Last night we had an earthquake somewhere beyond Beyond Ester. In the past, I have experienced earthquakes as the ground or building swaying, sometimes a shudder that seems to emanate from underneath. But last night, the symptom was a sudden craaaccckk from the logs in the house. Earlier, it had been very windy, so when I heard the logs cracking and creaking, I took the dogs out to determine if we needed to evacuate the house, gather kitties, and head to a storm shelter. After eight years in Iowa, one of my first reactions to strange surging sounds is to find a solid shelter. But when the dogs and I opened the door to the outside, all was silent. No fiercely clanging windchimes, no madly swaying birch trees. We came back into the house, and I noticed that my alarm clock had tipped over. Some of the dishes had slid in the cabinets. Kali, the complacent and usually oblivious elder cat, was sitting up, her eyes wide. Ahhhhh... an earthquake, I thought. This morning, I mentioned my experience to my co-worker, who directed me to UAF's Geophysical Institute earthquakes info page. What a wealth of information! It looks like the earthquake we experienced was about 150 miles south of Beyond Ester. I'm curious about how the shock waves travel... do they emanate through rock like water waves? Or more like sound waves traveling through the air? Regardless, it was an interesting experience, but not one that I need to replay. Visit the Geophysical Institute to read stats on the Beyond Beyond Ester Earthquake here: http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/Seis/recent/sub/quakes/2009076_evid96061/evid96061.html This is also the site where I got the cool map, above. Thanks, GI!
Thanks for posting about the rumbles BeyondEster. I don't know if there were any rumbles here in Dillingham. I was asleep by that time. Very interesting to be looking at the BeyondEster blog from another location in Alaska, and to see the sunlight map and ro see how, because Dillingham is so much further West than Fairbanks, that at the same time of night (since all of Alaska is on the same time zone) it is dark in Fairbanks, but still light here in Dillingham. I am able to particularly notice this as I am looking out the window AND looking at the sunlight map at the same time.
ReplyDeleteAgain, Thanks for the quake post, and for the great GI links!
Dill, I took the dogs out to potty at 9:21p and traces of the sunset were still lingering in the west. Won't be long now, and the Great Light will settle in on us here Beyond Ester.
ReplyDeleteThere are earthquakes all the time in Alaska. One of the joys of living here.
ReplyDeleteThere were several quakes on the same evening that were much stronger than the one that rattled the logs. Mattie's Pillow reports that a 4.5 earthquake was recorded closer to Fairbanks. Yet it was not at the right time. Our quake happened about 10:30 PM. Why is it that much larger quakes are not felt here at Beyond Ester, while much smaller quakes that are further away are felt so strongly? Hmmmmm... one of the mysteries of life...
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