I feel the earth move, under my feet . . .

blacbird

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5.8 Richter scale quake, 30 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska, at 4:45 this afternoon. Strongest one we've had close here in some years. This follows a similar strength quake about 150 miles south, and another 4.0 quake about 100 miles south, in the past few days. These are all along the same major fault zone.

Kinda creepy.

caw
 

Opty

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Well, we are getting closer to 12/21/2012.

Repent! The end of the world is nigh!
 

poetinahat

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she was shakin', snappin' her fingers...
 

blacbird

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You Ozzies really need some good active volcanoes and brittle tectonic fault zones to make your lives more interesting. Oh, and some snow and ice would help, too. And grizzly bears and moose.

caw
 

LAgrunion

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Hmmm, I've never heard about quake zones in AK, but I guess they are everywhere. Yeah, it's strange to feel earth move under you. Earthquakes are kinda weird. Some are slow and swaying. Some are a quick jolt. Here where I live, I probably feel a small one every year or so. The last big one was a 6.7 almost two decades ago.

The oddest experience I had was years ago, when a quake struck while I was on the 50th floor (give or take) of an office building. When I looked out the window at another tall building, I could see the building sway slowly (or maybe it was still and my structure was the swaying one). The feeling was kind of dizzying, like being on a boat with rolling waves. One person freaked out and walked all the way down to the ground floor and left (didn't return that day). Everyone else returned to work as if nothing happened.
 

poetinahat

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You Ozzies really need some good active volcanoes and brittle tectonic fault zones to make your lives more interesting. Oh, and some snow and ice would help, too. And grizzly bears and moose.

caw

Sure thing, mate - we'll trade you some cyclones, droughts, tsunamis, snakes, trapdoor and funnelweb spiders, great white sharks, and we'll throw in a few drop bears as well...

cooee
 

blacbird

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Hmmm, I've never heard about quake zones in AK,

Really? Get thee to a decent tectonic plate map (simple googling will do wonders here).

In 1964, southern Alaska was the site of the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded by modern instruments. Only a 1960 quake in Chile was stronger. We get three or four feelable quakes every year, which essentially means 4.0 or higher on the Richter scale. The Richter scale measures total energy release, and is logarithmic. A 5-point quake is 10 times as powerful as a 4-point quake. A 6-point quake is 100 times as powerful.

The 1964 quake is given a Richter magnitude of 9.2, more than 1000 times as powerful as the one we felt here today.

caw
 

missesdash

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Sure thing, mate - we'll trade you some cyclones, droughts, tsunamis, snakes, trapdoor and funnelweb spiders, great white sharks, and we'll throw in a few drop bears as well...

cooee

Was researching the world's most poisonous spiders recently and almost all of them were in Australia. I've decided, solely based on this, that Australia is a horrible, terrifying place.
 

J.S.F.

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Song thread is thataway-------->:D

We have tremors in Japan all the time, and wouldn't ya know it, I happen to live on a major fault line. And my mother always called me the lucky one in the family!

If the Mayans are right, we won't be around much longer to argue whether this or that is the correct answer. But...I kinda think they're wrong.

I hope.
 

benbradley

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Hmmm, I've never heard about quake zones in AK, but I guess they are everywhere. Yeah, it's strange to feel earth move under you. Earthquakes are kinda weird. Some are slow and swaying. Some are a quick jolt. Here where I live, I probably feel a small one every year or so. The last big one was a 6.7 almost two decades ago.

The oddest experience I had was years ago, when a quake struck while I was on the 50th floor (give or take) of an office building. When I looked out the window at another tall building, I could see the building sway slowly (or maybe it was still and my structure was the swaying one). The feeling was kind of dizzying, like being on a boat with rolling waves. One person freaked out and walked all the way down to the ground floor and left (didn't return that day). Everyone else returned to work as if nothing happened.
There are Youtube videos of Tokyo skyscrapers during and after the Japanese quake and tsunami. ALL tall buildings were swaying. Seeing these prompted (or re-awoken - I'd thought of it perhaps a few years before) the idea for a story I wanted to write for the AW anthology, but didn't until Nanowrimo 2011.
 

Broadswordbabe

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I read that properly designed buildings in earthquake zones are designed to sway. It makes them less brittle when a quake comes. Interestingly, there are temples in Petra that were built with 'soft' layers of earth between the stones to give the same effect. (There's a proper term for this which of course I can't remember...) Smart people, the Nabateans./derail. Stay safe, Blacbird.
 

LAgrunion

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Really? Get thee to a decent tectonic plate map (simple googling will do wonders here).

I'm pretty ignorant about geological matters, and know little about Alaska.

Though I'd love to visit Alaska one of these days. But there is one thing that scares me...

Once I heard a story about a guy who was traveling in Alaskan wilderness. He spilled some big glob of insect repellent on his leg. Then a mosquito the size of a pterodactyl landed on that spot and proceeded to suck his blood anyway.

I don't know any human the mossies enjoy eating more than me, so perhaps I ought to stay home...
 

LAgrunion

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I read that properly designed buildings in earthquake zones are designed to sway. It makes them less brittle when a quake comes.

I think that's true.

I also remember reading about how some tall buildings have rollers at the bottom.
 

kuwisdelu

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Hey, I've touched that fault!

Once I heard a story about a guy who was traveling in Alaskan wilderness. He spilled some big glob of insect repellent on his leg. Then a mosquito the size of a pterodactyl landed on that spot and proceeded to suck his blood anyway.

Uhh, you'll be fine. I'd be more worried about bears.

I don't recall ever encountering mosquitos in Alaska...
 

poetinahat

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Was researching the world's most poisonous spiders recently and almost all of them were in Australia. I've decided, solely based on this, that Australia is a horrible, terrifying place.

It is. Nobody should ever visit here.

/takes bus to one of several dozen surf beaches, kicks back with a cold one, enjoys uncrowded waves and fresh king prawns and mangoes/
 

blacbird

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/takes bus to one of several dozen surf beaches, kicks back with a cold one, enjoys uncrowded waves and fresh king prawns and mangoes/

And some freshly caught box jellies for dessert.

But, seriously, I desperately want to visit Oz, and have never had the opportunity. I'm a huge desert freak, a big fan of the wonderful and tragic story of Burke and Wills, and would most like to visit Sturt's Stony Desert and Shark Bay and Uluru and the Olgas. And the Dig Tree. that most of all. For Yanks who have never heard of Burke and Wills and the Dig Tree, read Alan Moorehead's classic history Cooper's Creek. Impossible not to like.

And drink some good cheap beer.

caw
 

LAgrunion

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And drink some good cheap beer.

I dunno blacbird...

I'd love to see Australia too. (There is a reason I made the hero in my WIP an Aussie.)

But US Dollar to Aussie Dollar is pretty much at parity now. A decade or so ago the USD was almost twice as strong, if my memory serves.

So that Aussie stout ain't gonna be as affordable as you might hope...

(A great time for Aussies to visit the US though, if one can stand that 80 hour flight.)
 

lastlittlebird

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Yeah... for cheap good beer you'll have to keep going until you get to New Zealand.
We have plenty of earthquakes so you'll feel right at home... hopefully no more big ones for a long time though.
 

J.S.F.

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The earthquake hit the Kanto area but I felt a tiny tremor in Osaka where I live. We get tremors all the time.

I swear, if an earthquake hits and I see Godzilla climbling out of Mt. Fuji, I'm leaving!