This morning at 10:20 am, the lab participated in the Great California Shake Out, in which we, along with 8.5 million others, dropped, covered, and held on, and then evacuated the building as a result of an imaginary earthquake. It's important to be prepared after all.
At 2:41 pm, the building started shaking and banging. I sat in my chair, wondering what was going on. Was there construction? Could this be planned somehow? How does one create an earthquake? Crazy thought I know, but I do work at a National Lab with crazy scientists. It began to dawn on me that this actually was a real earthquake, and I began to think that perhaps I should be getting under my desk. Right about when I started to do so, the shaking stopped. It had lasted maybe 10 or 15 seconds at most.
Everyone started emerging from their offices and cubes, asking, "Was that an earthquake?" We were all so confused about how such a thing happened on the day of the Great California Shake Out. It was by far the strongest earthquake I have felt. We were woken up by one in Socorro with a loud thud, and I have felt two or three here in the Bay Area, with just slight swaying.
Well guess what, this one was only a 4.0! I have always wanted to feel a real earthquake, but this one sure made me realize that I want nothing to do with a real earthquake. Keep in mind that earthquake magnitudes are on a log scale, so a 6.0 would be 1,000 times greater than a 4.0. Holy crap! (I think that's right anyway...)
The only relief is that this earthquake was centered about one mile from my building, so I was super close by. In addition, the USGS says that since it was so deep (6.0 miles), the shaking is felt more profoundly. On the other hand, it is not unlikely that the Big One will occur on the same Hayward Fault also near both my building and my office. So good times lie ahead! My goodness mother nature.
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