With nearly 500,000 detectable earthquakes annually, it’s interesting that they take up only a little space in the news. Like many things, it’s on mute until it affects us. The uniqueness of the “earthquake” in the times of Moshe that absorbed Korach was not much of an earthquake. While earthquakes may create shallow crevasses, actual faults don’t open up, as there would be no quake if that happened (I corroborated this with USGS.gov; check it out for some interesting facts).
Be that as it may, when the Mishna in Avos (5:6) tells us that the mouth of the earth for Korach was created late on the Friday of Bereishis, it makes significantly more sense. The earthquake wasn’t a common geological phenomenon. The earth did something out of the ordinary, thereby requiring the pre-programming of nature during the six days of creation (similar to the speech of Bilam’s donkey and the other miracles listed there).
The Chida (Chasdei Avos) adds a groundbreaking insight regarding these ten miraculous occurrences. He says that in the merit of Klal Yisrael making “early Shabbos” in later generations, Hashem gave us ten protective miracles, wondrous things that would come each at their own time to aid Klal Yisrael during the twilight of the first Shabbos. Before being kicked out of Gan Eden, Adam and his descendants were assured of preservation through divine intervention through a series of fantastic nature-bending wonders.
Korach was making a commotion that sounded like a legitimate claim to some. But the “mouth” of the earth opened and shut down his coup. The resounding announcement that the earth made was far louder and more meaningful than the complaints and arguments of Korach.
