East Coast Earthquake

[Bolas De Fraile]

i agree aboutt the tv hype in newscasting (we have fox and rupert murdoch to thank for that - what a surprise that his career ends in shame) .
not that all are free from blame now. cbs tried to hold out, but it was a losing battle so even they gave in. and like an old guy trying to act young, they are terrible at it.
way back when, murdoch was the little guy trying to break into the big three networks trying to create a fourth. the most expedient way was to do it with sensational aka yellow journalism. sadly, it worked. fair and balanced? yeah, if you're an idiot. again, the rest followed the ratings so it's really a reflection upon us.

having said that, i happen towork on the weather systems and they are as accurate as current technology can perform. i mean, we're talking about calculating the mathematics of nearly infinite fluid dynamics.

if anyone has a better system of forecasting, you'll be very rich.

i can't speak for how the forecasts are broadcast, however.

thanks rupe.

I am very proud of the newspaper I have read for 45 yrs( no not the same edition Tom) the Guardian and a few MP's who brought Rapture Murdoch to book, I took great pleasure in seeing him humbled at the house of commons.It was a great day for democracy.
Ps Waitrose part of the fantastic John Lewis Partnership were one of the first retailers to withdraw their advertising from Sky because of the Glen Beck prog on the Faux News Channel.causing it to be removed.
PPs Beck is in Israel spewing out his vitriol.

 

[Claire]

Every place outside of shangri-la has its disasters, and I've lived in both California and Virginia. Not to mention another bunch of states and a couple of countries. I am now in the midwest. But I really get tired of seeing Californians calling east coasters wimps because of their reactions to an earthquake, when they'd just die if they had to go through a hurricane or blizzard or tornado. Nothing is important if it isn't happening to you or your loved ones. SO let's all get together and help one another, even if it is "just" moral support.

 

[ChefJune]

Complete non-event.

easy for you to say. You're 3500 miles away!

This is a situation for which I would rather be over-prepared and have to say "ah, well, it missed us," than not to be prepared and suffer a direct hit.

As of right now (11 am Friday) Manhattan is expected to take a direct hit. And it could truly be disastrous, not only for us here, but for the economy of the whole country.

We all need to hope Irene veers out to sea before she gets here on Sunday.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'd rather live on top of a dormant volcano, than in the path of a hurricane...oh, wait...

 

[podonnel45]

Every place outside of shangri-la has its disasters, and I've lived in both California and Virginia. Not to mention another bunch of states and a couple of countries. I am now in the midwest. But I really get tired of seeing Californians calling east coasters wimps because of their reactions to an earthquake, when they'd just die if they had to go through a hurricane or blizzard or tornado. Nothing is important if it isn't happening to you or your loved ones. SO let's all get together and help one another, even if it is "just" moral support.

Claire, thanks for that. Speaking as someone who lived 15 years in CA I can say that a 5.9 there would have people reacting pretty much the same way as here in Goochland, which is 7 miles from the epicenter.

 

[podonnel45]

i guess toads are our best bet for predicting when an earthquake will occur. toads know up to five days before an earthquake is ready to happen (possibly from radon emissions occurring) and they get the heck out of dodge. so we just need to follow those toads....

Black snakes and copperheads were running here too...lots of them squished on the road

 

[vitauta]

when i'm not being scared out of my mind by the earthquake, its aftershocks and its unknowable endgame, i am absolutely fascinated by some of the earthquake news byproducts: they showed a zoo, where most of the zoo animals, sensing the impending earthquake, were exhibiting strange, unusual behaviors. some herded or flocked together with others of their kind. others looked to elevate themselves, to climb away from the troubled earth beneath their sensitive feet. they went off their food, they went "berserk" (much like their human counterparts), they made loud noises, they became aggressive. and most of them, from the lowliest snake or bird, to the large apes and elephants, knew hours before us intelligent humans, that an earthquake was going to intercept and disrupt their lives bigtime. what of the marine animals, such as the whale sharks, what are they able to detect from the earth's shiftings? would they, or any animals, be capable (or willing) to share their extrasensory knowledge with us? is it already taking place, and we'll see it on a future newscast? why weren't we smart enough to decipher the behavior of the zoo animals before this earthquake occurred? lots of questions....

 

[Kayelle]

Every place outside of shangri-la has its disasters, and I've lived in both California and Virginia. Not to mention another bunch of states and a couple of countries. I am now in the midwest. But I really get tired of seeing Californians calling east coasters wimps because of their reactions to an earthquake, when they'd just die if they had to go through a hurricane or blizzard or tornado. Nothing is important if it isn't happening to you or your loved ones. SO let's all get together and help one another, even if it is "just" moral support.

Claire, I think you'll find most people in California would be the first to say that they'd "die if they had to go through a hurricane or blizzard or tornado". First of all, the anticipation itself would be terrifying. I think we simply found it curious that brave folks who face something as horrifying as "tornado and hurricane Seasons" every single year would find a quick and mostly harmless jolt of the earth so ummm, "earth shaking".

