7-20-10

There was an earthquake.

First, let us clarify one thing: I am not giving away the exact location of this earthquake as this is a public post that anyone can read. I'm sure you can make an educated guess or look it up if you really wanted to.

For the record, I felt the earthquake.
For the record, President Obama did not.

See, an earthquake occurred recently on the East Coast of the United States. Earthquakes that you can actually feel are not common, but they're not... uncommon, especially around here. The East U.S. is in the middle of a continental tectonic plate aptly named the North American Plate. The rock in that area is old. Yes, very, very old. In addition, the rock around here makes seismic waves (earthquake waves, basically) travel better. The earthquake was a magnitude 3.6, and it traveled farther than you might expect.

Now, the burning question(s) I read/heard about:

1) Is this the beginning of DISASTER!!!!!!????
Answer: I can't be sure, but my instincts tell me no.

2) But... we're in the middle of a plate! Right?
Answer: Yeah... and the U.S Geological survey doesn't even know what fault caused the earthquake, so... who knows what's up with the rock?

3) Is it related to the capping of the oil well in the Gulf?
Answer: Lemme guess... you all read that on the Internet. The answer is no.

-----
Ah, the East Coast. We are awesome, but we're not exactly earthquake aware. This is what some people thought the early morning earthquake was:
-A big truck
-A dream
-A plane crash
-The dog...?
-A school explosion
-Underground explosion
-A helicopter
-Construction work

Yeah... what went through my mind? "It's not an earthquake."

-----The experience------
And now, I record my ~thrilling~ eyewitness account of this trembler.

I wake up on my side facing the window. I can't see over the window so I'm left staring at a wall. It's awfully puzzling. "Whoa, it's shaking... big truck... no, not big truck. Why is my bedframe shaking? I'm kicking it... no, I'm not. Earthquake? Naw. Earthquake? Naw. Dream."
I get up; my parents didn't feel the earthquake, so I went back to sleep.
Later that morning I am woken up and informed that it was an earthquake. I felt like a kid on Christmas.

Heh, so that's what happened. Nice to know our rocks are (mostly... hopefully) stress free.

7-16-10

Sigh, busy summer. How time flies. (or does it? Does it fly like an arrow or a hawk that just goes in circles? I'm referring to the model with the pizza-- excluding two slices. But you'd have to bend space yourself to do that, and I'm not quite sure if the pizza being a circle was representing what I think it was.)

Anyway, in case you didn't know, there was a solar eclipse a few days ago. It was in the south Pacific, so no one in the US saw it.

The south Pacific... is beautiful, really. Here are some pictures:

http://spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_11jul10_page3.htm?PHPSESSID=79vgjj5fv7ajq95ocq6ga8kgk1

Here's hoping that link works; if not let me know and I'll fix it. My personal favorite is the very first one. Isn't that amazing? Nice corona there.

Let's see... as far as satellite tracking goes... the International Space Station has been spotted twice. Both times it was seen with a magnitude below -2. Not bad. I really liked how it was red lower on the horizon because of all the atmosphere. Then you could watch it get bigger and brighter and then fade on the opposite horizon. Fascinating.

Currently unsure of what to do, as the bridge project was put off until I can find better working space; stepped on the Lego model at night; ow. Looking at Sloan Digital Sky Survey projects and contemplating... thinking... I shall have to choose one later.

I was awake for that earthquake we experienced this morning. I'm still gathering some information before I post about it, so I'll try to post as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!