Seismology quote o' the day

The San Andreas Fault runs through Cajon Pass [lower left to upper right] in Southern California. See Lost Lake in the middle of the photo? Good place to bird — I saw a Purple Martin there last year. Photo by cocoi_m on Flickr.

A most excellent comment from geologist [specializing in tectonics] and science blogger Chris Rowan, on Twitter:

Anyone using the word 'overdue' automatically forfeits their right to be taken seriously.

Chris tells it: How to (and how not to) talk about earthquake hazards in the media. USGS seismologist Susan Hough, A+! Newsweek and "journalist" Simon Winchester, F- and dunce caps all around.

H/T: Ed Yong on Twitter.

Fear not, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane

A couple videos of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and what you can do to help:




Reclaimed land and liquefaction: Californians will feel a chill.

This is one of the most hair-raising videos I think I've ever seen. The sight of the roofs moving in the smoke and dust...



MESSENGER:
Gracious my lord,
I should report that which I say I saw,
But know not how to do it.

MACBETH:
Well, say, sir.

MESSENGER:
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The Wood began to move.

*************

PCMag.com has an excellent round up of "many options for online donations, as well as sites that will help you keep tabs on the rescue effort." I recommend California's own International Medical Corps: "The group said it will focus its efforts on earthquake and tsunami affected communities that have not yet been reached. To donate, text MED to 80888."

Our hearts are with Japan.

ETA: Satellite before/after shots at the NY Times here.

There have been a few more

More aftershocks. [Click for big.] This is a screengrab from a site bookmarked by just about everyone in the Golden State: Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada. Real-time updating goodness, and all you need to know about the magic of plate tectonics.

According to the L.A. Times, the fault responsible for this quake was south of the San Andreas. One man died when his home near Mexicali collapsed, and "at least six homes were destroyed by fires caused by the quake."

In this KTLA news video, Caltech's most excellent Dr. Lucy Jones answers everyone's seismic, if not seismically sophisticated, questions. [As TJ Sullivan tweets, "Hearing Dr. Lucy after an earthquake is like hearing Vin Scully call a Dodger game. She's the real deal." Another classic from TJ: "What did we learn from today's quake? That hundreds of people in SoCal are constantly shooting video of their pool water."]

Whenever there's a quake over 5 or so, for days afterwards I always put a little flashlight in my jeans pocket and keep it close pretty much 24/7. Because earthquakes in total darkness are not cool.

Note to self: train dogs to duck, cover and hold.

Mashable has rounded up some earthquake photos from Twitter. This has to be high on everyone's "there but for the grace of God" list:

Evacuating Disneyland, by ms_kristin.

Related:
Protect Yourself During an Earthquake... Drop, Cover, and Hold On! [and forget that "Triangle of Life" BS].

We felt that one, all right

Eep. I usually don't do much of anything when I feel a smallish earthquake [the series of three point this and four point that we had recently, for example], but I stood up for this one. It felt like the house was on a boat. Gentle rolling, then slightly stronger shaking, then it subsided. Birds at the feeder did nuthin' — kept eating. [You wild things are supposed to warn us by freaking out! Did you not get that memo?] The landshark was worried. Bounce slept through the whole thing.

Ten miles south of Mexicali/Calexico. Damn. Looks like it was right on the San Andreas... Hope folks are safe down there. If it shook the way it did here, 170 miles from the epicenter, I can only imagine what the shaking was like for the people in Guadalupe Victoria. My thoughts are with them.

Pattern developing...? Boy, it's a kick living on the San Andreas. [runs off to complete the "Did you feel it?" form]

Monday's big box o' links

Musher Sebastian Schnuelle [first in the 2009 Yukon Quest, 2nd in the 2009 Iditarod] rocks the earflaps-up look at the Iditarod restart in Wasilla. ADN photo by Bill Roth.

