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?