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Post by nana on Mar 11, 2020 17:41:35 GMT -5
So we were sitting quietly sipping our tea this morning around a quarter to seven when we heard a few loud bangs, accompanied by a heavy rumble, and the whole house shook. Really shook. Not just a vibration, but rattle the stovepipe shook. My husband said did a big milk truck just go by? Did something just hit the house? And I said no, I think that was an earthquake! He got up to look outside, and as soon as he opened the door the two cats came running in all puffed up--they must have had their noses right up against the door. Sure enough, a few minutes later it came over the news--a 3.1 earthquake right here in upstate NY!!! I know those of you in earthquake prone areas would scoff at a 3.1, but it was plenty exciting for us, let me tell you! The best kind of earthquake I guess--enough to feel and be thrilled, but no damage and no harm done!
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Post by vaporvac on Mar 12, 2020 18:41:01 GMT -5
Nana, that is crazy. We had one in NJ as a kid so I guess anything is possible. We have them here from time to time, bad enough to have broken the steps of the old courthouse! Of course, when they're at night I sleep right through them!
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Post by nana on Mar 13, 2020 20:40:06 GMT -5
The Adirondack Mountains are being lifted up a measurable amount every year, something like an eighth of an inch or thereabouts, by a magma dome way underneath them. So an earthquake now and then is not surprising. I suppose a volcanic eruption isn't out of the question either, God help us! I suppose it's better to have a bunch of little ones rather than one really really big one. It was sort of fun, though, since it wasn't anything dangerous!
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Post by pooka on Mar 16, 2020 0:51:12 GMT -5
I think it's tough to wrap our heads around the idea of how changeable the earth is. Streams & rivers move. Hills & mountains move. And it never really stops. It happens on a different timescale than us. Geologists say there's time, then there's geologic time. Our lifespan only allows us to get a brief gimps the processes. We are at the mercy of the forces of the universe. We're just along for the ride. We're bound to experience a little turbulence now & then. What's a little earthquake, volcanic eruption or title wave in the grand scheme of things. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
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Post by mach12 on Mar 16, 2020 15:21:16 GMT -5
I totally agree Pooka! Where I live it's just a matter of time before the next disaster and I try to spend as much time as I can up in the Cascade mountains, especially in the Gifford Pinchot national forest in the neighborhood of Mt. St. Helens that blew on May 18th, 1980. The only thing I worry about with being there when there was another volcanic event when I was up there is that I hate flying.
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Post by nana on Mar 16, 2020 18:47:03 GMT -5
Do you live in one of those areas that's in the path of the lava flow?
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Post by mach12 on Mar 18, 2020 12:45:04 GMT -5
Not lava but we had so much ash on our house and cars that it looked like it had snowed - an inch or so. The week after it blew we drove up to where we pick huckleberries in the national forest and there was no way to describe it. Entire forests of massive Douglas Firs that looked like a giant had come along and ran its hand along an area and laid the trees down like wheat in the field. Trees on each side of where they had been laid down looked totally untouched. Herds of elk we're wandering around like they were in shock. Trees that were standing had sticks driven into them that went all the way through. The entire area was covered in a foot or so of heavy, sandy ash (unlike the powder at our house) but it was raining and not dusty, thank goodness. It was just indescribable. I had a metal coffee can in the back of the car that we kept a roll of toilet paper and handwipes in so I emptied it out and filled it with the wet ash, took it home, and set it on the back porch. My wife and mother-in-law were really into ceramics at the time and had a kiln. They were going to use the ash to make some stuff to send friends and relatives and when I went to get the can for them a week later I picked it up and the bottom came right out of it. Sulfuric acid had eaten the bottom of the can away. Sure glad I didn't empty it out and put the TP back in it!
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Post by nana on Mar 18, 2020 17:18:39 GMT -5
Ouch! I remember seeing a long time ago a map of areas out there that were in the path of ancient pyroclastic flows from the volcanoes out there that maybe hadn't erupted in eons, but still might. I can't remember exactly where, or which mountains, but it looked to me like a lot of people were in the crosshairs if they ever erupted again...Hope not you!
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Post by mach12 on Mar 19, 2020 1:00:06 GMT -5
We're in about as safe a place as there is here in Western WA - except for forest fires. My insurance company has private fire fighting services contracted (cheaper to pay for that then to replace homes and belongings) so that's at least some hope, though if a place like the governors residence and mine were both being threatened by fire something tells me I'd better get the hot dogs out here. The closest threat is Mt. Rainier, the one in my avatar, which they say is a volcano in hibernation. When it does eventually blow again the mudflows are going to kill tens of thousands. What was rich, productive farmland when I was a kid is now full of housing developments and industrial parks, right where the mudflows have gone every time the mountain has erupted in the past. We have a plan though. We put in sirens to make sure everyone is awake to meet their demise. Thankfully I'm miles away from the flow paths.
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Post by nana on Mar 19, 2020 6:18:24 GMT -5
That must have been what I read about. I must apologize for my lack of knowledge about the geography of the Pacific Northwest. I think I would have to look at a map to be absolutely sure that Washington state is north of Oregon.
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Post by mach12 on Mar 19, 2020 11:37:01 GMT -5
That must have been what I read about. I must apologize for my lack of knowledge about the geography of the Pacific Northwest. I think I would have to look at a map to be absolutely sure that Washington state is north of Oregon. This country is so enormous that I don't think it's possible to know much more than a smattering of all the parts of it. And on the WA/OR thing, this actually was Oregon, or the Oregon territory, until 1863 when WA split off, and before it became Oregon territory it was British. The British maps called it Columbia and I wish we'd have stuck with that. I spent so many years working overseas and everyone always wanted to know where I lived in America. When I told them I lived in Washington they wanted to know stuff like whether I knew the President. A lot of places I worked or had assignments, saying "I'm from Washington and I'm here to help you" would invite my rapid demise. Almost a guarantee it in some. I got to where I just carried my AAA map of the USA in my computer bag and would take it out and show people. It turned out to be a really great conversation starter. We're about the only country where, when you meet with someone, you get right down to business but with the majority of the rest of the world you take time to get to know each other and let them take the time to decide whether to trust you, though once they decide to like you, Katie bar the door. And tea is the beverage of diplomats. My AAA map has multiple tea stains lol. It turns out that almost all the time I could have told people that I was from Seattle but that's on me. I really, really, really don't like Seattle and telling someone that I'm from there is like slapping myself in the face. So when I read your note about lack of knowledge I chuckled and thought how it sounds like you sure seem to know more than many. Kind of like "Ha! That ain't the half of it!!" lol. But it's the same for you if you tell someone you're from New York.
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Post by nana on Mar 19, 2020 18:18:03 GMT -5
Yeah, that's true. People from other states don't think there's anything outside of NYC, and when I say I'm from upstate NY to city people they think like Peekskill or Poughkeepsie. Which to me is already the city. NY is a beautiful and large state (in northeast terms) and there is so much more to it than people think between NYC and Niagara Falls!
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