Many think that the punishment of Korach and his rebellion in the Torah – where the earth opened up, swallowed them and closed back up – refers to an earthquake. How’s this not an earthquake. Earthquakes often cause dramatic geomorphological changes, including ground movements, either vertical or horizontal, along geologic fault traces; rising, dropping, and tilting of the ground surface; changes in the flow of groundwater; liquefaction of sandy ground; landslides; and mudflows. Simply put; after an earthquake you know something just happened. You see the effects on the earth.
Nachmanides explains that, as per Moses’ plea, this was no ordinary earthquake. Whereas with most natural earthquakes, the ground opens up and remains that way, in this case, the earth opened up, swallowed the rebels, and simply closed again, without a trace that anything had happened. Furthermore, the only ones who were swallowed up were Korach and his followers; a natural earthquake could not have had so limited an effect.
An earthquake, on the other hand, leaves a shock in its wake. Which is so much more powerful than what seems to be described in the Torah. Perhaps the Torah is trying to teach us that when your arguments are futile, like those of Korach, they are swallowed up and never to be seen or heard of again. They are finite; whereas earthquakes seem to have an endless quality to them.
