July 3, 2006
-
News Bulletins
From here at home:
Greyfox has informed me that our total phone time is only 1,350 minutes
a month, not 1,850 as I had said. That must mean that the minutes
on the basic plan are only 350. So, this relationship takes a lot
less time than I’d thought, and the time-pressured testiness of that
month when we tried to get by on only 350 minutes makes a lot more
sense than if it had been 850.From not so close to home:
The Andreanof Islands are not everyone’s favorite vacation
destination. They are a subgroup of the Aleutians and include
Adak, where the U.S. has a remote military base, and Atka, which was forcibly evacuated
and its residents’ homes destroyed by U.S. military troops in World War
II. If it is on your summer itinerary, you might wish to
reconsider unless you enjoy standing on shaky ground.If you’ve been reading me for a while, you might know that I subscribe
to the USGS’s earthquake notification service. After weeks of
occasional emails telling me of quakes in the Fox Islands, just east of
the Andreanofs, in the past three days I’ve gotten alerts for 28 quakes
over magnitude 4 in the Andreanofs and one 5.6 in the Rat Islands, just
to the west.The only thing I can definitely say about what this means is that the
North American Plate is on the move, but that’s nothing new. The
plates are always on the move, even if it’s only movement in geological
terms. But movement here now is followed by movement somewhere
else later, as the pressure gets transferred across the crust.I have also noticed more than the usual level of activity lately in the
Macquarie Island area, waaay down in the Southern Hemisphere.
That caught my eye because some strong quakes there preceded the big
tsunami in Indonesia a couple of years ago. The whole Ring of
Fire seems to be more active than usual. Locally, I
have felt a few small shakes in the past weeks, and have gotten emails
about a few others I didn’t feel because I’d been asleep at the
time. Currently, as far as I know, there is NO unusual volcanic
activity in Alaska.
Comments (3)
Hello…..I have enjoyed reading some of your writings tonight. I am going to subscribe so I will know how to find you tomorrow or another day when I have more time to read. I’ve always wanted to visit Alaska so it’s interesting hearing about your life. Thanks so much for sharing!! ~Colleen
..have you noticed, perhaps, that your subscription to the earthquake warnings has generated a whole lot more since the bombardment of iraq? that’s why i have nicknamed him ‘george w.m.d. shrub’, i sincerely believe that the constant detonation of explosives during the iraq war has unhinged many of the plate margins leading to many more earthquakes and volcanic activity around the world.
I am interested in your comments about Atka being forcibly evacuated. There is a book about a town in the UK that was forcibly evacuated during WWII. I cannot for the life of me find the book or remember the title. It seems so inhumane. Downright fascist, huh?
Thanks for the link!