Quaker
This is super interesting.
I was one year old when this happened, so I obviously don’t remember it, and I don’t think I’ve ever read or heard too much of the details, either. I think the most fascinating part of this is how calm everyone seemed to be in the stadium. Maybe Californians have a different response to earthquakes than most people because of where they’re located, but it seems like if this had happened anywhere else, it would have been chaos.
Shake shake shake…shake shake shake…shake Montana…shake Montana!
Holy crap, we felt that Montana earthquake way up here!
Well, it sounds like some of us did, at least, according to r/Calgary.
I felt it.
I was sitting at my desk when I felt this very faint little tremble. At first I thought it was just the people downstairs and their freakishly loud/vibrating bathroom fan. Or a large truck in the parking lot. But the shaking was a little bit different than anything I’d felt before. I also noticed that the floor lamp next to the desk swayed ever so slightly for a few seconds.
I thought it felt like an earthquake tremor, even though I’d never felt one before.
But I didn’t think of it being from an earthquake so far away. In fact, I just Googled “Calgary earthquake” and “Alberta earthquake” about 10 minutes after it stopped to see if there had been any reports of a local earthquake.
Then I checked Facebook a few minutes later and noticed that one of my Moscow friends posted about feeling a tremor around that same time as well, which seemed really weird to me until I learned there was actually that big earthquake in Montana.
Strange.
First time feeling earthquake tremors!
TWSB: Japan’s Earthquake and Day Length
I heard about this a few days ago, but I’ve been listening to the news on the radio pretty much continuously since the 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan on Friday. I just finally got around to finding an actual article about it.
According to NASA geophysicist Richard Gross, it turns out that the massive quake accelerated Earth’s spin enough to shorten the length of the day by 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is a millionth of a second). The earthquake changed the distribution of the earth’s mass, shifting more of it towards the equator and thus causing the faster spin (like when you spin on a wheely chair and tuck your legs in to go faster. Don’t pretend you’ve never done it). The quake actually moved Japan’s main island about 8 feet. 8 feet. Think about how insane that is.
The Chilean earthquake last year also shortened earth’s day by about 1.26 microseconds, and the Sumatra earthquake in 2004 shortened it by 6.8 microseconds. Gross believes that the aftershocks, smaller but great in number, could have a cumulative shortening effect on earth’s day as well.
Crazy, no?
I thought the spice of life was cumin
Poor Japan, man. The videos on CNN are terrifying. There are a lot of Japanese individuals here in Vancouver, and I’ve heard quite a few conversations today regarding people not being able to get through to their families in Japan due to the loss of cell service in areas affected by the quake/tsunamis/chaos.
Vancouver Island was on a tsunami warning late last night too owing to the after effects of the giant quake, but I think that’s lifted now.
Well.
I’m posting my 101 in 1,001 list here on my blog as a tab, because who knows when/if the website will ever go down again, and I’d feel more secure having it in more than one place. YES I KNOW I’ve got fewer than 50 goals as of right now; I’m trying to think of more meaningful goals than things like “buy new pants” or “try not to hate rain with all of my soul.”
Tab’s up at the top with my book list and info tab.
OOH, OOH, and I have a new plan. An expensive plan, but a plan nonetheless: since I’ve already got a song for every day of 2010 and am on my way for doing the same thing in 2011, why not try to get a new song for every day of the decade? That’s 3,652 songs.
I’M SO AWESEOME IT’LL HAVE TO WORK!
I’m also hyper. I have broccoli and M&Ms.
This Week’s Science Blog: Geothermal Massacre 2: This Time it’s OUR Fault
HA! Get it??
Over the past few days I’ve come across two different articles (randomly) with somewhat conflicting views.
Article 1 says: “geothermal drilling does not cause earthquakes”
Article 2 says: “oh crap, geothermal drilling’s going to cause California to become Earthquake City!”
According to article 1, geothermal drilling sometimes involves the deliberate fracturing of deep rock to provide a steady supply of heat to the earth. This is obviously different than an earthquake, which is the shaking caused by a shift in rock along a fault. However, seismic-similar incidents can be caused “whenever rocks are fractured.”
Article 2 notes the concerns of many Californians who are situated near a new geothermal drilling operation by AltaRock that will be starting up soon. This article also cites a geothermal operation in Switzerland that apparently triggered a 3.4 magnitude earthquake.
Article 1 responds to this alleged drilling-earthquake correlation by stating that yes, so-called “microearthquakes” can occur and are usually around or less than magnitude 3 and aren’t usually felt or considered dangerous.
So I guess the conclusion is that yes, geothermal drilling can cause earthquakes, but they’re small enough to not cause harm? It’s an interesting “conclusion,” but if I were a Californian near one of these sites, I’d probably still be a bit worried, considering how earthquake-prone the whole West Coast is.
Hmm.
Today’s song: Hey There Mr. by Leisure Alaska
Eigenblogger 