Comments on: The unexpected earthquake Open Thread

By: heather

heather — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:23:49 +0000

In VA: my kids were at school, and didn’t even notice! They were so upset that they missed out.

By: SADIE

SADIE — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:45:33 +0000

dianemadeline I didn’t expect the experience to make me feel nauseous and wonder if it was the thought of an attack or the movement of the earth that made me feel that way. For what it's worth...earthquakes leave me nauseous with a headache. No cruise ships for me, they feel like a constant low grade quake. Luckily, I was driving during the event - never felt a thing. p.s. Indigo Red I’ll bring up (again!) the cleanliness thing. Be careful, the next thing they'll accuse you of is godliness ;

By: Indigo Red

Indigo Red — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:24:10 +0000

I'll have you know, Charles, I am one of those fiftyish, white, pot-bellied, balding Judeo-Christian men in Bermuda shorts and high black socks and the next time our TEA Party Patriots meet, I'll bring up (again!) the cleanliness thing.

By: Charles Martel

Charles Martel — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:18:29 +0000

Easy for you to make a joke about it, Indigo. Have you ever really seen a mob of fiftyish, white, pot-bellied, balding Judeo-Christian men in Bermuda shorts and high black socks commandeer a public space with their homemade placards, wives, sign-up booths and rented bullhorns? Not to mention the utter spotlessness of the plazas and squares they demonstrate in after disturbing them with their caterwauling. The eerily whistle-clean appearance is appallingly anal-retentive—a foretaste, so to speak, of what they would do to this country if they ever got into power.

By: Indigo Red

Indigo Red — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:03:12 +0000

A CBS video reports, "At the Justice Dept, Attornney General Eric Holder says his first thought was terrorism." http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7377948n Seems that despite his usual dismissal of danger from terrorists, his real world reaction is terrorism first. Of course, I'm assuming Islamic terrorism, whereas Holder is possibly thinking angry, white, male, patriot, TEA Party terrorism.

By: Ymarsakar

Ymarsakar — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 01:43:15 +0000

Gaia is mad at us for preventing her extinction of so many species.

By: Bookworm

Bookworm — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 01:40:13 +0000

Dianemadeline: That sounds quite frightening. Earthquakes upset the natural order of things. Even in areas where we expect them, we still believe the earth should be stable.

By: dianemadeline

dianemadeline — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 01:32:17 +0000

I was at work in my library in Arlington for the earthquake. A low rumbling started before the shaking. I have never experienced an earthquake before so had no idea what was happening. Then everything started to shake and rattle – there are metal shelves in the bookcases. I honestly thought it was some kind of attack. I figured out it was an earthquake when it seemed to go on for too long. I didn’t expect the experience to make me feel nauseous and wonder if it was the thought of an attack or the movement of the earth that made me feel that way.

By: macbethderham

macbethderham — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:55:38 +0000

Amused by irony here in NY. We felt it for about 40 seconds, but both my college kids are in California, and missed it.

By: Charles Martel

Charles Martel — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:42:08 +0000

I’m not too surprised by this quake. The East has had some fairly large temblors in the past–the 1886 Charlseton quake (<>7.0 on the Richter) and the Boston quake of 1755 (>6.0 on the Richter).

But the granddaddies of all non-western quakes were the four New Madrid temblors in 1811-12, massive shakes that reached up to an estimated 8.0 in the Richter. That is some serious swaying. Anyway, those quakes pretty much leveled most communities in the Mississippi River Valley between Memphis and St. Louis, and even affected the flow of the river.

The New Madrid Fault recently has begun showing a lot more activity. An 8.0 earthquake there, reverberating through the great river valley’s loose topsoils, would be catastrophically more destructive than anything that has ever hit San Francisco or Los Angeles.