On Monday, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Japan toppled buildings, derailed trains and caused a radioactive discharge at a power plant. Just hours later, a second quake of the same devastating magnitude struck, causing further damage.

The second quake, located off Japan’s west coast, complicated efforts to deal with the first. Since then, scores of aftershocks have rocked the area, some measuring up to 5.6 in magnitude.

Officials reported at least seven deaths and 790 injuries. Approximately 10,000 were evacuated to relief centers. The first quake left 34,000 households in the city of Kashiwazaki without gas and 60,000 households without water.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent the army and additional emergency teams into the area to help with rescue and relief, but efforts were hampered by landslides, buckled roads and bridges, and 3-foot-wide fissures in the ground.

According to Tokyo Electric Power Co., operators of the world’s largest nuclear power plant, the quake caused the release of 315 gallons of radioactive water into the ocean, as well as a small amount of radioactive vapor. (A plant official claims that the water will have no effect on the environment and was within permissible discharge limits.) A fire at the same plant took approximately two hours to extinguish.

Japan, located on top of four tectonic plates, is extremely prone to quakes. Approximately 288 tremors occur each day in Japan, though most are very small.

The island nation is located on what geologists refer to as the “ring of fire,” an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions encircling the north, west and east sides of the Pacific Ocean and primarily associated with the Pacific plate. Approximately 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes and 81 percent of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along this path.

It was on this “ring of fire” that the United States experienced its worst quake, the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906. In that disaster, 3,000 people died in collapsed buildings and the subsequent fire, along with 500 shot for looting. When the Ft. Tejon earthquake rattled the San Andreas fault in Southern California 150 years ago this January, the tremors were so powerful that they made the Kern River run backwards.

Scientists claim that, in California, the “big one” is overdue. The forecast for the “big one” is expected to be 10 times greater in magnitude than the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The Bible says to look beyond so-called natural disasters, including earthquakes, that are prophesied to intensify in the future (Matthew 24:6-7), and focus on what they signify. For information on why these catastrophes strike, read “The Coming Food Shortfall.”