Spring

Friday, April 18, 2008

10:16:31

Today we had a slight Earthquake (Chicago Tribune):

Tremors from a moderate earthquake centered in southeast Illinois rattled people awake across the Chicago area Friday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or significant damage, authorities said.

The earthquake, which measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale, struck at 4:36 a.m. near the town of West Salem, Ill., about 60 miles northwest of Evansville, Ind., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. An initial estimate of the magnitude put it at 5.4, which would have matched the strongest earthquake recorded in the region.

We are not that far from the New Madrid Seismic Zone:

The New Madrid Seismic Zone, also known as the Reelfoot Rift or the New Madrid Fault Line, is a major seismic zone in the Southern and Midwestern United States stretching to the southwest from New Madrid, Missouri.

The New Madrid fault system was responsible for the 1812 New Madrid Earthquake and has the potential to produce damaging earthquakes on an average of every 300 to 500 years. Since 1812 frequent smaller intraplate earthquakes (earthquakes within a tectonic plate) were recorded for the area.[1]

The seismic zone covers parts of five U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Wikipedia already has an article about it. The story goes that the one in 1812 was pretty bad, moving boundaries and all.

Raise your hand if you still remember the 1959 Montana earthquake.

We didn't feel a thing when it hit this morning, or if we did, probably confused it with snoring, of which our household has an adequate supply.

10:02:49

When I was a child growing up in Montana (a somewhat dubious implication) (i guess at worst, you can think of it as a continuing process), I heard tell of a visitor stopping by Conrad during a rare summer rainstorm complaining about the weather.

Now those of you having grown up back east here may have sympathy with this point of view, but I can assure you that the reception to this comment was cool, at best. You see, it rains about 12 inches or less a year in Montana, and so each rainstorm is something to be cherished, not complained about.

So after a seriously long winter here, you hear many expressions of relief that spring is finally here, and that life can begin again, and that everything is fresh, and so on.

Perhaps there is a strain of puritanism in me, but I wonder if this is not a bit of a short-sighted point of view. Dosen't winter have its wonders as well? Deer in the back yard, rabbit tracks in 2 feet deep drifts? And believe you me, winter in Illinois or Michigan is really quite organic when compared with February back home.

Seems like each of these seasons is part of the cycle, that itself is subject to wonder. Without the winter, spring would be rather boring.

I remember when the rest of the family moved to Arizona from Montana. Straight south. In fact, within one mile of exactly south. How about that. More sunny days there, they said, then just about anywhere else in US.

Well, after a year of cloudless skies, there was the desire to see a cloud. Any cloud. Now would be fine

I am all for celebrations of spring, but let's not shortchange February, for example, which has its own unique blessings, or August, which probably has the most complaints about it.

So we should be balanced about this, and not just be happy about spring, no?