8.2 Earthquake - Didn't Feel It In Anchorage

 Not sure if others in Anchorage felt it.  We did not.  

Right now there are tsunami warnings but haven't seen any reports of actual waves.

I can't imagine and 8.2.  The 7.1 quake we had November 30, 2018 was more earthquake than I ever want to experience again.  8.2, if I understand my Richter scale right is 10 times stronger than 7.2!

I put up the map because the location of the quake won't mean anything to most people outside of Alaska.  

Click to Enlarge And Focus - Source

My sympathy goes out to those who were effected and my hope is that no tsunamis develop.  If there are tsunamis they could impact far more than Alaska.  

Looks like tsunamis will be under 1 foot in Alaska areas.

Message #4 from @NWS_NTWC. Max tsunami height forecasted to be under 1 foot at the following locations: https://t.co/Sld7v12aA8 pic.twitter.com/uaRX20jeq5

— NWS Alaska Region (@NWSAlaska) July 29, 2021

Short, But Very Noticeable Quake In Anchorage -UPDATE "Hey Southcentral, we're working on processing the earthquake at 9:54am. We'll have reviewed information soon."

 The Alaska Earthquake Center website is giving me this message:

Error 503 Backend fetch failed

Backend fetch failed

Guru Meditation:

XID: 90047248

---

Varnish cache server

Depending on how far away and deep the quake was, I'd guess anywhere from 4.0 - 5.3.  

Nothing fell or broke.  These things are common here, but this one was not one you could mistake for a truck passing by.  

[UPDATE 10:02 am:  This Tweet is the last thing up at the Earthquake Center's Twitter Account. It says there was an earthquake at 9:26 am.  The one I felt was much closer to 10am.

click on image to enlarge and focus

That was a 4.1 and it says felt in Anchorage.  I didn't feel that one at all.  So I'm thinking this latest one was definitely 5.0 or more. ]

[UPDATED 10:10 am:  Latest Tweet from Alaska Earthquake Center:

"Hey Southcentral, we're working on processing the earthquake at 9:54am. We'll have reviewed information soon."]

[UPDATED 10:13AM: Earthquake Center website working again and there's a small note:

• M4.9   at 09:54 AM, 8 mi N of Anchorage]
• 
  

 [Last UPDATE 10:30 am - Tweet From Earthquake Center xxxx

We have our reviewed location and magnitude for the event at 9:54am as a M4.8 aftershock of the 2018 Anchorage Earthquake. It was felt widely in Southcentral Alaska.
Yes, it can still be an aftershock more than two years later! https://t.co/kSIVuxngyd pic.twitter.com/VJffWsEkL3

— Alaska Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) April 27, 2021

This is an image so the link won't work - go here

M5.3 at 09:59 AM, 9 mi NW of Anchorage

 A good rattling jolt this morning at 10am.  But it was over quickly.  Got to the kitchen table, but it was over already.  Today would be my mom's 99th birthday so I'm figuring she was reminding us.  But Mom, I knew already.  I wouldn't forget.  Really.   Happy Birthday!

From Alaska Earthquake Center

Magnitude 5.3 - 8 miles NW of Anchorage

An aftershock of the November 2018 M7.1 Anchorage earthquake.

February 27, 2021   09:59:25 AKST
61.3286°N 149.9991°W    Depth 26.1 miles

Three Days Before 1964 Earthquake Anniversary - Jon Mooallem's Book This Is Chance Is Now Available

Looking for things to do while in self-isolation?  Order this book then listen to the podcast.

Genie Chance was a radio broadcaster in Anchorage when the earthquake hit, and her broadcasts got relayed from Fairbanks to the rest of the world.

"Slowly, people switched on their transistor radios and heard a familiar woman’s voice explaining what had just happened and what to do next. Genie Chance was a part-time radio reporter and working mother who would play an unlikely role in the wake of the disaster, helping to put her fractured community back together. Her tireless broadcasts over the next three days would transform her into a legendary figure in Alaska and bring her fame worldwide—but only briefly. That Easter weekend in Anchorage, Genie and a cast of endearingly eccentric characters—from a mountaineering psychologist to the local community theater group staging Our Town—were thrown into a jumbled world they could not recognize. Together, they would make a home in it again."

I 'met' Jon Mooallem first reading the intro to his book Wild Ones, which I wrote about here.

Then two years later I met him in person while on Bainbridge Island.  It turns out his daughter and my granddaughter are friends.  It took a while before I realized he was the guy who'd written Wild Ones.  And he was now writing about the 1964 Alaska Earthquake.  I wrote more about that here.

