(no subject)

[timepiececlock]

oh my.

there was an earthquake today.

i slept through it.

here's my moment of silence for the 3 dead.


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some how it always amazes me to think about living in a place where they don't prepare for earthquakes. i got a profound sense of that when i visited washington d.c. i looked around and thought "how come all these old buildings haven't fallen down yet? none of them are reinforced or anything." that's just how i think, even though i know that there is no need in places like that. i could move to a state that's never had a single earthquake in it's existence, and i'd still be bolting my bookshelves to the wall. it's automatic.

Comments

[onetwomany.livejournal.com]

Your Earthquake made out morning news - a breaking nesflash and a live cross to the LA bureau and everything. I'm glad there was no major damage and you're all okay! 6.5 sounds huge.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

6.5 is moderate. Which means there can be serious damage in places (there was), and death (there was); more than a tremor and less than a bridge-falling free-way collapsing catastrophe. The latter is 7+. I know there doesn't sound like much difference between 6.5 and, say, 7.1 (1989 quake), but it's all exponential. The higher you go in scale, the more damage is done with each increase.

Also, timing is an issue. This was pretty brief; though I didn't feel it myself. The 1989 quake was about 15 seconds long --long enough for me, at 5 years, to notice the shaking, realize that it if I was on the row of monkey bars over there instead of the rocket-shaped bar contraption I was currently on, that it would be much more fun and I should really take advantage of the shaking; long enough for me to step from my bars, walk about 6 feet, climb up onto the row of monkey bars, and hang with my feet swinging for about 2 seconds before it stopped. I of course was disappointed that it stopped just when I got to the fun bars. Then, of course, there was much confusion and calling home of everyone's parents parents and worrying and loud adults and so forth.

I'm glad I don't live in Japan-- the quakes there in the last 10 years have been particularly horrific. Interestingly enough, in the last major quake there was research collected over the course of a year or so about the damage that was done, and they found that there were 7 buildings in the downtown area (of Tokyo, I think, maybe, or some other city that was at the epicenter) that had minimal damage. Then the researchers foudn out that all those buildings were designed by the same architect. Interesting, huh? I bet she/he got a