Felt the earth. Move. Under my feet.
I actually didn't feel the earthquake today but I lived it vicariously through the twitter. The jokes have long since all been made, but now the serious posts are arriving. Ironically, the quake was centered in Eric Cantor's district. As emptywheel points out, Cantor was defending cutting funds for USGS and warning systems for natural disasters as recently as last March.
As for why it was so big and felt so widely, there was a lot of speculation early today that it has something to do with fracking. And to be fair, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that links the two. But in this case, geology explains the causation. Think it's kind of cool that it was centered on the Spotsylvania fault zone. Sounds like somewhere Dracula would live. And I had no idea there were so many fault lines here on the East Coast.
Not so cool that they built a nuke plant right on the fault line though. The one nearest the epicenter lost power almost immediately and several others had "unusual incidents." Fortunately, no danger of meltdowns but it's a good reminder of the hazards of nuke energy.
And if you're wondering how strong the quake was in your area if you felt it, or in those of your friends and family back East, you can check the intensity by zip code here. [Last two links via argylestyle who's been on a tear today with great links.]
Update: Haven't looked at this one yet, but it's an animation of the seismic waves. Science is so cool. Makes you wonder why so many conservatives hate it so much.
[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]
As for why it was so big and felt so widely, there was a lot of speculation early today that it has something to do with fracking. And to be fair, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that links the two. But in this case, geology explains the causation. Think it's kind of cool that it was centered on the Spotsylvania fault zone. Sounds like somewhere Dracula would live. And I had no idea there were so many fault lines here on the East Coast.
Not so cool that they built a nuke plant right on the fault line though. The one nearest the epicenter lost power almost immediately and several others had "unusual incidents." Fortunately, no danger of meltdowns but it's a good reminder of the hazards of nuke energy.
And if you're wondering how strong the quake was in your area if you felt it, or in those of your friends and family back East, you can check the intensity by zip code here. [Last two links via argylestyle who's been on a tear today with great links.]
Update: Haven't looked at this one yet, but it's an animation of the seismic waves. Science is so cool. Makes you wonder why so many conservatives hate it so much.
[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]
Labels: mother nature, science
posted by Libby Spencer at 7:41 PM
2 Comments:
Oh my god! Run for the hills! Nothing bad happened!
The people who hate science aren't conservatives, they're idiots who make fun of things they're too damned stupid to understand and have to take refuge in snark and snicker and primitive religions; high fiving the peanut gallery like the dumbass adolescents in the back row.
Yes, I'm talkin' about choo, Daddy-O
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