Well the new book is available as of today.  (I'm on his email list so I got a message about this today from him, and also from my daughter.)  So if you order it now you can probably get it while you're in isolation.

Meanwhile, this is the compelling audio telling of part of the book's story from two years ago, when he was working on the book.  It has lots of audio of Chance broadcasting and other audio from the time of the earthquake.  It's like an old fashioned radio show or a long This American Life story.   A great activity while you're stuck in the house.

The earthquake hit on March 27, 1964.  The 6 [5]6th anniversary will be Friday.

Here's a link where you can order the book from an Independent book store.


Here's a link to podcast interview with Jon from a couple of days ago.  I couldn't find a way to embed it here.

Acupuncture

There's a demon living between my knee and my heel/ankle, on my right leg, moving around and causing pain in a seeming random way.  With ice, ace bandages, and a knee brace, I've been able to keep walking and pretending everything is normal.  Underlying this all is the damage I did to my sciatic nerve during the earthquake Nov 2018.  The problems I'm having are along the path of the nerve, and the three toes on the right side of my right foot are still odd.  Sort of like after your foot's been asleep and is getting better, but isn't quite normal yet.  That's been pretty much how things are.

Last time I saw the physical therapist, he gave me new exercises to do, and when I asked about acupuncture, said that 70% of his patients who have done acupuncture report that it helps.





So I was going to try in San Francisco where there were acupuncturists on every corner it seems.  But we really weren't there long enough.  But here on Bainbridge there's an acupuncture person a very short walk from where we stay.  My hope is that it can clear the passage of the nerve to my toes.  And all the other problems are along the same route and affected by muscles along that path.

And while I have an aversion to needles used to give shots or draw blood, my head has no problem with the little acupuncture needles.  So I emailed and got a response that there was a cancellation at 4:30 today.  My granddaughter accompanied me.  

After taking some history of the issues, she had me get up on the table and put little needles in me on both sides from chest too foot and let me lie there and relax.   The goal she said, was to do general body work, not specific.  The hope was to alert the body to try to recalibrate itself.

We'll see.  It seems there's a slight improvement in my toes, but I don't know if I'm just imagining that or not.  After a few days I'll know more.  I'll go back for several more sessions before we return to Anchorage.

Gramping, Comparing Earthquakes, And Lunching With An Old Friend

Yesterday I took my grandson to the California Academy of Science.

I wanted to do a redo of their earthquake reenactment room.  I'd been there with him before.  I didn't

Earthquake Simulation Room Cal Academy

remember it being very scary at all.  Certainly not like November 30 quake in Anchorage a couple of months ago which shook us back and forth for 30 minutes.

So I wanted to go back and compare it to our recent quake.  Well, it did shake about as much as the quake we were in.  But it doesn't give you a sense of a real earthquake.  It's a small room like in a house, but there are hand rails to hold onto all around.  You know what's going to happen.  There are other people in the room with you.  It shook back and forth mimicking the 1989 quake, and then the 1906 quake.

But this was more like the entertainment of an amusement park ride.  You go there to experience it.  It is different when it arrives announced in your own house or office or elsewhere in your environment and starts up and you have no idea how much bigger it's going to get or how long it's going to last and whether your house is going to hold together.

So, yes, physically, you get a sense of an earthquake in this room.  But psychically, not at all.    We went on to watch the Foucault Pendulum knock over a couple of pegs and then to the rain forest.






There's the several story netted rainforest with lots of tropical butterflies and there are smaller exhibits along the path that winds up to the top.   Like the one that held this bright green lizard.






Then at the top, you take an elevator down and you end up below the water at the bottom of the rainforest.




It was great to be on an adventure with my grandson, just the two of us.  And there were plenty of other grandparent/grand child visitors there too.

Today, after dropping him off at his pre-school we stopped at a great little  hardware store in Japan Town, but they didn't have the Chinese picture hanger I was looking for.  But they have so many interesting things.

A bit later we went for lunch with PK who was in my Peace Corps group.  In fact he was the closest volunteer to my town.  Except that there were no roads between his town and mine.  You had to wander by motorcycle through the rice paddies to connect.


We passed this bear gargoyle on the way to meeting him and his partner.







P was in the hotel business in San Francisco for many years so he took us to a couple places we never would have found.  First, to eat at Belden Place.

