Nature's Wrath

I woke this morning to the sound of thunder. As my alarm was about to go off anyway, this didn't bother me but did what thunder always does, and so I thought to myself, "awesome." I love thunderstorms. I grew up in Florida, which should be called the "Sunshine - except during the afternoon thunderstorm" State, and on many summer nights watching the lightning was our entertainment.

I have always been fascinated by the weather in general, secretly hope to witness a real tornado, and once considered Meteorology as a profession, so crouching under my desk during my first ever earthquake was probably the coolest thing that will happen to me all year. The ground itself was shaking throughout most of the Northeastern United States! Amazing! Much of geology involves slow processes operating over thousands or millions of years, but in an Earthquake, the Earth's crust is disturbed with such force to create pressure waves, like sound waves, that "cause the entire planet to quiver or ring like a bell." How cool is that?!

Such a strong earthquake in this part of the world (the Central Virginia Seismic Zone) is quite rare because the faults are very ancient, having settled down in their old age after spending their wild youth creating the Appalachian Mountains and separating North America from its cross-Atlantic cousins. According to Dr. David Applegate of the USGS (see full transcript here), this is also the reason why these earthquakes are felt so far away from where they occur:

Out in California or in Alaska or where the Earth's plates are grinding against each other, the rock is much more broken up. Here, we have very stable continental crust. It's old crust. It's cold. It transmits the energy very well over long distances.

Additionally, the eroding of the Appalachians has built up thick sediments which amplify shaking. Over 100,000 interested people have weighed-in on what they felt during the earthquake to produce the USGS Community Interest Intensity Map showing that light shaking was felt as far North as Canada.

And now we have a hurricane threatening to make landfall in the same area this weekend. It is another rare thing - hurricanes usually hit much farther South.

Every day, all over the world, Nature shows her wrath. For me, violent weather will always be a reminder that Nature is alive. The forces of Nature are going about their business with complete disregard to how humans are spending their time, but we are not separate from Nature, we are Nature, and Nature is Awesome!