[Sca-cooks] small earthquakes

[Lilinah]

Stefan wrote:
>Urtatim commented:
>  > (boom, rattle, rattle, rattle)
>  > Sh*t, that's the third earthquake in the past 3 or 4 days, all the
>  > same magnitude and with the epicenter just a couple miles from my
>  > house.
>  >
>  > Oh, well, happy holiday earthquakes to everyone... NOT!
>
>I'm sorry to hear of your discomfort.

Well, these were small, so more surprise than discomfort... except it 
makes one edgy for a few days, waiting for perhaps a bigger one.

>But I suspect that these small
>earthquakes are actually good, since they let off some of the
>building pressure. These small quakes do minimal damage, even if they
>are disconcerting. However, if the pressure between the sliding
>tectonic plates is not occasionally relieved, it continues to build
>until it overcomes the friction holding the plates back and that is
>when you get the much bigger 6, 7 and 8 magnitude (on the Richter(?)
>scale) quakes. Those are the ones that do major damage and in which
>people get hurt and killed.

These were on the Hayward fault, which hasn't had a major earthquake 
in quite a long while (since 1868), and from what i've heard it's the 
one about which seismologists are more concerned in this area. 
Apparently we've got five fault lines/fault zones running through 
here.

>I had just joined the SCA when the quakes hit in 1989 and knew few
>folks in California.

The famous San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 (more of the damage was 
caused by fires than the earthquake, although it was a very strong 
earthquake) and the recent one in 1989 (which felt like surfing) were 
on the San Andreas fault which is west of me.

>I know more folks there now, including yourself,
>and I'd much rather have more small quakes than be worried about my
>friends out there if (when?) another big one happens.

Yeah, we're generally relieved that a fault line lets off a little pressure :-)

On the other hand, the earthquake of '89 was 6.9 or 7.0 and 
comparatively few people died, whereas in other places a mere 5 can 
kill thousands, depending on how their buildings are built.

>On a lighter side, my mother used to have a gas oven that had
>irregular heat or perhaps just bad temperature control and many of
>our birthday cakes ended up with large cracks in them and we would
>call them earthquake cakes. We would ice them and then place the choo-
>choo train or other cake decorations on the cake getting swallowed up
>by the crack(s).

That's funny and a nice way to deal with baking problems :-)

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita