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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I'm So Relieved

See, I was sitting there (I'm in the NE), and I felt this shaking, and I said to myself "That was a small earthquake!"

And then I realized, of course, that damn it all, we just don't have quakes like that on the East Coast. So then I spent a quarter of an hour worrying about this latest neurological manifestation, which was indeed new to me. I was most baffled and concerned.

And then I looked, and sure enough, it was an earthquake. 5.9 in VA according to USGS.

PS: The animals knew about it - they've been acting weird all day. Midmorning the deer all came out of the woods and gathered around the house in the clear, away from trees. According to them, it's not over because they are refusing to leave. I had tried negotiating with them, because I need to mow the lawn, but they were not prepared to be reasonable about it.

PS: DU is working on the fracking/Bushco conspiracy angle. Too many threads to count. You'll fall off your chair and die laughing, so this is the dangerous part. Best thread yet - the towering nuclear holocaust overtakes VA. I needed a good laugh.

PS: According to the deer, everything's fine now.

Comments:
Some Ph.D. candidate in biology needs to set up a very high-end audio system, like the ones they use to shake your seat in some theme park attractions, and determine what frequency of vibration will cause deer to leave the forest.

I'm sure I've got a business plan for earthquake detectors around here somewhere....
 
Here I was thinking you were in Georgia.
 
Earthquake map shows epicenter in central Virginia

From the comments...

"Isn't CIA headquarters in Langley, VIRGINIA?!?!?
It's that darn Tesla earthquake machine the CIA has been testing.
The conspiracy theorists were right! :-)"

I knew I'd find at least someone else out there who could see the obvious conspiracy connection, lol. ;)
 
I'm not in GA right now. I'm up north for medical treatment.

Neil, I have to admit that it's a puzzle. I've heard reports that animals act strangely, but having seen it is a different thing. To tell the truth I always sort of steered clear of quake zones, so I am not likely to make a study of this.

I don't think it was sound, though. I think it was something about the atmosphere. I noticed it myself - the air was very still and sort of not there - it was a little like being in a desert atmosphere. The air changed quality right around the time the deer had their conclave and departed, so....
 
Mark - there was epic humor on DU today over this quake.

Among the rest I remember the fracking crowd and the HAARP crowd as being particularly enthusiastic. Apparently nothing unusual just ever happens naturally.

I have the uncomfortable feeling that this is the segment of the population that burns witches and asks for spells in other cultural frameworks.

There's a lot to be said for our current culture. At least we do not burn witches!
 
You mean like a drop in relative humidity? That would be odd, indeed.

Were you perhaps reacting to a concurrent drop in insect activity? The sudden quiet before a thunderstorm sometimes makes the air seem less dense to me.
 
MOM,

I live in Washington State and I felt nothing. I'm starting to question the existence of the quake. Your story seems very inconsistent. Are you in Georgia or not?

March 6, 2009
The Onion: San Francisco Historians Condemn 1906 Earthquake Deniers

"If an earthquake of that size really did strike downtown San Francisco, then where is all the rubble?" read one pamphlet, entitled "After$hock$: Truth, Lies, And The Business Of Earthquakes," obtained by reporters. "Where are these alleged 3,000 dead? And why does the mayor refuse to answer questions about the fires that mysteriously started moments after the supposed 'earthquake' occurred? Ask yourself: Who is he protecting?"
 
Mark - I rely entirely on the USGS. In my experience, those guys are have instruments and do not make up quakes.

It would be sort of fun if they did?

I love The Onion. My personal favorite is still the Great American Money Hole.
 
Neil - I've been trying to figure out how to describe it. The best way I can is that it felt like being exposed to light that had been passed through a lens of some sort. I am not sure if a normal person would have noticed this or not. Because I was blind when my mind sort of reorganized itself and became more aware, I am much more dependent on senses other than sight for my basic sense of orientation. I do notice a lot of things that most people don't.

The air was very still. At the time that I felt the quake, I was sitting in a porch on a stool sort of thing on a concrete base. I had just been out trying to discuss property boundaries with the deer. Some of the insects were going crazy - for example, carpenter bees were looping around in an extremely odd manner all the property.

Before a thunderstorm, the air always seems much heavier to me! When you feel that pressure change, the storm is just about to break!
 
MOM,

"I rely entirely on the USGS."

All the pieces of my conspiracy theory are coming together nicely.

August 23, 2011
USGS issues new estimate of Marcellus gas reserves

"Tuesday's figure is much higher than the last government assessment in 2002, which suggested only about 2 trillion feet of recoverable gas."

2 trillion to 84 trillion? In one day? The very day of the earthquake?

Yes! I have hard physical *PROOF* now! I'm heading over to DU to share my findings and really take a stick to that hornet's nest. Mwuhahaha!

(Just kidding of course. The snark is taking over!)
 
Mark - without humor, all intelligent humans would have committed suicide long ago.

I find if you peruse the DU madness with a glass of milk and some dark chocolate, it is a healthful and refreshing experience that is theoretically good for capillary formation.

I found the thread about the 100 year quake taken as proof that it was human-caused quite "stimulating". Especially since the last one in central VA was about 120 years ago. OBVIOUSLY BUSHCO.
 
Do you mean you felt radiant heat energy? There is some data supporting anomalous electromagnetic emissions as a result of earthquake activity (presumably caused by rocks rubbing together and passing electrons around), but infrared frequencies would be a surprise.

You clearly did observe something. I'd love to learn what.
 
Neil - it could have been a coincidence, but the deer left after the atmosphere changed.

Unfortunately, studying such phenomena is very difficult due to the highly sporadic nature of this type of quake activity. There is a fault down there. The KISS principle would seem to dictate that the quake was caused by crustal factors, not atmospheric factors. I can't even imagine how anything happening in the crust that far down could affect the atmosphere.

So let me assert that it didn't, and that it was just coincidence.

I'm sure the frantic activity of the carpenter bees and the behavior of the deer could be due to something they heard - but I'm having trouble believing they could hear it that many hundreds of miles away from that deep down.

Oh, well. The only thing I have ever felt like it was related to solar flares, but this was far more intense. And there doesn't seem to have been recent solar flare activity.
 
I think I know what you're talking about with the atmosphere. I've noticed that effect myself a few times. I've never had a deer conference in my yard, though. I wish you had some pictures of that!
 
I've felt that "air was very still" before a tornado touched down. The birds stopped singing too. It's noticeable but you have to pay attention to catch it. glad everything's okay out there.
 
M_O_M,

Very low audio frequencies and radio frequencies can travel across continents. That's why I was thinking about a "shaker" audio system. But without knowing the mechanism, I'm just guessing. Hey, maybe those antlers are good for more than just head-butting contests! They don't look long enough to reliably receive ELF signals, although I am not an antenna expert.

I guess I'll just have to file this mystery for later under "The Case of the Deer in the Lawn". Maybe someday when I'm rich and famous I can convince a non-profit to sprinkle full-spectrum EMI and radiation detectors on every fault line in the U.S. That's the only way I can think of to settle this.
 
Neil - ah, dreams of glory. I think we won't have a lot of money left over for such endeavors in the next few decades.
 
You may be over-estimating the cost of the detectors, or under-estimating how long it would take me to become rich and famous. ;)
 
Well, I vote FOR the plan. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
 
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