Earthquakes, Plate Tectonics and Volcanism

[Malsua]

Our military will only be marginally compromised by a Yellowstone Caldera blowoff.

The sea fleets will still be around, the subs will be fine. Chinese invasion will be met by fierce and I daresay _OVERWHELMING_ resistance.

[American Patriot]

Our military will only be marginally compromised by a Yellowstone Caldera blowoff.

The sea fleets will still be around, the subs will be fine. Chinese invasion will be met by fierce and I daresay _OVERWHELMING_ resistance.

You're correct. I've read "One Minute After" and another book where most of the population of the US "vanished" one day. The Navy IS a force to be reckoned with.

But......

The Chinese have shit already in place in Central and South America. They can jump off on the West Coast pretty quickly.

They have a "superior" force in manpower alone.

We won't use nukes on our own soil. I do not foresee that happening unless someone like me falls in the chain of command... and I don't expect that to happen EVER.

Let me just say that you're right, we will have the force to meet their force... but, it will happen and we're "somewhat" prepared but not completely prepared and if it happens we will all be pressed into service. Those surviving anyway.

[Phil Fiord]

Actually a single report came out saying looting did start in Hybla Valley, which is south of DC outside the 495 beltway. I cannot find verification of that claim though.

[MinutemanCO]

Yeah, here's the one from last night... 5.3. Felt here in the Springs, happened in Trinidad (about 3 hour drive from here) and as far north as Greeley CO)

WHAT!? Where the hell was I?

[Ryan Ruck]

So Phil, how was the ride?

[Ryan Ruck]

By the way, saw this earlier...

The White House press secretary has just released a statement that the quake happened because of a previously unknown geological formation known as Bush's Fault.

[Ryan Ruck]

Wow, look at the apparent propagation...

[Luke]

Damn, shakers to the left of me quakers to the right. I am glad I had my tinfoil hat on good and tight.

[American Patriot]

WHAT!? Where the hell was I?

I think you were slightly north west of me, actually, on a global scale anyway.

/chuckles

[MinutemanCO]

Man. I'm bummed. We get an earthquake of some significance and I sleep through it. Oh well. I'll try and catch the next one.

I experienced a small quake when I was in CA Bay area - low 3's I think. It was a little freaky. I can't imagine what a big one feels like.

[American Patriot]

I've been in two pretty big ones. One was in Tokyo. The other was in Santa Barbara.

Both were around 7.something (I think one was 7.2 and one was 7.1 or something).

The one in CA was actually centered on a town called Coalinga. Pretty much destroyed the center of town.

The one in Tokyo was big enough to shake the buildings pretty hard. I was onthe 12th floor and we evacuated the building, but most of their buildings are on giant springs so there wasn't a lot of damage except to dry wall and such.

[American Patriot]

Tokyo? You know it's amazing they had the opportunity to build such modern buildings and all...

I know, 'joke' in poor taste. I had a lady friend a few years younger than me ask me 'why all the buildings in Japan looked so new?' recently...Sigh...How soon people forget things you'd think would never be forgotten. But, it's probably just as well.

Not sure I'm tracking here, Michael.... Japan has some of the most modern buildings in the world. They care constantly doing construction and building new things, tearing down the old.

I guess I didn't get the joke.

[American Patriot]

Most of Japan was rebuilt right after the war, so I guess thats why it didnt make sense.

[Phil Fiord]

So Phil, how was the ride?

The ride. Well, I have pictures of my work and video off the security cams. When it occurred, I was standing near a steel frame double wide door, made of beam steel. I got under it and held the side of the frame. The whole place was shaking and I could hear stuff falling all around me. A large crash of glass and such.

When it had finished, I left my safe post and started along the back walk to view down aisles to see if we had injured. No injured, but lots of stuff had come down everywhere. Along the way, I went to the nearest broadcast comm and announced, "Attention: Do not be alarmed, what we just experienced was an earthquake. I grew up in earthquake country and while this was sizable, it is not so grand to fret over. Please make your way to the front of the building."

I went to the front and saw my coworkers outside. I went out and people were upset and trying to call out on cell phones. So did a few million other people, so cell lines were offline. 5 bars but no call out ability. However, text and email worked fine. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Cricket. None could dial out.

I went back inside and approached my manager. She was not in control of the situation, and I was woefully disappointed, so told her," get our people together get the rest of these people out, so we can assess our damage and make the call to close and clean up. She said, "yes, i know", but stood there. I was about to take the reigns from her when her manager showed up and immediately took control. We cleared the building of all non essentials and while a call was being placed about closing for cleanup, we started to clean up.

I later told this boss, how disappointed I was in the other manager. This was no critical emergency, but we needed to organize and get it done. Employees were just wandering around. This was a new thing to most and was a mild shock to some. People needed focus.

We officially closed at 2:05p edt.

A few ceiling tiles were canted with one area losing 2 panes of ceiling tile.

The big glass crash was a huge mirror that hung on a far wall. The mounts shook lose and it slid off to the floor.

Various liquid containers had broken open and smaller glass piles were here and there.

We cleaned up all hazards and ran the porters floor scrubber as a last part. We reopened at 5p. edt.

I made an announcement for all employees to verify there work areas were in functional shape and then worked with a friend and coworker with a tall ladder to reset the ceiling tiles before heading over to clean the mirror up and test our communications equipment. Our intranet was working.

As we have Irene heading in, I put a call into facilities maintenance to have someone out to check our roof as we know of two sizable leaks, but with our building being 40 years old, I have a feeling that matter has changed.

So, how was the ride? I'd give it a 5.8 or 5.9 on a scale of 1 to 6. I loved it though. Good times. For the Whitter quake in Cali, I had just woken when it hit and was on a waterbed, no coils. The house shook and bowed and the bed started violent waves. I rode that beast like a bronco and even did the yehaw! Yehaw! for it, right arm up and riding like a cowboy. Yup. I like riding earthquakes. To be clear, I like riding them. I do not like when people die from them.

[Ryan Ruck]

Well, I have pictures of my work and video off the security cams.

And strangely your post was devoid of pictures or YouTube videos... Hmmm...



I've already told my brother that there had better be pictures and video of Irene. Even told him he can put his phone or camera in a ZipLock bag to keep it waterproof!

[Phil Fiord]

Ryan,

Due to company policy, which I did sign off on, I cannot post online any photos, videos or negative comments where it could be accessed publicly. No biggie to me as my employer scrubs the net every so often anyway, but it would jeopardize my job.

The pics are not too exciting. Our damage was minor really. Only totaled 500 in damaged materials and whatever the mirror costs to repair.

The video is where the action is at. The reason I cannot post that is it is from the security station panel and shows what software we use, how many cameras and where they are. We have a couple secret channels not shown, but I am not supposed to know that. I did note that cams mounted in some areas shook more violently than others.

That all said, I can email what I recorded as that was not in that sign off. Problem there is the video is 60mb.

[Phil Fiord]

btw, what is priceless in the video is seeing people do exactly what you should not do and run for the front door. It also shows a cheap plastic clock fall off a wall and onto my on duty bosses backside. She scramble and still says it hit her head. The video shows it did not.

[Ryan Ruck]

Eh, don't sweat it Phil.

[Ryan Ruck]

According to the USGS a 4.5 aftershock hit at 1:07am ET, same location as the original.

[Phil Fiord]

It was a few miles south they say now, but I woke and looked at my clock at 1:07am. I was unsure why I woke, but used the bathroom anyway and went back to bed. On my way to Maryland to be grilled in a conference room, I heard about the aftershock on WTOP.