The official Iditarod site is awful, and not just because of a certain inescapable quitter. So ditch the official site, race addicts, and click on this link for awesome Iditarod coverage courtesy of the Anchorage Daily News. Feature stories, a blog, tweets, interactive maps: ADN wins it in a walk. I'm cheering for DeeDee Jonrowe [and her mom] and Colleen Robertia:

Several dogs in Robertia's Rogues Gallery Kennel — mostly "runts, rejects, retirees or rescues," she said — were rescued from the Kenai Animal Shelter and Alaska's Extended Life Animal Sanctuary in Nikiski. Others weren't wanted or needed by area mushers.

"I think they ended up taking two or three dogs from us," Tim Colbath, founder of the sanctuary, said of the Robertias.

"I hope she can finish it. To be able to take the time and knowledge to go through the rescues and get them to work together like that is just phenomenal." [Source: ADN.]

Penny, Colleen's lead dog, weighs a whopping 29 pounds — all of it heart. [That's Penny, top left, from the ADN.] Go, Colleen and Penny!

A few fave photos from the ADN:
The dangerous Mr. Mackey
Team Jonrowe
OMG, this is begging for a caption
Karen Ramstead's gorgeous Siberians

*************

Have an elderly Rottweiler? Dr. David J. Waters [pdf] really wants to meet you. Actually, he wants to meet your Rottie. Dr. Waters is traveling from coast to coast in order to see as many geriatric Rottweilers as he can:

The complete itinerary of the tour includes: March 11, Harrisburg, Pa.; March 12, Holliston, Mass.; March 13, Philadelphia; March 15, Keysville, Va.; March 16, Columbia, Tenn.; March 19, Cambridge, Wis.; March 20, Riverside, Iowa; March 21, Alma, Kan.; March 23, Red Oak, Texas; March 24, Castle Rock, Colo.; March 27, Colorado Springs, Colo.; March 28, Tijeras, N.M.; March 29, Waddell, Ariz.; March 30, San Diego; April 1, Pacific Palisades, Calif.; and April 3, Seattle.

Waters leads a research team that studies aging and cancer in pet dogs. The research includes the study of exceptionally long-lived Rottweilers - individuals that have lived to at least 13 years, which is equivalent to a human living to 100.

"These exceptional dogs have lived at least 30 percent longer than average for their breed," Waters said. "They have dodged cancer and other life-threatening diseases of aging. We believe studying them can shed light on what it takes to live well."

Over the years, Waters and his team have tracked the lives of more than 140 long-lived Rottweilers. Today, however, their database is down to just 15, hence the tour to meet these exceptionally aged canines.

"From questionnaires completed by owners and veterinarians, my team has validated dates of birth and collected a mountain of information about these dogs, including medical history, diet and dietary supplement usage, and parents' longevity," said Waters, who is also associate director of Purdue's Center on Aging and the Life Course and professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences.

At each stop, he will perform a physical examination, collect DNA samples, and record measurements such as height and chest and belly circumference. He will observe each dog in its home environment and query owners on what makes their dog exceptional.

Read more here, from Jennifer Viegas at Discover News: Oldest Rottweilers Inspire 'The Old Grey Muzzle Tour'.

*************

Keep. your dog. on a damn. leash. [H/T: DeltaBluez Stockdogs.] Heather points out that a little training wouldn't hurt, either. Speaking as one who has owned sheep: most people who say their unleashed dog has a reliable recall are either delusional or lying.

*************

Videos:
Canadian dude needs some viral help for a worthy cause. You got it, dude.
I love Local Commercials salutes Butt Drugs of Corydon, Indiana.
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version. Yes, 20 billion people have seen it already, but maybe you missed it. I'm here to help.
A journey through Asia. Moving and beautiful.

*************

What an 8.8 [and the ensuing tsunami] can do, from The Big Picture.

• Conception, Chile, shifted 10 feet to the west.
• Santiago, Chile’s capital, was displaced about 11 inches to the west-southwest.
• Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, moved about 1 inch to the west.

Sure am glad a 7.5 is the most we can expect in these parts! [See A Faults (pdf).] Oh, yeah, nothing to worry about here.

Seriously folks, those of us along the southern [strike-slip fault] San Andreas will never experience the kind of subduction zone thrust-faulting they have in Chile [and in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest]. San Andreas — big-ass quakes. Subduction zones — frikkin' humongous quakes.

