it was kind of little here...it shook for what seemed like a long, long time, but it was still just a shimmy shake the whole time. of course, you never know when it's going to take off from the shimmy to a major quaker/shaker. this time it stayed steady. soon after the phone alerted for a tsunami risk....not here really, but it turns out it was a 7.9 quake so many coastal areas of AK were on tsunami alerts.
these are some of my favorite earthquake education pictures...obviously not done by me. above is a chart i found helpful when looking to purchase a home in Anchorage. it gives you a feel of the stability of the ground. I'm in the right upper corner area zone, which looks pretty stable. i like that. there are faults all over and i have had quakes release under me so those felt pretty strong.
the one above gives you some idea of how the magnitude numbers demonstrate size of the quake. it's pretty impressive and steep difference between each level of magnitude. i think each one is 10x the strength. i rarely notice any under 4. we have quakes all the time in this area. 7.9 pretty dang big...thankful it was 350 miles away.
we also got fresh snow out there. still wore my cleats as there is ice underneath the snow and so it's deceiving. pups go nuts when there is fresh snow...hard to get them to calm down. lots of extra wrestling tonight, but they seem more settled finally.
this chart shows how the tsunami travels from the epicenter of the earthquake. this quake was a bit different and in an unusual place i guess. it was a strike/slip rather than a quake that is an abduction one...which does generate tsunami's.
of course, when a quake that big hits you have to assume there is a high possibility of a tsunami so alerts go out, sirens alarm and people in coastal communities head to high ground. communities in Alaska that are prone to tsunami's have plans in place. that doesn't make it much easier to wake your families and drag them all to the car at 1 am along with your dog, the cat the rabbit, the hamster....not to mention it is cold out there, snow falling in various places, wind. roads are icy and it's dark.
some folks head to buildings that are at a higher elevation. for some in communities they head up roads into the hills/mountains to wait it out. last night the all clear came across after 3 or 4 in most places. with the strike/slip quake there was no real wave action. heard some reports of mild tide recession but not sure that is confirmed.
for those of you who are used to seeing the quakes on grafts like this...still a hundred or so miles from epicenter but this one above was out at Skilak Lake on the Kenai.
people get right on facebook and other social media i guess after these quakes, which is kind of nice when you live along as you don't feel as alone. i found it difficult to fall to sleep. you are hearing of people evacuating places that are very familiar to you and i know folks scattered across the state so i was a bit anxious and relieved when the all clear came through and i knew it was safe out there.
the shrews were making tracks through the snow to their little holes
the quake was felt as far north as Fairbanks and East to Juneau at least. there was another chart of impressive seismic activity from Coldfoot, 750 miles north of the epicenter. pretty wild.
was laughing and a bit annoyed this morning as i watched some live feed from Caltech in Pasadena. there were two earthquake specialists there and the one guy was laughing and saying this quake was "no biggie". he said he doubted anyone even felt it. when asked he said, no he hadn't spoken to anyone in Alaska.
so i guess we all hallucinated the tremors we felt. seems if you plan a live broadcast about a large quake in a different state than where you are...it may be wise to pick up the phone and check in with the experts...or get on facebook to the Alaska earthquake reporting site and have a quick read of it. fool.
it was a pretty day out there. not enough snow for snowshoes but too much to not have cleats. made for a few slippery moments so i can tell I'm a bit achy. we were out for quite awhile. never enough for the furs though.
they were super happy though. love to watch them run all over so happy.
did manage to hit the grocery store then i attempted a nap this afternoon. don't think any sleeping got done.
one brother called me last night. he called at about 1:30 am to see if i was okay, so sweet. his partner was awake early and saw the report....so they checked in on me. another brother checked in via text..thank you Tom. called my sister later, but she had no idea the quake had even happened, so i filled her in. no word from anyone else. i suspect the eldest has me on unfollowed mode and the next one i had unfriended, but i did sent a request at the start of the year. figured I'd turn over a new leaf and put it in his hands. he has not responded which i take to mean he is still posting a large volume of political stuff. some is okay, we all have our days, but i think posts are best limited to less than 10/day. preferred less than 5/day. we all start to look pathetic beyond that.
posted more the past 24 because of the quake. this weekend i also got excited by all the women's march stuff...but still, i was able to keep the count down. be selective and then when i do post i try to be positive...i fail on occasion. sometimes i just delete if it spurs a battle or turns out to not be that positive. i also do not want my personal facebook page to have pictures that i do not want to see. no pics of racists groups, no iitoo, i mean why would you want people you find disgusting on your page glaring at you anytime you go there.
a few from another beach day before i attempt to crash.
hopefully, no quakes wake me up this morning. i kind of suspect i would have slept through the quake if i had been asleep instead of up late reading. had watched a really cool doc of these dudes surfing in winter in Iceland!! crazy. so beautiful though.
that tsunami text may have waken me up..without the quake though, it probably wouldn't have had the impact. knowing how big that thing was makes you worry more about the tsunami that it could bring. so happy it wasn't that sort of quake. still could be lots of aftershocks, I'm sure there have been. not thinking i will feel those.
not too long ago i had been standing through a pretty shaky quake. my brain got a bit rattled. i had read that after the quake in Japan they found people had issues post quake. they called in an earthquake hangover. some issues with motion, nausea, sensitivities like a concussion really. after that one i for sure felt that. took me a few days to feel right again.
i head back to work again tomorrow. haven't gotten much done this stretch. did arrange our lecture date with REI for WARIS so that will be fun. hope to get one of the rangers to speak.
so that was my exciting day today.
sleep in peace all.
thankful for: A. no tsunami waves of consequence B. fresh snow..always so beautiful C. a very survivable quake for all. i like it.
