Earthquakes. They are almost constant right now.
Today a couple of nice strong jolts at school threw the kindergartners into a tizzy. The quakes are pretty small, but we are just a couple of miles from the faults that are producing these tremors so we really feel them. At home, we hold our breath for a couple seconds while we wait for the rolling to stop. At school, the kidlets have to crawl under the tables every time we have a quake.
The first strong 3.2 quake surprised us all. I said, "Earthquake! Get under the tables." Twenty-eight freaked-out little bodies in fetal position were under the tables before I finished. I've never been listened to so well!
That one day produced twenty-five quakes alone. Now our classroom is free of anything heavy that could fall down on a child. We plan an earthquake evacuation drill soon. Just in case. Because we don't really know what will develop.
Now the quakes are constant, usually mini ones so small that there's just a little twitch. We've had several 3 pointers that are just loud enough and bounce us around enough that we stop and wonder just how big a quake we're experiencing. Then they're interspersed with the occasional 4.2 just to make sure we're taking Mom Earth seriously.
We are. Trust me on this one.
The UNR Seismology Lab is bookmarked and referred to constantly for the latest as are the USGS earthquake sites. The whole West Coast is shaking right now, but Reno apparently has the "E" ticket.
I'm a California Girl and unimpressed (usually) by anything less than a 6.0, although I'll enjoy the lesser ones. Hey, I survived the 7.1 Whittier Quake and let me tell you, that was a quake to remember especially as our house was located right on the fault.
This swarm of quakes is a first for me though. Today produced four 3.2+ quakes, two of which woke us up last night and two during the day. There were about fifty other smaller ones (I counted them on the UNR site), many of which we felt.
I look out at Mt. Rose and Slide Mountain, all 10,000 feet of them and remember that they didn't get way higher than the Truckee Meadows without some serious shaking going on.
Shut up, sit down and buckle up. Let's enjoy the ride.
Now that I've back-read some of your entries (love your blog!) and arrived at this, I understand why you can handle 20 five-year- olds on a crazy day. For Pete's sake, you've lived through some major earthquakes! Everything's relative, right? Hehehehe.
ReplyDeleteBTW, thanks so much for your kind words at my blog and your support.
I've enjoyed my brief visit here and must add you to my blog referrals. Lovely work, pogo.
We had a quake here in Indiana last week, a 5.2. Pretty big for here! It was fun, since we don't get them but maybe every 20 years.
ReplyDeleteIt seems scary to me! We haven't felt anything...
ReplyDeleteI thought we weren't suppose to get under the tables anymore, but beside them because there is some triangle safety net right beside a piece of furniture or something?
I also learned this year that if a big earthquake does hit, don't stay in the building once its done. Apparently buildings are built to withstand the tremor while it happens, but after that, are structurally unsound. You'd think being married to a structural engineer he would have mentioned this to me sooner!