*************

Last, but not least — if you plan to be in the San Diego area in late March, you might want to attend Safer Pet Vaccination and Health Care: An Educational Seminar and Benefit. You'll spend the day with pet vaccination experts Drs. W. Jean Dodds and Ronald D. Schultz, and proceeds will go to the Rabies Challenge Fund. The seminar/benefit will be held at the Del Mar Hilton [across from the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Racetrack] on Sunday, March 28, 2010.

International Medical Corps in Haiti

The IMC is hard at work in Port-au-Prince.

International Medical Corps, one of the best emergency medical teams on the planet, is on the ground in Haiti and working at a hospital in Port-au-Prince. From their web site:

We believe there are 1,500 patients seeking treatment and approximately 70%-80% need surgery. So far there have been 70 amputations and another 150+ are needed.

IMC is also working out of their hotel, Villa Creole, "which has been turned into a makeshift clinic," according to their web site. Here's the IMC home page. I could just slap myself for not mentioning them earlier. Here's their page with info on Haiti -- you can donate $10 by texting.

Yéle Haiti has come under recent scrutiny, but IMC's track record is impressive, and impeccable.

Also: Mensch of the Month award to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who stood fast all night at a field hospital when other medical personnel were ordered to leave.

CNN posted video from Friday night that shows the Belgian team packing up its supplies and leaving with a U.N. peacekeeper escort in marked trucks.

Gupta stayed behind, and along with CNN staffers, security personnel and at least one Haitian nurse who refused to leave, took care of 25 patients as best they could, given the lack of medical supplies.

"I've never been in a situation like this. This is quite ridiculous," Gupta says on camera.

CNN reported that Gupta "monitored patients' vital signs, administered painkillers and continued intravenous drips. He stabilized three new patients in critical condition."

The Belgian team returned Saturday morning.

I am so not going to snark at the Belgian emergency response team. Things are beyond chaotic in Haiti right now, and Belgian responders have been saving people right and left. I will, however give a round of applause to Dr. Gupta and his people. [stands, applauds, runs off to donate to IMC]

"Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world"

Rescued from a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince, two-year-old Redjeson Hausteen Claude is reunited with his mother. The firefighter/rescuer is a member of the Community of Madrid's Emergency and Immediate Response Team, ERICAM. Photo by Gerald Herbert: see the full size version here, at the Big Picture.

It's incredibly moving to me that this can happen: that in the wake of a disaster, members of rescue teams from around the world set aside their day-to-day concerns, leave their homes, rush to the devastated area and go to work saving lives and helping others.

While the rescue teams are hard at work, the rest of us can make some small efforts of our own to diminish the horror, the grief and the suffering in Haiti. My homeboy James Fallows suggests a donation to Food for the Poor, and of course the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and Yéle Haiti are good organizations if you're still looking to donate. Texting a donation will set you back a relatively painless five bucks if you follow the directions at Yéle Haiti, ten via the Red Cross link above.

Looking for updates on conditions in Haiti? Boing Boing has a great compilation.


And the search dogs...! Lots of links and photos from Nag on the Lake, Discovery News, Dog Art Today, Unleashed and a selection of news outlets. Here's an update from the Search Dog Foundation:

At 1:15pm local time, an SDF Search Team in Port-au-Prince located three girls, trapped alive since Tuesday in the rubble of Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

Bill Monahan and his Border Collie, Hunter, were searching a neighborhood near the Presidential Palace, concentrating on a large bowl-shaped area of rubble which was all that remained of a 4-story building.

After criss-crossing the area, Hunter pin-pointed the survivors’ scent under 4 feet of broken concrete and did his “bark alert” to let Bill know where the victims were. Bill spoke with the survivors, then passed them bottles of water tied to the end of a stick. As they reached for the water one of the girls said, “Thank you.” Highly trained rescue crews from California Task Force 2 are now working to extricate the girls from the wreckage and provide first aid.