 

[qmax]

easy for you to say. You're 3500 miles away!

This is a situation for which I would rather be over-prepared and have to say "ah, well, it missed us," than not to be prepared and suffer a direct hit.

As of right now (11 am Friday) Manhattan is expected to take a direct hit. And it could truly be disastrous, not only for us here, but for the economy of the whole country.

We all need to hope Irene veers out to sea before she gets here on Sunday.

I stand by what I said. On average there are 4 earthquakes EVERY DAY in this magnitude range. You don't hear about those.

The only reason it was a big deal is because the media made it one.

 

[vitauta]

Clair, I think you'll find most people in California would be the first to say that they'd "die if they had to go through a hurricane or blizzard or tornado". First of all, the anticipation itself would be terrifying. I think we simply found it curious that brave folks who face something as horrifying as "tornado and hurricane Seasons" every single year would find a quick and mostly harmless jolt of the earth so ummm, "earth shaking".

nothing quick about it, clair. that 30 or 40 seconds of rumbling, shaking and disorientation feels like a dante eternity to anyone physically undergoing it. and the aftermath of an earthquake is much more than just quantifiable structural damage incurred. as a californian, i would hope that you already know and can appreciate that. (sorry, this post should be addressed to kayelle, not clair)

 

[roadfix]

It's all relative to where you are. When it rains in L.A. it's front page news.

 

[qmax]

Now, Irene is the real deal.

 

[Kayelle]

nothing quick about it, clair. that 30 or 40 seconds of rumbling, shaking and disorientation feels like a dante eternity to anyone physically undergoing it. and the aftermath of an earthquake is much more than just quantifiable structural damage incurred. as a californian, i would hope that you already know and can appreciate that. (sorry, this post should be addressed to kayelle, not clair)

I'm truly sorry that that earthquake upset you so much vitauta but in no way do I equate a 5.9 to "a dante eternity to anyone physically undergoing it" or I wouldn't have lived here all my long life. Like Max said, " On average there are 4 earthquakes EVERY DAY (somewhere) in this magnitude range. You don't hear about those."
I don't "like" earthquakes but I've never been overly afraid of them either. I know and appreciate that someday we will have a real doozie of an earthquake here that will be a real news event, but I don't dwell on it. There's too much to appreciate in living where I do.

 

[vitauta]

I stand by what I said. On average there are 4 earthquakes EVERY DAY in this magnitude range. You don't hear about those.

The only reason it was a big deal is because the media made it one.

qmax, you obviously respect and fear a powerful hurricane as a force of nature, but not most earthquakes. (are there really four 5.9 earthquakes occurring in the world each day?) maybe most of the are happening under the oceans, which cover 5/6 of our earth. anyhoo, i have a very healthy respect and fear, as it turns out, for the earthquake as a force of nature. and until earthquakes become as commonplace as raindrops in my life experience, i will continue to have an irrational and phobic (according to you) fear of them. i also respect and fear massive, destructive hurricanes. but with hurricanes, you can see them coming, and you can move out of their way if you wish. you can even prepare for them in various ways. there is no way to avoid or escape an earthquake. there is no warning before it occurs. nor can you prepare for an earthquake beyond establishing strict building codes for bridges and other structures. the only way to effectively reduce your risk of encounters with earthquakes is to avoid living on or near fault lines where they ore commonly occur--a place like virginia, i thought.were it not for its notorious earthquake history, we would have moved to california to live in 1978. to me, california represented everything beautiful, rich and free. i loved it there. unfortunately, the earthquake factor turned out to be the insurmountable dealbreaker of that california dream....

 

[qmax]

qmax, you obviously respect and fear a powerful hurricane as a force of nature, but not most earthquakes. (are there really four 5.9 earthquakes occurring in the world each day?) maybe most of the are happening under the oceans, which cover 5/6 of our earth. anyhoo, i have a very healthy respect and fear, as it turns out, for the earthquake as a force of nature. and until earthquakes become as commonplace as raindrops in my life experience, i will continue to have an irrational and phobic (according to you) fear of them. i also respect and fear massive, destructive hurricanes. but with hurricanes, you can see them coming, and you can move out of their way if you wish. you can even prepare for them in various ways. there is no way to avoid or escape an earthquake. there is no warning before it occurs. nor can you prepare for an earthquake beyond establishing strict building codes for bridges and other structures. the only way to effectively reduce your risk of encounters with earthquakes is to avoid living on or near fault lines where they ore commonly occur--a place like virginia, i thought.were it not for its notorious earthquake history, we would have moved to california to live in 1978. to me, california represented everything beautiful, rich and free. i loved it there. unfortunately, the earthquake factor turned out to be the insurmountable dealbreaker of that california dream....

