[Sca-cooks] small earthquakes

[Stefan li Rous]

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. 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.

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

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).

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****