Bill and Hunter continue to search, as do the 6 other SDF teams on the ground in Haiti:

California Task Force 2 – Los Angeles County

• Gary Durian & Baxter – L.A. County Fire
• Ron Horetski & Pearl – L.A. County Fire
• Bill Monahan & Hunter – L.A. County Fire
• Jasmine Segura & Cadillac – L.A. County Fire
• Jason Vasquez & Maverick – L.A. County Fire
• Ron Weckbacher & Dawson – Civilian

Also at work in Haiti are handlers and their dogs from France:


Holland:


Mexico:


Perú:


and Taiwan, among other countries:



It is written in the Talmud, "Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world." Here's another view of that little miracle:


The photo is by Carol Guzy of the Washington Post. If Carol's name looks familiar to dog people, it's probably because of her brilliant photos of the Vick dogs. And if you were to ask Carol or the Spanish fireman, "Why are you in Haiti now?" each one might say to you, in his or her own language and in his or her own way, I came to Haiti because that's my blood down there.

Get your quake on

Since downgraded to a 4.7. Screengrab from Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada, via the SCEDC. Click to embiggen.

"Employees of a Starbucks located at Hawthorne and Artesia Boulevards work to clean up broken glass that shattered on the floor and reportedly injured one person who was taken to a nearby hospital." Photo by Jay Clendenin for the Los Angeles Times.

This puppy was felt from Arizona to Baja: check out the shakemaps. Where I live the quake was so mild that if I'd been walking around I wouldn't have felt it. The gentle rolling here actually went on for a surprisingly long time, though, maybe 12 seconds or a bit more: a clue for us earthquake geeks that this quake was bigger somewhere.

No sooner had the rolling stopped than the phone rang. My most excellent cousin from Orange County wanted to know whether I'd felt the earthquake.

And here is the cool thing: she and her family had felt the quake a full minute before, and it was much stronger. More clues! It's all about the seismic waves, people. You can read about P waves and S waves and those scary Love waves here, and play with wave frequency and amplitude here.

From the LA Times:

An initial assessment by the Los Angeles Fire Department found "no major structural damage, no serious injuries," according to spokesman Brian Humphrey's Twitter feed. [Twitter feed, OMG. I am now following LAFD on Twitter.]

At the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lennox station, deputies said the shaking was brief but intense. "It was pretty strong but over in about 10 seconds," said Lt. Kent Wegener. [Wegener...! Father of plate tectonics! This is just scary.]
[...]
The earthquake was "a bit deep," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough – originating 8.4 miles below the surface. "That tends to make it less sharp – less of a jerky, abrupt motion," Hough said. As a result, most of the region felt the quake largely as a rolling motion, though some closer to the center felt more of a jolt.

Lucy Jones, seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, said the earthquake appears to be consistent with a rupture on the Newport-Inglewood fault. (She said the quake was too small to break the surface, so they can't definitively identify faults.) Jones said this fault isn't typically thought to be capable of a large quake, like the San Andreas Fault. But it was responsible for the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, which measured about 6.3 in magnitude. The Long Beach quake is about as big as seismologists expect from this fault, she said.
[...]
Nothing about the quake or its aftershocks looked unusual, she said. "It's a real garden-variety California earthquake so far."

For the record, my dogs stood up when the rolling/shaking started, wandered around for a minute, got a drink, and then all lay down again and went back to sleep. Californians [affectionate eye roll].

"Did you feel it?"

As a matter of fact, I did.





Mild shaking here. Quite a shallow quake — rupture started just 3.7 miles down. Shakemap:



Was on the phone with my sister at the time. Coincidence...? I shall notify CalTech, volunteer sister and self for further study.

R EARTHQUAKE. LET ME SHOW U IT.

We rock, yay us. More seismic activity than almost anyplace and we use more gasoline than China. By God, I'm proud to be a Californian.

The animals didn't do anything. [Thanks for the early warning, chuckleheads, and after all I do for you...!] Here are some snaps by Rick Loomis [Kmart in Diamond Bar] and Irfan Khan [Pomona City Hall], both photos from the L.A. Times:



Security cameras at Incycle in San Dimas caught the P-wave/S-wave thing: in the first video you can see the customers' reaction to the initial jolt [watch the man on the right] and what happens when the shaking starts a moment later.