I never said I didn't fear a powerful earthquake. It's just a 5.9 is not that powerful. You're talking stuff falling of of shelves, a few cracks in buildings. Few casualties. At least in industrialized countries. In any case, I find quakes that size more fascinating than frightening.

USGS says around 1300 5-5.9's annually on average since 1900. I would have presumed many of these would be underwater, but note the link. this shows major quakes in the last week. Most (logically) are along subduction zones around the world, particularly the Pacific's "Ring of Fire". And most of these place are populated.

Also, note the magnitude 7 in Peru. That's a BIG quake (remember, the Richter scale is base 10 logarithmic, i.e. magnitude 7 release 10 times the energy a magnitude 6 does). This was a day or so after the east coast quake, and the local newspaper carried a 3 paragraph article on it, and I saw no mention of it on any televised news. And I did not hear or read a thing about the mag 7's in Indonesia or Vanuatu.

Earthquakes In The Last Week - very cool link.

I have experienced four magnitude 6 or greater quakes in my life (and a few lesser ones). The last one was the Nisqually Quake (mag 6.8) in the Seattle area in 2001. I was at work when it hit (early afternoon). The building I was in was built in a river valley, so all the soil "liquified", so the building was really rocking and rolling. You know immediately whats happening, I stood next to a steel firedoor until the shaking stopped, unjacked my laptop and ran to the car, concerned with the gas lines running to my house. Everybody else in the region had the same idea, but 10 minutes later, so I beat the traffic jam. No fear, just concern about a gas leak.

To me, one of the more interesting aspects of a quake is the sound. Like a deep, protracted, distant explosion. Nothing else sounds like that.

 

[Kayelle]

were it not for its notorious earthquake history, we would have moved to california to live in 1978. to me, california represented everything beautiful, rich and free. i loved it there. unfortunately, the earthquake factor turned out to be the insurmountable dealbreaker of that california dream....

Sorry darlin' I've been patient and "hand holding" but now you've gotten me down right defensive about California living. Actually, if we didn't have the very infrequent shakers our population would likely be ten fold. I just don't understand the fear in living here. It's reasonable to understand that the last time we had a significant earthquake was the Northridge, way back in 1994, and before that it was San Fransisco in 1986. Both of those events combined can't compare to damage and loss of life in the rest of the country from hurricanes, tornado's and blizzards every single year!
No doubt about it........one of the many good reasons to live here is the the weather, although I whine about the hot devil winds that can bring fire in the fall.

 

[qmax]

Sorry darlin' I've been patient and "hand holding" but now you've gotten me down right defensive about California living. Actually, if we didn't have the very infrequent shakers our population would likely be ten fold. I just don't understand the fear in living here. It's reasonable to understand that the last time we had a significant earthquake was the Northridge, way back in 1994, and before that it was San Fransisco in 1986. Both of those events combined can't compare to damage and loss of life in the rest of the country from hurricanes, tornado's and blizzards every single year!
No doubt about it........one of the many good reasons to live here is the the weather, although I whine about the hot devil winds that can bring fire in the fall.

Hey, how was your cruise? We are less than 5 weeks from our Italy jaunt.

My dentist lost his house in the '94 North Ridge quake. Didn't have it insured either.

 

[Kayelle]

Hey, how was your cruise? We are less than 5 weeks from our Italy jaunt.

My dentist lost his house in the '94 North Ridge quake. Didn't have it insured either.

It was wonderful, Max.
Check it out........stevekathytravels.com

Ykies! I was visiting in San Fransisco at the time of the Northridge quake........no damage at my home. I remember being a little leery of SF at the time. Who knew?
SUCH a long time ago........no news is good news. Yeahhhh!!

 

[vitauta]

Sorry darlin' I've been patient and "hand holding" but now you've gotten me down right defensive about California living. Actually, if we didn't have the very infrequent shakers our population would likely be ten fold. I just don't understand the fear in living here. It's reasonable to understand that the last time we had a significant earthquake was the Northridge, way back in 1994, and before that it was San Fransisco in 1986. Both of those events combined can't compare to damage and loss of life in the rest of the country from hurricanes, tornado's and blizzards every single year!
No doubt about it........one of the many good reasons to live here is the the weather, although I whine about the hot devil winds that can bring fire in the fall.

i didn't mean for this to deteriorate into some kind of east coast/west coast competition, kayelle. i have no stock in virginia (not anymore, anyhow)and california seems to be getting along just fine without me. this handholding thing thing between you & me?--first i'm hearing about it, don't recall initiating that one myself....

 

[vitauta]

Complete non-event.

the earthquakes last week link? fascinating stuff--good to read about, lousy to to experience. the unique rumbling grumbling sound that you're so jazzed by? to me, sounded like an umbilical cord attached to the belching bowels of hell, and felt, eerily enough, very much like an agonizingly loooong, protracted labor contraction--minus the pain. for realz, qmax--not hyperbole.