Monday, April 21, 2008

Manic Monday - quake


Mo's word for today is QUAKE. Mo picked this word because he and his kitty cats felt the QUAKE that hit on Friday morning. I thought, if I could, I'd find out some detailed info about it.


Latest earthquakes in the United States - last 7 days.
(if you click on the link you'll get a better picture of the map.)

The big blue square in the center of the country is the 5.2 QUAKE that hit the Midwest April 18, 2008.

The Los Angeles Times said: The earthquake, which measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale, struck at 4:36 a.m. near the town of West Salem, Ill., about 60 miles northwest of Evansville, Ind., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. An initial estimate of the magnitude put it at 5.4, which would have matched the strongest earthquake recorded in the region.

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Earthquake Details

Seven Steps to Earthquake Safety

Magnitude5.2
Date-Time
Location38.450°N, 87.890°W
Depth11.6 km (7.2 miles) set by location program
RegionILLINOIS
Distances
  • 7 km (5 miles) NNE (13°) from Bellmont, IL
  • 9 km (6 miles) E (88°) from Bone Gap, IL
  • 11 km (7 miles) N (350°) from Keensburg, IL
  • 41 km (26 miles) SW (232°) from Vincennes, IN
  • 60 km (38 miles) NNW (331°) from Evansville, IN
  • 206 km (128 miles) E (95°) from St. Louis, MO
Location UncertaintyError estimate not available
ParametersNST=111, Nph=111, Dmin=36.4 km, Rmss=0 sec, Gp= 61°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=A
Source
  • Center for Earthquake Research and Information, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Event IDus2008qza6
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

The USGS has a form for anyone who felt the earthquake and wants to report it.

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So what does 5.2 mean?

According to the National Post:
Friends, meet the Richter scale. It's not an actual scale, mind you, but rather a mathematical formula that determines the magnitude, or strength, of an earthquake from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves caused by ground movements as recorded on a seismogram. The Richter magnitude scale then assigns a single number on a base-10 scale to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake.

The Wikipedia entry on the Richter scale has more information of the specific calculations in play here, but the gist of it is that each whole number difference in the magnitude scale represents an increase of 31 times the energy created by a quake. Richter's motivation for creating this magnitude scale was to compare and separate the vastly higher number of small earthquakes from the greater and less frequent quakes hitting California at the time.

There are seven classes of earthquake based on magnitude: micro (less than 3.0), minor (3.0-3.9), light (4.0-4.9), moderate (5.0-5.9), strong (6.0-6.9), major (7.0-7.9) and great (greater than 8.0).

So the QUAKE Friday is considered a moderate one.

The media has reported that the QUAKE was felt all across the Midwest.

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Mo, did you know that there was once a breakfast cereal called QUAKE?

Quaker Oats Quake


Quake (1966) provided "earthquake power!" to those who ate it. Quake was a giant of a man in a hard hat, flexed biceps, and sported a "Q" on his big, muscular chest. He originally wore a miner's helmet. Original Quake cereal was made at the earth's core. "The sugary sweet cereal with the power of an earthquake." In 1969 he trimmed down and put on an Aussie cowboy hat. Other Characters included: Quunchy, Mother Lode (Quake's mom), and the evil Dr. Ah-Ah. Quake was voiced William Conrad (TV's "Cannon", and the narrator of "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show").
theteach

12 comments:

eastcoastlife said...

I felt the aftershock of a 7.6 earthquake in neighbouring Indonesia a few years ago. It was a terrifying experience.

I don't mind trying the Quake cereal and experience a earth shaking sensation. haha....

Sandee said...

Great way to do this weeks MM. I did it on an earthquake too, but one that happened in my area. Have a great MM Teach. :)

Anonymous said...

Your MM posts are always so full of info. :)

Thanks for this one.

Gattina said...

Wow ! that post came out of a teacher's heart, lol ! I too was the victim of a terrible earthquake ....
(I never experienced one)

Durward Discussion said...

How to tell a California native from an immigrant. During the first quake, the immigrant is under a desk crying. The natives are taking bets on the Richter Scale number.

Today's Savage Chickens is for you.

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

Did not feel last week's here in Memphis... Scary stuff those earthquakes...

Still a virgin when it comes to them...hoping to stay one for a long time.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

All I can say is, I'm glad I live as far away as I can get from the west coast seismic activity. The east coast gets hurricanes but not much earthquake activity. But when I lived in Toronto, I felt a small tremor there - it was completely bizarre. My couch shuddered as if I was on the subway, and then the radio DJ said, "Did you feel that?" SO bizarre.

anthonynorth said...

Never tried that cereal, but I've often eaten things that have produced a quake in the gut :-)

Some excellent info there.

Travis Cody said...

Excellent information about earthquakes. I couldn't help but notice how many had been measured on the west coast and up toward Alaska in the last week.

Makes one thing that the ground never stops shaking out here.

Kimmie said...

Nice research and stats Mary. I enjoyed your post today. I didn't play MM this week, but will be playing again next week. :-)
Smiles,
Kimmie

Mo and The Purries said...

I thought I'd left a comment here last night - sorry.
Great post, love the stats!

Julie said...

Very informative AND fun! That cereal! i remember it!