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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Earthquake in Seattle suggests a thread.
How about seeing members assemble a basic vocabulary for discussing earthquakes?
For instance: Richter scale. I remember seeing assurance by Richter himself, that his name should not be used as eponym. As a graduate student he had presented the paper for his prof,Beno Gutenberg who was not well enough to do so, and the newspapers improperly attached his name to the work.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
I don't know how you folks can stand it, knowing the Big Seism is coming any day now.
(did you feel this one down there in Van Nuys, bill?)
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Actually, once I was done wondering how my friends/relative in Vancouver were feeling, the next thing I thought of was Board people. I'm not really sure who's even from Washington state here, but I would like to put out a general wish that anyone near the quake is more or less all right and "unshaken" (ha ha).  Re: vocabulary of earthquakes: How about subduction zone? That's where one plate is pushing its way underneath the other, which is more or less what is happening on the West Coast of North America. Makes those lovely mountains. (For some reason it was mentioned in introductory physical oceanography.) I'm under the impression that the scale currently in use is no longer the Richter scale, but some other scale. Any geologists/geophysicists care to assist?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Another dandy word is "solifluction". In many places in San Francisco and elsewhere marshes were filled in but not compacted,and the water table is high enough that earthquake movements turn fill into mud so nearly liquid as to make buildings sink and tilt so badly that they have to be razed.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
I believe CapK's office straddles a fault line, I bet he has plenty of cracks up his sleeve  !
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
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Posts: 771 |
>I believe CapK's office straddles a fault line, I bet he has plenty of cracks up his sleeve!
Both wise and otherwise...
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
I just learned today of the Momeny Magnitude Scale http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozscience/m/367270.htmlI also like the simplicity of the Mercalli scale http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/doc/mmi.html since it measures quakes in terms comprehensible to those of us whose earthquake vocabulary stops at RUN! One of the things I like about the compact, single level house in which I live is that I am never more than half a dozen paces from a doorway, which is I cower away the quakes we have. I have never experienced a 6.8, but the 6.5s I have felt are enough to generate real sympathy for any who experienced yesterday's shake. I hope that any who felt it are OK, and would like to point out the one postive consequence: The world was spared one more Bill Gates shill session.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
The world was spared one more Bill Gates shill session.
Bill Gates caused it you know. They ran a tape on NPR yesterevening. The transcript of the relevant portion follows:
Bill Gates: When you plug the camera in you get...
Earthquake: Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle...
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
One of the best books I have read in a long time is "Annals of the Former World" by John McPhee. Off and on for twenty years as a vacation from writing novels, he went into the field with a series of geologists, and documents the slow acceptance of plate tectonics. I gave it to my son, so am prevented from yielding to any temptation to quote from it, or pick words to use in this thread. Very, very good reading.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
actually, McPhee is one of my favorite non-fiction writers (...can't think of any fiction he's written off the top of my head) -- he has written extensively for the New Yorker and published those articles in collections or stand-alones.
three of my favorites: Coming Into the Country, a great, big book about Alaska; The Control of Nature, diverting the Mississippi; Looking for a Ship, life on board a container ship -- oh, and another: The Ransom of Russian Art, very short and very entertaining. McPhee is really a wonderful writer who takes on a wide variety of topics.
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