we take Earth for granted quite often, even though it is the foundation of our survival.
We are emotional beings and known to be impulsive. Yet it is about time we internalised an understanding of Earth into our core being. This is as much about understanding ourselves too—the making of the body, mind, and energy.
The significance of our existence is a study on its own, and the individual is even more intriguing. Maybe it was a bit easier when communities lived within their own boundaries of knowledge. Today, the individual has expanded beyond the limitations of the mind through knowledge and imagination, leading to creativity that furthers experiences for others.
Civilisations that thrived in the past are historical wonders, mysteries for archaeologists and researchers to uncover. We are yet to know what else happened on Earth. But we do not have to go far to see a reminder of the past. All we have to do is visit Jiddat Al Harrassis, which is full of geological wonders.
‘Older geological features include 300-million-year-old glacial pavements that are well-preserved given their age,’ according to geologists. If one is in Oman, this is a place one must visit. This is one of the reasons why the Sultanate of Oman is considered an open lab of geology and a haven for geologists and enthusiasts.
So that drilling sound we heard on the weekend could be yet another wake-up call for all of us to remember Earth and realise what we can do individually and collectively. Most importantly, we must realise the wealth we have been blessed with.
Because Jiddat Al Harrassis, though classified as a dry, rocky desert, is a location where we can spot wildlife and vegetation—all thanks to fog.
Earth has all the answers.
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