3.31.2008

Epicenter

For some unknown reason, we have been having a swarm of micro-quakes for about a month now. It's a little disconcerting. Most of them give the house a good kick and disappear. Brad and I say, "There's another one." The website shows them around 1.1-2.9 mostly, about one mile down. But if you look at the map, they are directly under our house. My son and daughter-in-law live 3 miles away and haven't felt them.

The biggest one (so far) was last Thursday night: 3.1. I was in the bath and it certainly shook more than the others. In those circumstances, believe me, the first thing that goes through your head is, "Where are my clothes?" Mostly you hold your breath, to see if it's over or a precursor to something bigger.

I grew up in Sacramento and had some good shakes. What you may not realize is that for each point, they are 100 times stronger. So a 2.8 is 100 times as strong as a 2.7, and 3.0 is 1000 times stronger that a 2.0, but the depth has a lot to do with it too. In Tahoe you hear them long before you feel them. They go BOOM, BOOM, BOOM as the granite mountains move toward you. Now, that's really disconcerting.

1 comment:

Vanessa/NessieNoodle said...

We felt the one on Thrusday and we are a good distance away from you... (we must be where the water table is high or something) My bff lives out in your neighborhood and says that the little hill behind your subdivision(the one with the cool outcropping of rocks and I think the flume) is where the epicenter is, no wonder you have been feeling them!