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"The earthquake rocked this impoverished Caribbean nation late this afternoon." (CBS)

"[Talking in Haitian Creole] English: "The world is coming to an end!" (YouTube)

"On paper, it's considerably bigger than that which struck Haiti just weeks ago; in reality, it's not expected to have been as devastating." (The Huffington Post)

"Within five minutes, everywhere there was water, water, water." (The Guardian)

After earthquakes in Haiti, Japan and Chile and tsunamis from the Chilean coasts to the beaches of Hawaii—critics say some in the media are fear-mongering.

So how concerned should you be about more from Mother Nature? The answers are a matter of both science and psychology.

MSNBC caused controversy in the science world with an article titled, "Is nature out of control?" The article, which was actually written by LiveScience, says most experts thought the quakes were normal, but adds:

"One scientist, however, says that relative to the time period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so."

Without explanation, MSNBC later re-titled the article, but anger about the implied message of the original headline had already hit the Web. Eruptions, a geology blog, accused the article of scare tactics.

"MSNBC found one scientist who said that in the last 15 years (relative to the 20 years before that), ‘the Earth has been more active’ - whatever that means - and have blown it up into an armageddon-like story...That sort of throwaway line is the sort of thing that feeds the doomsayers and gives science a bad name."

On Fox News, geologist John Rundle says the recent events were normal.

Anchor: “Is it unusual what's happening right now or is this something that just is, it seems like it's unusual just because we're seeing so much of it?”

 “It's, the events themselves are basically pretty much occurring at a regular rate ... We should probably be seeing these once every five to 10 years."

And a Psychology Today article published after the Haiti quake notes we might be hard-wired to worry about natural disasters no matter how they are portrayed in the media.

"Earthquakes have occurred throughout recorded history but only in recent centuries have they also led to serious mental destruction of many of those not at all directly affected by the natural disaster itself. ...more lasting destruction stems from a simple question: Why do such events happen?"