Sonic Boom

Earthquakes were everywhere earlier this month: the tragedy in Italy, an earthquake shortly after in Anchorage, and friends who heard a "sonic boom" in Orange County on the same day as the Alaska earthquake.

Before all this happened, I picked up a book that's been sitting on my shelf for months, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester. Much of the story is grim. There's a ripple effect where geological disturbance in one area is often followed by geological disturbance in another, and the human toll can be devastating. He presented dire evidence of escalating seismic tension in Yellowstone, which is theoretically due for a massive blow-out.

Naturally, tourists have flocked to Yellowstone in even greater droves since those scientific findings hit the press. We have a morbid fascination with disasters, to the point that we're sometimes willing to flirt with them ourselves. We've all rubbernecked at car wrecks and watched countless hours of 9/11 footage, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be tempted to peek out of the storm cellar to see a tornado. One of the minor disappointments of my years in California was that I didn't experience (or notice) an earthquake.

I was very proud, therefore, to experience an earthquake almost a year ago here in my non-earthquake-prone home, far from the San Andreas Fault. During a period of strange working hours, I was "working from home" and napping mid-day when I was suddenly roused by a loud noise. I leapt up, heart hammering, thinking a truck had run into the brick wall of my house, and ran outside. Nothing. No truck, no damage, no more noise.

I put it out of my mind until later than day when a friend told me there were rumors of a minor earthquake in my area. The timing fit, but my friend was skeptical when I said I'd felt such a small earthquake. But why else would I wake up? What was the noise I heard? I've been indignant about his skepticism for months now, and am always satisfied to gather more support for my earthquake experience. Winchester reported that people far away from the massive 1906 San Francisco earthquake heard loud noises similar to what I heard, and I don't think the "sonic boom" in Orange County shortly after an Alaska earthquake was a coincidence. In addition, the U.S. Geological Survey web site displayed reports of earthquake experiences from other people in my area that day.

So there, Skeptic!