Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Earthquake!

Yikes! I've been meaning to write about this for a while but I forgot. On July 7th, we had a an earthquake!

At first, I didn't know what to do. There was a big bump, and all the Cali-Girls dove for cover--some hid under the desk, another under a chair. Tinker was already standing in the doorway. The lamps started to sway and Jackie grabbed me and pulled me in to the door way. It was over as soon as I realized, "earthquake!"

After the shaking died down, the girls all started calling out numbers. Then they ran to get on to the computer and logged on to this website:
U.S. Geological Survey. They said the real news always exaggerates, but the USGS will tell you when the quake hit, where it was, and how big it was. The earthquake I'm talking about shows up as a big yellow square on the map, between San Diego and Palm Springs. If you hold your mouse over it, it tells you the magnitude of the quake.

It turns out the numbers the girls were shouting were different quake magnitudes--they were betting! The quake was a 5.4 in magnitude, which is big enough to notice but not to cause damage. Jackie won and they all had to give her a quarter. It makes sense, though, since Jackie loves swimming and sailing, and so knows a little bit about how waves work. Because that's what an earthquake is like--a wave in the earth, instead of the ocean!

There are lots of earthquakes in California and all up the west coast because this is where two continental plates, the Pacific Plate and the North American plate meet here, causing earthquakes as they move past each other. Earthquakes usually happen along fault lines, and a huge fault line, called the San Andreas Fault, is really close to the Valley!

Jackie says I'm really truly a Californian now that I've been through an earthquake bigger than 5.0. This quake was a 5.4, but the epicenter was between Palm Springs and San Diego so we didn't get too much shaking. It was still strange. Eddie (she may have been bragging) said that they don't get scary until they are bigger than 6.0 in magnitude. Because of the way earthquakes are measured, a 6.0 is actually ten times bigger than a 5.0. So, yes, I think something ten times as big as I experienced would be scary!

Apparently, though, they always come as a surprise as there is no way to predict when and where the next one will hit.

Which makes it strange, because, come to think of it, I remember Tinker looking at her watch and then going to stand in the doorway. Almost like she knew the earthquake was about to come. But then again, Tinker's strange, she could have been standing there for another reason. I mean, she can't have known the earthquake was about to hit--right?

Anyways, Jackie, Eddie, and Tinker all want to go get Slurpees, so I've gotta run!