Earthquakes!
Ever since I moved to Nevada, one of the most seismically active states in the U.S., I’ve had the habit of checking the USGS recent earthquake map nearly daily. For the past two months or so, I had noticed an uptick in earthquake activity near Reno, but since I hadn’t felt anything I thought it was nothing unusual. There indeed was a 6.0 earthquake in northeast Nevada that happened right before the recent activity here, but it occurred more than 300 miles away from here, so a connection is possible but unlikely.
This past Thursday, we finally started to feel this recent swarm of earthquakes, the only earthquake experiences in my life where I’ve been near the epicenter. (I was once woken up by a 5-something earthquake in Boston, but it was epicentered in the middle of the state of Massachusetts.) I was working at my desk at home, and noticed it swaying back and forth. Flea was on the phone in the kitchen, and I told her what I was experiencing, but she waved me off as she didn’t feel it herself.
A few minutes later, a 4.2 hit just five miles from our house. This one was impossible to ignore, as the house shook consistently and unpredictably for three to five seconds. I enjoyed it, as it was too mild to be scary – it was a minor earthquake, as looking at the USGS California map daily I see 4-something earthquakes all the time.
But last night the tectonic activity upped the ante in a much more notable way. We were in the movie theater, perhaps 15-20 minutes away from the end of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Suddenly, the entire theater started shaking violently, and I grabbed the rail in front of me and held on. It lasted a solid 10 seconds at least, and this time I definitely started to get scared. (How reliable are the ceilings in a movie theater?) It was also a communal experience, as during the event everyone in the theater was gasping and looking at each other. When it was over, my heart was racing, and I probably enjoyed the rest of the movie more for it. (In general, I enjoy Dracula musicals and puppets.)
This one was a 4.7 – again, not something that is considered a major earthquake, but big enough to do some minor damage. But my heart was racing because I knew that 6 and 7 Richter scale earthquakes are not unheard of in Nevada, and with the build-up of activity on Thursday, such a major earthquake was feeling possible. In fact, this morning I read the following in an article about last night’s event:
Ken Smith, a seismologist at the university lab, said the recent activity around Reno is unusual in that the quakes started out small and continue to build in strength…“If the pattern continues we may be looking at a larger event” in the Reno area, Smith said Friday. “We wouldn’t be surprised to see it (swarm) end at any time and it also wouldn’t be surprising to see a large earthquake. The bottom line is we don’t know what will happen.”
So the fact that what we’re experiencing is “unusual” is indeed a little frightening. We’ll see how the weekend goes, but I’m hoping that a supervolcano isn’t in the making. That’s an exaggeration, but certainly a major earthquake in the near future wouldn’t be a scientific surprise.
Comments (14)
That is the funny thing about earthquakes. When they start, they seem kind of fun. Like a novelty. But when they keep going, it gets scary. I remember when one hit here and it was fun until it wouldn't stop and the power lines outside my window started arching electricity everywhere. Do you have earthquake supplies? You should.
i wave this blog post off.
In somewhat related news I recently saw Volcano for the first time and was amazed at how close I lived and work to the major events in that movie. Also, they seemed very very concerned with getting the geography of los angeles correct but not at all concerned with being scientifically plausible or getting the topology of LA correct (san vicente goes uphill from wilshire to beverly, not downhill as they contend in the movie).
I hadn't been to LA when I first saw that movie, but I don't think it would've changed my impression of its badness.
Is Volcano the one with Pierce Brosnan? I saw one disaster movie with him on a bus from NY to Boston very soon after September 11th. I remember finding lots of humor in it, first because it was bad and even included a scene of a grandma saying something like "save yourselves" as she tired of running and was subsequently swallowed soon thereafter by oncoming lava, and secondly because who thinks to put on a disaster movie on a bus from NY to Boston right after September 11th? "They'll like this."
Oh, yeah. And based on what I've learned in Peru, it does seem possible that there will be a larger event. NY Anthony is right... you should prepare a backpack that you can grab fast and keep it by your door with keys and other supplies you might have a hard time finding in the middle of the night or day.
Nah, volcano was the other one that came out at the same time. with tommy lee jones. much less plausible than the pierce brosnan one.
Dante's Peak had the single most sad special effect I've seen in film. At one point in the movie, the volcano starts spewing smoke and instead of animating the moving smoke, they clearly just painted a backdrop and then shook the camera. It was sad.
you should, like, move to brooklyn and stuff.
At least they tried with that one. As opposed to "the rockets have failed" from deep impact.
Don't be cruel, Leum. You know Flea and Monk are dying to move back to the Northeast.
Instead of moving to Brooklyn, you should move to LA. There are no earthquakes here . . .
d'oh.
NY has earthquakes too, we just get them confused with the subway nearby, trucks rumbling down Broadway and spicy food for dinner last night.
Eh... Earthquakes shcmearthquakes. I'd rather that than bad spicy NYC take-out, no one like explosive diarrhea.
But, yes, move to Brooklyn.
ps. earthquakes do scare the bejeezus out of me.