Earthquake!
Comments: 8
Just had an earthquake — our first in a while. Seemed a long way away because the rocking was more horizontal than vertical. Horizontal good, vertical bad.
I’ve always thought that earthquakes should be small and regular, the idea being that tectonic pressure is relieved this way and that The Big One is kept at bay. Is there any truth to this whatsoever, or am I simply in denial of some unpleasant facts?
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Posted to General Rants • 2003.03.13 (Thu) • 12:21
Comments
Posted by Adriaan 2003.03.13, 13:33
I just stepped in my car as this 5.1 earthquake hit. The car was swaying left to right. I thought “WTF?” as I had not even started the car. It only dawned on me a few secs later that it was an earthquake.
Posted by Serdar Kilic 2003.03.13, 14:19
Freaky. We were in Tokyo last week so we (thankfully!) just missed this shake. Weird enough, a couple of years ago while we were in Turkey the day we’re going to board the plane there was a minor quake, about 5ish. Two too many close calls, for me at least.
Posted by tristan 2003.03.13, 20:41
We had an earth quake over here last year, scared the hell outa me at the time since i was a couple of hundred feet up in my apartment at the time, lasted for 4 mins but felt so much longer.
What i mean, i’d hate to be somewhere that has lots of earthquakes, especially if i was high up. [/questionable comment]
Posted by Bookie 2003.03.13, 22:44
My dad was in a Taiwanese quake. He ran back home so fast it was almost funny. He started calling every day too, like it would be the last time we’d ever hear from him. All of his relatives over there thought he was insane. I guess they’re used to it.
Posted by gomichild 2003.03.14, 00:20
Only by being in denial can we continue to live here on the brink of natural disaster nonchalantly….
Posted by niji 2003.03.14, 09:58
there are several different opinions on this. among earthquake researchers there are oposing views, and, among the general japanese population there are various theories. in general, we in japan feel that “regular”, meaning “frequent”, releases of earth energy building up in the conflicting plates does prevent an earthquake that would release suddenly a much more concentrated burst of energy.
but even that is subject to question. since a series of smaller earthquakes could be just a pre-cursor to an unstoppable much larger one -where the plate movement is at a much faster speed than normal, and the smaller advance earthquakes just not able to keep up releasing enough energy, until that cycle ends with a huge earthquake.
at any rate, sudden earthquakes, like the one yesterday, after a time of relative calm, which was the case for the period during these last 8 months or so, certainly causes more concern at a basic human level.
in the end, we remain unprepared and largely helpless.
on the other hand, if you notice in tokyo that along the sides of some roads there is a space being planned to widen the street, the event that tokyo city planning is waiting for, is the next really big disaster. it’s true. disasters allow for new projects to take place. it has always been like this.
Posted by niji 2003.03.14, 10:00
sorry for the double post…
Posted by Jeff 2003.03.14, 23:58
The last big San Francisco earthquake, I think it was around 1989, destroyed a much-hated elevated freeway that cut right across a beautiful view of the bay. The decision not to rebuild it was applauded throughout the city.
The very first memory of my life was being in a 7.8 earthquake just north of Los Angeles when I was 3.
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