From Wikipedia

"Belden Place itself is a one-lane, one block long street running south from Pine Street to Bush Street, parallel to and in between Montgomery and Kearny streets, immediately south of the Bank of America tower. It is roughly between Chinatown and the Financial District.
In 1990, restaurateurs Olivier Azancot and Eric Klein opened Cafe Bastille, the mainstay that set the modern tone for the area. The French, Italian, and Catalan establishments are popular with locals, tourists, and office workers, and are generally considered on par with the city's best casual full-service European restaurants.[3] Notable restaurants in the alley itself include Sam's Grill, Cafe Bastille, Cafe Tiramisu, Plouf, B44, Belden Taverna, and Brindisi Cucina di Mare. Nearby are Café de la Presse (though modest and unassuming, a favorite hangout of the city's political and social elite) and Le Central. Also nearby are the Alliance Française, the French consulate, and the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church (where mass is still celebrated in French) and an affiliated elementary school. In the vicinity are several other restaurants, cafes, hotels and other French-related institutions along Bush Street and Claude Lane, another nearby alley.[2]"

 In summer the canopies are gone, but it was a nice day and we sat under the canopy and had a delicious Italian lunch at Tiramisu.  (After the yellow tarps.)








Then to see the courtyard at the Palace Hotel.

From the Garden Court Restaurant website: 

"When the Palace Hotel opened its doors in 1875, the Garden Court was the carriage entrance to this grand hotel. A parade of famous guests visited San Francisco's Palace and stood in awe of its magnificence.
In 1906, following the earthquake, the Palace closed its doors for the first restoration. Three years later, the carriage entrance was transformed and The Garden Court was unveiled. Since its debut in 1909, The Garden Court has been recognized as one of the world's most beautiful public spaces
With its incredible architecture, dome stained glass ceiling and Austrian crystal chandeliers, The Garden Court became the site for some of the nation's most prestigious events. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson hosted two luncheons in support of the Versailles Treaty which ended World War I. In 1945, the official banquet honoring the opening session of the United Nations was held in The Garden Court."

P and I first met at Peace Corps training in DeKalb, Illinois in 1966.  We don't see each other often, but it's great when we do.  

1964 Alaska Earthquake - I Learn From The Author That A New Book Is Coming Out Soon

I didn't think to take Jon's picture
This profile was  on the edge of
a picture of the children's march.

I also met author Jon Mooallem at the MLK children's march yesterday.

His daughter is a friend of my granddaughter.  It was only later that I realized that I'd crossed paths with Jon before.  We hadn't met, but  I posted about his book Wild Ones:  A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America in December 2017.  I didn't get around to reading the whole book, but I was struck by his observation about how many animals are in kids' lives - in books, on pajamas and sheets and cereal boxes,  or stuffed - yet many are disappearing in the real world.

I probably wouldn't mention meeting Jon, except that he's writing a new book on - Alaskans are you paying attention? - the 1964 Alaska earthquake.  I told him I'd recently read a book on that earthquake, and he said Henry Fountain's book (which I posted about in 2018) came out just as he was submitting his proposal.

The new one will focus more on the three days after the quake, and on Genie Chance broadcasting on KENI that connected Alaskans and communicated to the rest of the world.  There is also a tie-in to social scientists who came to Alaska to study how communities deal with a catastrophe.  And there are other story lines that get followed  - like Frank Brink's AMU production of our town that was scheduled that weekend.

As I was getting more information, I found a 99%Invisible broadcast featuring Jon with a radio spoken drama about the earthquake, which I'm sure was an early presentation of notes Jon had already then put together.  (It's good listening, part of the legacy that This America Life has had on broadcasting story-news. And check out the name of the music group on the show.  A kind of tribute, Jon told me in a followup.)

So this post is a heads-up that there's a new 1964 Alaska earthquake book coming out around the beginning of 2020 (that's only a year away)  and you can get a preview at 99%Invisible.

Here's a bit of the transcript from the 99%Invisible website, but you really should listen to the audio.

JON: And one of KENI’s biggest on-air-personalities was a woman named Genie Chance.
Genie was 37. She’d grown up poor in Bonham, Texas then came to Alaska with her husband a few years earlier looking for opportunity. They only sort of found it, at first. He sold used cars. She watched their three kids at home. But Genie loved radio. So she started working construction every morning, in exchange for childcare. Then she’d go to work all afternoon at KENI.
Back then, women usually covered cooking or fashion. But Genie turned herself into a gutsy roving reporter, driving across Alaska with a mobile radio unit in her car. She flew with smoke jumpers, covered Arctic warfare exercises, reported from Inuit villages and crab boats.
Genie’s voice was part of the city. Everyone in Anchorage trusted her, respected her—and in a way women journalists weren’t always respected in 1964. Later, a New York paper would celebrate her as:
VOICE/ROMAN:“An Alaskan housewife and mother of three children who does a man-sized job with a radio microphone.”

