April 10, 2009
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Earthquakes and Footprints
With all the news from Italy’s destructive quake at L’Aquila, Greyfox calling me a couple of days ago all excited about a “big one” he assumed I felt, and its being Good Friday, I’ve got earthquakes on my mind.
Greyfox’s “big one” wasn’t that big. When he called, he was sure I’d felt it, but I had been walking around in here at the time, and the blocks under this trailer are so unstable that a cat can shake the floor, and I hadn’t felt a thing. I checked it out at NEIS and found that it had been a little 4.7, only nine miles from his location.
The Good Friday connection is a dual one, of course. One of the Gospel writers, Matthew, added an earthquake to his account of the solar eclipse at the crucifixion.
Then there was the Good Friday quake of 1964. It occurred on March 27 that year, but everyone here calls it the Good Friday Earthquake. I didn’t move here until 1973, which put me here for the tenth anniversary media frenzy. There were many personal stories I heard then, but the one that stuck in my mind was my ex, Charley, telling about leaning on a building downtown because he couldn’t stand up, and watching plate glass windows ripple in waves before they shattered. He was just a few blocks from the big subsidence on 4th Avenue.
He was among the first people to reach the collapsed J.C.Penney store to look for survivors.
The damage in the downtown area was extensive, but it was the residential area in Turnagain that experienced the most ground subsidence, as the Bootlegger clay under the surface liquefied with the shaking. Downtown was rebuilt, but Turnagain was turned into Earthquake Park.
FOOTPRINTSUntil a few days ago, the post of mine that brought the most traffic from Google was the Maidenform Bra entry. Nearly all of those hits came from people looking for images, and that same thing is true for the post that is now bringing me an even bigger flood of hits. This new spate of hits comes from all over the planet (except behind the Great Firewall of China), and oddly enough it is going not to an image I posted but to a link to an image, of a full frontal nude shot of Daniel Radcliffe in Equus.
Comments (7)
That is so… funny about the links! My friend who lives in LA has actually gone to the show that Daniel Radcliffe is doing his full frontal nudity in, apparentely it involves a horse on stage as well. Its going to be hard to watch harry potter after that! LOL
Earhquakes aren’t exactly attractive. My sister lost her house in the tornado that struck Topeka, Kansas in June of ’66.Awesome pictures.
How well I remember the Good Friday earthquake — and the quake in Seattle about a year later! Things have quieted here in the last week or two — but my sister felt the Italian quake earlier this week (she lives in the southwestern part of Rome)!
I saw a story on that big quake… wasn’t there tidal water after that as well? I think I saw it on… History Channel or maybe the Weather Channel once upon a time. Don’t recall the details.
We never have that stuff in New York City…which is good because I’d hate to be driving a car or riding a bus over the George Washington Bridge and suddenly find myself in the drink.
@warweasel - The tsunami washed over Kodiak Island, and hit Seward. In Seward, it washed a train out into the harbor, and the boxcars are still there, underwater.
@SuSu - Ah. I thought there was big water involved! Thanks for clarifying.