Having grown up in California, I noticed the jolt for what it was. To David it felt like he was getting dizzy; it was over before he realized what it was, but we got to savor the aftermath as the kitchen light kept swinging. The kids came into the kitchen and said, "What was that?"
I hear people say they wouldn't live in California because of all the earthquakes - because California is going to fall into the ocean. Well, my children have lived here all their lives but had not yet felt an earthquake and had to ask what it was, AND, for those worried about the whole California into the ocean thing - yeah, could happen, but no sooner than 20 million years from now. (Although maybe rather than debunking that misconception I should let it stand as a way of trying to keep California from becoming more crowded than it already is.)
Coincidentally one of my colleagues who is in the geology department was teaching about earthquakes last night when this occured. Typically when an earthquake occurs people run OUT of buildings; his students were outside on break and ran back INTO the building to check out the seismograph. Now that's an effective class demonstration!!!.)
POST SCRIPT: I pulled in to work right next to him the next day, and he invited me to see the recording on the seismograph - COOL!
4 comments:
Bummer. We missed it by just six-and-a-half years!
Wow I didn't know we had an earthquake!
YES! And I pulled in to work this morning at the same time as my geology colleague (maybe you know him - Garry Hayes?). He invited me to see the seismograph recording of it. COOL!!
I did make a few errors in my post that I should probably fix. Actually the faultline(s) in California are sliding past each other not together, so California WILL break off into the ocean, BUT it's still not something to worry about as it won't happen for about 20 million years.
I also didn't make Garry's statement strong enough. He had said in the paper that although most people run OUT of a building during an earthquake that his students on break ran BACK IN to see the seismograph.
My errors now stand corrected.
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