I should have put up a link to Jon Mooallem's website when I first put this up this morning.

Welcomed Back To Alaska With A 7:45 am Aftershock

I was awake, too early after opening mail last night when we got home.  I felt it coming.  A slight something, then the jolt.

Yes, the red dot.

5.1 is noteworthy, especially when it is close.  Especially after a recent (Nov 30) 7.0.  I guess I'm up for today.  

These images come from the United States Geological Survey latest earthquake page

I couldn't even get into the Alaska Earthquake Center website.  It didn't last too long - maybe 10 seconds - but enough to get us on high alert fast.  

Aural Earthquake Flashbacks

I realized today that I'm randomly re-hearing the earthquake.  It's an ominous sound that includes a low (in frequency, not volume) rumbling sound which I assume is the earth shifting and the wrenching, crunching, creaking sound of the wood of the house being bent, I think there might also be a bit of rattling of the windows, but I'm not sure.

I don't think I even thought about the noise after the earthquake.  My initial thoughts were visual and kinesthetic.   The crooked pictures and toppled shelves in the garage.  And my body being shaken as I brace myself against the door frame.  My sciatic muscle seems to have absorbed the force of the quake and the pain comes and goes like aftershocks, down my leg.  (The physical therapist has given me exercises to deal with this, but it's almost two weeks later, so I'm guessing this isn't going away soon..)

And as I thought about how I could describe these sounds I realized I never even thought about my camera - which wouldn't have done a very good job, I don't think, of capturing the sounds of the quake.  And the only video I've seen of the quake online was footage caught by security cameras.  I'm guessing few people had time to think about capturing the quake on their phones.  It just happened too suddenly and strongly. Whipping out my camera didn't occur to me until after I was reasonably sure the quake was over.

Strange how the human body processes these things.

Book Club Members Check In On Earthquake and Other Updates

We had another aftershock - Alaska Earthquake Center says it was a 2.5.  Actually, we've had quite a few aftershocks, this is in the list on their page right now:

Latest Earthquakes
M2.5   at 01:26 PM, 12 mi NW of Anchorage
M2.0   at 01:25 PM, 12 mi NW of Elmendorf AFB
M1.8   at 01:24 PM, 10 mi N of Anchorage
M1.0   at 01:23 PM, 13 mi NW of Anchorage
M1.7   at 01:20 PM, 13 mi NW of Anchorage

My book club members live all over town.  Here's what people reported about Friday's big quake:

• I just want to send out the hope, belated but sincere, that all of you, your families, and houses made it through the quake ok.  The damage and experiences are so varied.   (I left town for Portland on Saturday, as planned  But I was home on Friday, got under a table for the first time, had a few fragile things fall and break but nothing serious.  Toilet water sloshed on the floor, bookcases emptied, pictures all crooked.  Neighbors three doors down lost the whole brick facing of their fireplace into their living room.)  Let us know how you did?  And aren't you glad we read the earthquake book so we know why this happened?
• Like all of you the damage was minimal. I had just started my car when the quake hit and I was at first annoyed because the car had just been serviced. Of course I quickly realized my error.   Hope that’s the last big on for at least another 60 years 
• Our little house that survived the '64 quake did fine. We had one broken bowl.  P was in her car in Sand Lake area and had a wild ride.  The tail fell out of our loon mask.  [Dog] and I were shaken, but did not stir beyond the back deck.  All in all, we are glad we survived November, and that it's over!
• All OK here and with extended family. Broken stuff.
• Music and musical instruments survived. Lucky for caring neighbors.   As they say, “moderate” damage. 
• All OK here and with extended family. Broken stuff.
• We were in Talkeetna visiting friends. Strong there but no damage. Then started get texts and calls from friends and family all over the country. Drove back into town in the afternoon past Vine and thankfully the detours on Glen were in place by then. Relieved to find house was just fine. However, Took couple days to clean up everything fell off high shelves and out of closets, fridge & pantry. Much Broken glass from stemware, China, crockery, lamps, bulbs, pictures, desktop computer, etc. Humbling experience, and especially as reflect on  the fact that ‘64 quake was 2,000x more powerful! Yikes. Kind of enjoy the little after shocks now..
• Grateful that we rode it out with (almost embarrassingly) minimal damage.  Glad you are all well. 
• I sent in a link to my blog post.  If you missed it, here it is

