Re: Is there a relation with the sun and the earthquakes?

The answer to your first question comes to us from geologist Bill Cannon,
who works for the US Geological Survey. He writes:

"As far as I know there is no link betwen frequency of earthquakes and
earth's proximity to the sun."

So that answers that. 

As for your second question, that's a lot tougher. It also depends a great
deal on who you ask. Whenever anybody asks me this question (and it
does come up a fair bit at dinner parties) I invoke the old
"non-uniqueness" argument. It goes like this.

Humans tend to want to see themselves as occupying a special place in
the universe, but when we actually examine the universe closely, we find
that our position is really rather ordinary. In the past few hundred
years we've found that the earth is not at the center of the solar system,
the sun is not at the center of the galaxy, and the galaxy is not at
the center of the universe. Furthermore, the sun is a fairly ordinary 
star in most respects. It's not the biggest, the brightest, the oldest,
or the most metal-rich. It's not even unique in having planets. 

Thus, since our position isn't special, it seems likely that humans 
themselves aren't special either. If life arose here on this planet, it 
makes sense that it could do so in other places. Now, speculating on
how often life arises, or how long it lasts, or whether it becomes
"intelligent" is very difficult. People like Carl Sagan have written 
volumes on these topics. So the best thing for you to do would be to
read what other people have written and decide for yourself which arguments
make the most sense. As for myself, I prefer to be quietly optimistic and
believe that the universe it teeming with all kinds of exotic, intelligent
life and that sometime soon we might get to talk extraterrestrial beings.
But that view is based more on imagination than fact. 

Thanks for the thought-provoking questions.

Denise