Thursday, August 25, 2011

Whole lotta shakin' goin' on!


Well, it's been an exciting week here in Franklin County. My daughter Kaitlin has returned to UMW and immediately lost power in her apartment due to a severe storm in Fredericksburg. Thankfully, all of her belongings made it to the 4th floor before the storm and power outage (the elevator was working). We are anticipating hurricane Irene to bring some stormy weather to the east coast over the next few days, so that is being monitored. But the big news? Earthquakes! Shaking and groaning earthquakes! Tuesday's 5.8 magnitude quake centered in Mineral, VA was felt by many up and down eastern North America. That matched the previously held record from Giles County. Following that have been at least 4 aftershocks, one of which woke me up from a good night's sleep! Thursday morning's 4.5 magnitude tremor caused enough shaking of my house to awaken me, cause the beams in my house to creak, and glassware to tinkle in the cabinet. Those moving plates are stressing out Virginia's old faults. And you Californians shouldn't scoff too loudly-our old solid rocks are passing on the seismic waves much farther than the young San Andreas rocks! Besides, on Tuesday, 8/23/11, Virginia had the strongest quake of the day in North America!