Earthquakes

Sunday June 10, 2007
Last Friday morning, we had 2 decent earthquake tremors. One was a 5.1, the other was a 5.9, both just offshore of Guatemala. (just copy and past the following website to see the what I think is the best place to see all earthquakes around the world over the last 7 days http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php ) Per the website, they BOLD any tremor over a 3.9 and use RED BOLD for anything over a 5.9. So I assume anything bold is worth glancing at and the ones in red are pretty serious. We had a 5.9...pretty impressive on paper at least. I understand there are at least 2 types of earthquakes...the type that moves the earth side to side, and the type that moves it up and down. The up and down are much more dangerous, more likely to cause tsunamis, crack/break building foundations, and bring down buildings. The 5.9 around 9:30am on Friday had both types of movement, and lasted almost a full 15 seconds...which is really long for a tremor. I knew it was stronger than any I'd felt and longer, but it was my teachers expression and her watching her watch that really got my attention. She said that it was really long as compared to most tremors, and that if we had another decent tremor in the next 30min then we should become a bit concerned. The 5.1 earthquake happened early in the morning, maybe around 7:30am. To be honest, I wasn't even aware of it. Our hourse shakes so much from the big trucks that go by, that I guess I missed it. Thankfully, no more tremors have happened. One thing for sure, it sure gave the new students something to talk about! I'm not aware of any damage...but then again I'm not aware of anything that doesn't happen right in front of my face.