In 1987 there was an earthquake in L.A. where I was living that scared the beejeebers out of me. I'd been experiencing L.A. earthquakes since I was a kid--usually the rolling, rocking kind. But that one threw us up and down like an energetic housekeeper shaking a rug. I moved to Seattle shortly thereafter, not knowing for a couple of years that Seattle has earthquakes--and is situated between two big volcanoes (Rainier and Baker). As my friend Mel says, "Everyplace has something."
I'm back in California now, living on top of a mess of fault lines--one of them the San Andreas--that looks on the map like the creation of a mad spider. Just a few minutes ago, I felt my first "welcome home" quake. The windows shuddered, the blinds swayed back and forth, and the house felt like it was gliding back and forth on wooden rollers. I carried Oliver to the alcove outside my bedroom, which I had previously scoped out as the best place in the house for earthquake survival. We glided and rolled for about 45 seconds. Then we went back into the office with its tall, unsecured bookcases. Perhaps foolish, because--as we all learned from the news coverage on Haiti and Chile--it might have been just a foreshock.
The USGS Website says it was a 6.9 earthquake in the Baja California delta. I learned at a lecture last week that the fault we have here in the valley is a "separation fault." It is separating Baja from the main section of California bit by bit. If your eye follows the fault upward on the map, it goes through the Salton Sea right to the Coachella Valley. Nice. I hope that "bit by bit" is reeellly s-l-o-w. I've always wanted waterfront property, but not bottom-of-the-sea property!
Ah well. We all live with uncertainty, but most of us choose to ignore it. Southern Californias have a harder time doing that.
Welcome home, Bemused Boomer!
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2 comments:
The truth is, the world is not a safe place. Therefore, we don't need to be adding hazards like toxins and greenhouse gas guzzlers to the mix. I'd like to think of this as my reminder to be more conscientious about pollution and stuff.
Have a nice week, Boomer
LS
Hooray! You've figured out a way to put a positive spin on having the earth rock and roll under your feet!
I heard on the news last night that some people are twittering that these earthquakes we're having are the precursor to "The Big One." (Apparently there have been 70 earthquakes in our area already this year--compared to 30 for the whole year last year.)My positive spin is that all these little ones are relieving pressure so we don't have to have a big one.
Whatever gets us through the night, eh?
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