I was out of town this week (Whistler, skiing, aw) and so missed all the fun of our earthquake. I was watching for news reports of any impact of the quake on the waters of the Puget Sound, but never heard a mention. Was there any impact of the quake on waves in the region? I remember when the big quakes hit Alaska about 25 years ago, they spawned some huge tidal waves that were quite damaging. What about you folks in quake prone areas like the San Francisco or Charleston, SC? Do your quakes throw off big waves in the bays and harbors?
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Like Ship Underway
Heard second hand that one of the people on a Navy ship at Everett said that it felt as though the ship was underway even though it was tied to the dock. My wife was in her car in Silverdale reading the newspaper and the car started rocking and rolling. The Silverdale area didn't get hit that hard. What should be a concern to elected officials is that the Seattle area and northward has not had that many small quakes nor any big ones for a long time. The Nisqually/Olympia/Shelton area has had three large ones around 7 in the past 50 years. Since all the plate sections are adjacent to each other one has to wonder if the north sound is saving it up. The south end of Bainbridge island raised up about 15 feet in ONE event which was a few hundred years ago. Public buildings which would be needed for housing injured and homeless should be built to a much higher standard. The Space Needle was designed for 9.2 which would be about right. This would be somewhere about 4 or 500 times the 6.8 Nisqually one, that's 10 to the 2.4 power. The Nisqually quake was about 30 miles deep so there was a lot of "insulation"; a change in the wave pattern, more rolling and fewer sharp waves. Most likely a large quake would occur during the really high tides in December, typically a cold and wet time. An event during this time would really add to the destruction. One thing that helped a lot this time is it wasn't raining, we were in a drought and the soils were not saturated. If they were there would have been a lot more slides and fill failures. It was daytime and most people were awake. Streets were dry for emergency vehicles. We were very very lucky!
Heard second hand that one of the people on a Navy ship at Everett said that it felt as though the ship was underway even though it was tied to the dock. My wife was in her car in Silverdale reading the newspaper and the car started rocking and rolling. The Silverdale area didn't get hit that hard. What should be a concern to elected officials is that the Seattle area and northward has not had that many small quakes nor any big ones for a long time. The Nisqually/Olympia/Shelton area has had three large ones around 7 in the past 50 years. Since all the plate sections are adjacent to each other one has to wonder if the north sound is saving it up. The south end of Bainbridge island raised up about 15 feet in ONE event which was a few hundred years ago. Public buildings which would be needed for housing injured and homeless should be built to a much higher standard. The Space Needle was designed for 9.2 which would be about right. This would be somewhere about 4 or 500 times the 6.8 Nisqually one, that's 10 to the 2.4 power. The Nisqually quake was about 30 miles deep so there was a lot of "insulation"; a change in the wave pattern, more rolling and fewer sharp waves. Most likely a large quake would occur during the really high tides in December, typically a cold and wet time. An event during this time would really add to the destruction. One thing that helped a lot this time is it wasn't raining, we were in a drought and the soils were not saturated. If they were there would have been a lot more slides and fill failures. It was daytime and most people were awake. Streets were dry for emergency vehicles. We were very very lucky!
Shakey in Gig Harbor
I was just in West Marine picking up the new March magazines (Northwest Yachting, 48 North, Latitude 38) and talked to a guy who is a liveaboard on a Krogen displacement powerboat. Gig Harbor is probably 15 (? - guessing) miles from the epicenter vice, say 80? for Everett, and he said the boat really shook! This is interesting for several reasons: Gig Harbor is very small, say a mile long and 1/4 mile wide and the shake map didn't indicate that Gig Harbor had a strong hit, in spite of being so close. According to the Shake Map a area in Tacoma had relatively little motion and it was much greater in Seattle which is probably 2 or 3 times further away, horizontaly, from the epicenter. The epicenter was 28 miles below the surface of the earth's crust.
I was just in West Marine picking up the new March magazines (Northwest Yachting, 48 North, Latitude 38) and talked to a guy who is a liveaboard on a Krogen displacement powerboat. Gig Harbor is probably 15 (? - guessing) miles from the epicenter vice, say 80? for Everett, and he said the boat really shook! This is interesting for several reasons: Gig Harbor is very small, say a mile long and 1/4 mile wide and the shake map didn't indicate that Gig Harbor had a strong hit, in spite of being so close. According to the Shake Map a area in Tacoma had relatively little motion and it was much greater in Seattle which is probably 2 or 3 times further away, horizontaly, from the epicenter. The epicenter was 28 miles below the surface of the earth's crust.
My Uncle is Port Master in Friday Harbor...
And he and my aunt reported no significant problems.... Rob
And he and my aunt reported no significant problems.... Rob
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