The Tsunami, Solar Eclipse and our Love of Nature

It is not accidental that a solar eclipse (GMC) took place on Dec. 26 to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Aceh.

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Children use special glasses to look at the partial solar eclipse on Thursday (12/26/2019) at Al Akbar Mosque in Surabaya, East Java. The mosque’s caretakers and the East Java branch of the Lajnah Falakiyah Nahdlatul Ulama (LFNU) provided 9 binoculars and many as 99 eclipse glasses for the activity, which aimed to introduce astronomy while providing a real-life learning experience during the year-end school holiday.

Both of these phenomenal natural events are remembered and recorded as a manifestation of our respect for nature, even more so for the Creator. The earthquake and tsunami in Aceh, which killed no fewer than 200,000 people, brought not only trauma but also an awareness among the Indonesian people that we live in the Ring of Fire region, with rows of volcanoes that could erupt any time, and at the intersection of large tectonic plates, which at any time could cause earthquakes.

The disasters experienced since the Aceh calamity, in the form of earthquake and tsunamis from Yogyakarta (2006) to Palu (2018), have strengthened public awareness on the need to become “learners” who are serious about understanding earthquakes and tsunamis to minimize their impacts and to save lives when disaster strikes.