Did my part for science this evening, really…
Earthquake…always a surprise, even here in earthquake country. But here I was, writing a letter, the 19th century kind, that you stamp and everything, and I felt a couple sharp jolts.
What’s the current thinking…. doorway? Under a table? Away from glass surely… but before I could formulate it was over.
Whew.
Escaped again…
But then my inquisitive mind took over…where was it? How strong? Damage? And I know–because I’ve done this before–that the government keeps a site all up to date with all the current info. Clicked there…and poof…questions answered…
Magnitude 4.0, centered in the ocean 50 miles SSW of Malibu at a depth of .1 K. At 05:14 UTC May 30. That, by the way is 10:14 p.m. on May 29 in California to you and me….
I was looking at the government pages with undue interest…there’s the 5.8 one in Medolla, Italy, that’s been in the news, and a big circle in Argentina, 5.1.
You and I both know that the Richter Scale is logarithmic…that is each increasing number represents a huge increase in energy displaced..An 5.0 earthquake would represent 31.6 times as much energy as my little 4.0 earthquake…480 metric tons of TNT vs. 15 metric tons.
And then I see the little tab, “Did You Feel it?”
They want to know, from ME? How sweet.
So of course I go and fill the thing out, or try to anyway. It keeps fussing at me about my address. I check my formatting, make sure the commas are right, spend ten minutes, keep trying to get to the part that I did NOT run to a doorway, but it KEEPS fussing about where do live, EXACTLY.
Sheesh….Finally I figure it out. I live on Third Street. Got it? I write it out all the time. My mail comes here, especially the bills. But in this case the government insists that, really, I live on “3rd St.”
For pete’s sake. The government giveth and the government taketh away.
Do like the earthquake pages though.
