Earthquakes shake Dallas!!!
I was moody last Friday night and all day Saturday, acting strange and wanting to go to the grocery, buy extra food and hide it. Something was building up. I could feel it. Sunday morning, I woke up early and could no get back to sleep.
At 11 pm Saturday night, two earthquakes hit Dallas!!
The first in suburban Irving about 10 miles from downtown was 3.4 on the Richter scale. It was quickly followed by a 3.1 quake about 7 miles west of downtown Dallas. I live near downtown.
One article reported that serious damage can occur at 4.5 and injuries can occur at 5.0. These quakes were much lower in intensity and were reportedly felt only quite near their epicenters. On the web, there was a picture of a water bottle fallen over. From the words, I couldn’t tell if a worried dog or a seismic shake had toppled that mighty bottle, but it was an actual picture of a bottle of pure spring water and it was on its side on what appeared to be the floor. A picture is worth a 1,000 words.
For me, did “I feel the earth move under my feet” and “The sky come tumbling down, tumbling down?” Thank you, Carole King, that was a great song, but I did not feel a thing around me. On the other hand, inside me, “Did I just lose control?” Well, a little, some of the people around me might have commented, under there breath of course, that “He’s losing it.” “Did I feel my heart start to trembling?” Well, I was moody, pensive and worried.
I have heard it suggested that animals feel and react to the approach of a quake. Dogs bark and chase their tails. Rabbits retreat to their burrows and shut their eyes. Birds take off and fly the other way. Bees stop buzzing, huddle in their tree and talk honey. Why not people? Why wouldn’t some people, not all but a few, be effected and act strange in their own ways? I know I felt much better after I heard about the quakes on Sunday morning, but I was still nervous. . . .
The third earthquake hit late Sunday night!
Again in Irving, very near the site of the first quake, this shake was only 2.1 on the Richter Scale. I felt even better after it moved on. My old pre-quake self has returned.
After I received the news Sunday morning, I remember thinking “Earthquakes in Dallas, this will be big news in the morning paper.” Nope, I could not find an article on these disturbing events, not Sunday or Monday – in the paper. I had to go on the Internet to discover documentation verifying the occurrences. Why?
A surprise to me, I found that North Texas has been rattled by minor earthquakes since 2008. I thought “No way” and kept digging. Spot on! Within 100 miles of Dallas, there were 2 earthquakes in July 2012 (5.0 and 2.7), 6 in June 2012 (5.0, 4.0, 5.0, 2.1, 3.3 and 5.0), and 1 in January 2012 (4.36). 7 earthquakes were listed in 2011 (from 2.2 to 4.36 in magnitude), 1 in 2010 (2.1), 2 in 2009 (3.3, 3.0), and 1 in 2008 (3.0). If my count is right, this is 23 earthquakes (including the 3 over the weekend) within 100 miles of me in the last 4 years. By now, minor earthquakes are old hat, minor occurrences, fallen water bottles floating in a sea of more newsworthy events. That’s why the paper didn’t run a story.
For me, at least for the last 4 years, this comes as a surprise and an immense relief. I now have something to pin my mood swings on. I have “pre-quake syndrome,” in my medical parlance, “PQS.” The earth tenses, I tense. The ground relaxes with a quake, I relax with a sigh of relief. “It wasn’t me. Really. It was my PQS. You understand, don’t you?” Do you think she’ll buy it?
Maybe a little rock and roll can be a good thing, in moderation of course,
Grandpa Jim