August 29, 2001

Please remain calm during the earthquakes

While you slept last week highly sophisticated machinery was keeping track of earthquakes in California and elsewhere. Though you probably felt none, there were hundreds, all over the state. Most were small. They weren't felt even at the epicenters, except perhaps, by the same princess who had the problem with that pea in the children's fairy tale.

I've been vaguely aware of these little quakes for years. Now, thanks to the internet, I can satisfy my curiosity by checking the USGS website every day or two. It doesn't take long to realize there's a steady, slow drumbeat of earthquakes, 1.2, 1.5, 2.7, 2. 0 on the Richter scale. Every so often one registers 3 or 4 or so. These can total several each week. One day a while ago a whole series in that range shook up Burney, in the northeast corner of California. In one particular recent stretch of less than thirty days, Coso Junction, a wide place in the road on U.S. 395 near Death Valley felt over 40 registering 3 on the Richter or better.

Because my brother lives in Humboldt County near the infamous triple junction, where the Pacific plate, North American plate and Gorda plate come together, I'm particularly aware of quakes near Cape Mendocino, south of Eureka. That ruggedly beautiful area of California gets a lot of quakes. My brother got his 15 minutes of fame when he was quoted on the front pages of hundreds of newspapers about one nasty quake which hit Ferndale and the Lost Coast area particularly hard several years ago. He and his wife had just driven into Ferndale to attend a funeral when the quake hit. The joke was that the man being honored with the memorial service had not wanted one, and the quake was his way of making that point. That particular quake also raised land near Cape Mendocino by a foot or two. On that sparsely settled coast no one would have noticed except that creatures living quite comfortably in the intertidal zone were suddenly thrust above it. Crabs had no problem, but anemones, mussels, and other settled residents attuned to the normal variations of the tidal flux suddenly found themselves in a different reality. Most died. They were like store owners in a small town when a Wal-Mart or Home Depot moves in.

While small quakes are common all over California, it's particularly near U.S. 395 on the east side of the Sierra that many occur. Names like Lone Pine, Tom's Place, Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, Ridgecrest, Ludlow and Obsidian Butte recur often in the U.S.G.S. listings.

If small quakes predict big quakes, I'd have to guess that two or three of the next five big ones will be in places like Death Valley or Independence, or perhaps, Carson City. I don't wish anyone ill, but if we're going to have major earthquakes in this state, I'd prefer they shake up abalones on the Lost Coast and Bristle Cone Pines near California's lonely eastern borders.

California would not exist in its present form without millions of past quakes, large and small. Pacifica, San Francisco, and the whole state in which we live was primarily sculpted by earthquake, fire, volcanic eruption, storm and flood. Repeated disasters created the beautiful state we love. Those same forces will continue to modify our surroundings. Cope!

Paul Azevedo's older e-mail addresses and website still work just fine, but if you wish you can also send him e-mail atPaul@thereactor.net and check his website at http://www.thereactor.net.