There are bazillions of earthquake articles in the L.A. Times, but my favorite coverage was at Gawker. "Seriously, though, who wants to save an Earth that does crap like this? Die, dirtball, die. I'm going to go dump motor oil into a pristine watercourse." Oh, and the phones went down, too, but email still worked and Twitter scooped Associated Press by nine minutes, and there were no major injuries [and only eight minor ones], so it's all good. I love you, California...!

Taipei and the pendulum

728 tons of earthquake protection in the world's tallest building. Photo by ~Wei~.

This is so. incredibly. cool.

That humungous ball above is a tuned mass damper in the skyscraper known as Taipei 101, which is like ten or fifteen miles high and so heavy that the entire eastern section of the Eurasian Plate is actually sinking under its weight — a geographic phenomenon first described in this 1974 research article.

But enough of the silly. The Taipei 101 damper is entirely real, and you can see it in action in this video taken when the waves of the great Sichuan earthquake [May 12, 2008] reached Taipei:



Dude. Big hat tips to BLDGBLOG and The Long Now Blog for this fascinating stuff.

Survivors - China

Quake victim: this dog is in the good hands of Chen Yunlian. Screen grab from the L.A. Times.

Chen Yunlian "has become to Chinese dogs what Mother Teresa was to the poor in India," according to Yahoo News:

For 11 years, the 60-year-old former businesswoman has been rescuing strays off the streets. She now cares for about 900 dogs and 100 cats in her own animal shelter built among rice paddies on the southern outskirts of Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province. About 100 of the dogs were rescued from the quake zone, she said.

For a slide show of some of the dogs rescued by Chen Yunlian, visit Yahoo News, and check out the video here, at the L.A. Times site. [That little guy in the photo on the right is cute as a button.]

Where can I buy a Richter Scale? Earthquake FAQ

My grandfather was actually a student of Dr. Richter's at CalTech, and I have a couple old Richter scales that were "rehomed" when the present CalTech seismology lab was built and the old scales were replaced. The ones I have probably date to the mid-1930s and are in good condition except for a few scratches on the wooden parts. The wiring is original, and no one has used them for years, but I'm sure it would be possible to replace a few parts and have the scales up and running. Great conversation pieces!


I keed. The Richter scale is a mathematical formula, not a type of seismograph. And the math up above? That's a scale, too: the moment magnitude scale, introduced in 1979 by Tom Hanks [the other one] and Hiroo Kanamori as a successor to the Richter scale. The terrible earthquake in China on May 12 measured 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale.

I was born and raised along the San Andreas Fault, which will tend to make a person interested in earthquakes. My favorite first stop for all kinds of totally fascinating earthquake material is the U.S. Geological Survey's awesome FAQ. A few of the questions appear in the screen grab below:



Also check out [and bookmark, so that you can fill out and submit the "Did you feel it?" form after the next shaker] the USGS Earthquake homepage:


Thousands of children in Sichuan died when their school buildings collapsed during the earthquake. How do U.S. schools measure up when it comes to quake safety? See Turning Schools from Death Traps into Havens.

Yep, there's a USGS Earthquake Preparedness FAQ, too. And you can always access the USGS earthquake pages via the earthquake map at the foot of this blog Recent Earthquakes link in the right sidebar.

Did you feel that?

My sis dictated info for the "Did you feel it?" form. Click the screen grab for a larger view.

So we're on the phone talking about the fires and my sister [up in San Jose] says, "Hey, we're having an earthquake."

Pause.

"It's still shaking."

Pause.

"It's still shaking."

Pause.

"OK, that was big somewhere. I'll call you back, gotta check on the neighbors."

It was a 5.6, and shallow --- just six miles down. The epicenter was maybe ten miles away. A minute before it hit, my sister's pug dropped her toy and sat up with a "What the hell...?" expression. Figures that a Halloween baby like Lily would be in touch with Gaia.

You'll find this terrific earthquake link in the sidebar, though if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Californian you've probably had the local version bookmarked for years. You should be deeply ashamed if you haven't yet completed and submitted the "Did you feel it?" form [assuming that you did, in fact, feel it]. Here's the link. Again. Git 'er done.

Happy Halloween Pugoween birthday to me! I'm three! God, I'm so adorable.