And since we're doing books, here's a message from the Anchorage libraries today:

Thank you to each and every one of you who have sent notes of support for our library. We've received messages from across the city, the state, the country and around the world. We feel truly loved by our community and we're sending good vibes right back at you. As of Tuesday, December 4th, Loussac, Muldoon, Mountain View and Girdwood have re-opened with normal business hours. Eagle River will remain closed until further notice and staff across the system have been deployed there to assist with clean up. Please see our earthquake info page for details on fines, holds, special programs and other resources; then be sure to follow us on social media for the latest updates. #ShookBooks #AnchorageStrong

AIFF2018: Fishbowl, We Rise Now, and Bad, Bad Winter - Earthquake Damage Becoming Clearer

I liked Fishbowl.  I wasn't sure I would.  But others disagreed.  One person who said he grew up in the South said it wasn't realistic at all.  When I pressed him on that, he didn't want to talk about it.  He did say it was very exaggerated.  That it's much more subtle than that.  What am I talking about?  A Southern father of three teenage girls.  Mom's died.  Their house is owned by the bank, for sale.  He's sent $1000 to a televangelist so he can be saved by the Rapture on September 29.  The girls really are having a hard time.  We never really did learn all that much about any of the characters.

There were two showings of And We Rise Now - a documentary about Sam Johns, an Athabaskan who had a rocky childhood, but at the urging of his daughter, got involved in helping the homeless in Anchorage.  He set up a Facebook page  Forget Me Not to help villagers find their homeless relatives in Anchorage and to get them back into their families.


The room was packed.  And afterward Johns, director Mary Rosanne Katzke, and (I think) cinematographer Nara Garber, answered questions.

It was an inspirational story, and a great Alaskan story.  And there was standing applause at the end

If the third person was Nara, she's the one on the left.  Next Mary, and then Sam.









Finally, we saw Bad, Bad Winter.  I was misled by the background information about this being a French film.  I'm guessing it was a French production, but it was a dark Russian film, a parable almost of how desperate living conditions lead to desperate acts.  It's a debate about the obligations of the rich and whether anyone really can get rich without cheating.  There's ethical debate about right and wrong, and the ending . . .   what can I say?  It was not a Hollywood ending.  I remember an Albanian responding when I invited her to seen an Albanian film once.  "Why?  We know in advance what will happen.  The good guys will lose and the bad guys will win.  And it was true of the Albanian film.  In this film, I don't think there were any good guys. This was the kind of film that you go to film festivals for.

It would be great to have double feature of Bad, Bad Winter and Datsche.  Winter is about a woman who goes to the house in a town she's left long ago, to take possession of the house she's inherited from her grandmother.  In Datsche the lead character goes to Berlin to see the house he's inherited from his grandfather.  In both films an unexpected group of people show up.  Winter is dark, Datsche is bright.


I'd also note that on this 5th day since the earthquake, people are talking about their experiences when they meet.  Everyone seems to have had stuff on the floor, some not much, others a lot.  But there are also stories of structural damage.  The Alaska Experience Theater was originally set up to give tourists a look at the 1964 earthquake, and the smaller of the two theaters is actually set up to shake.

Here's an empty storefront in the mall whether the theater is.  Apparently many buildings with these movable acoustic tiles on the ceiling had tiles fall off.

Festival volunteers spent Saturday cleaning up the Alaska Experience Theater to get it ready as the fallback theater.  It apparently had lots of ceiling  tiles down and broken too.






And today's paper was headline after headline of earthquake related stories.

"Mat-Su area heavily damaged:  Houston Middle School won't open before May, leaving 400 students in limbo"
"Army of engineers and contractors is working to check Anchorage homes, fix damage."

"Recovery progress in Southcentral"
"How to Apply For A disaster Recovery Grant for Earthquake Damage"
"DOT Warns against traveling, Stopping Along Stretch of Seward Highway"
"As cleanup continues in Anchorage schools, only one - in Eagle River - deemed unsafe."
"Alaska Railroad should be getting back on track"

That's just through page 5.

While we clearly came through a very big, very close, and very strong earthquake reasonably unscathed, the stories are slowly coming out.  And I suspect a lot of people had non-life threatening earthquake related injuries.

The Aftershock Jitters

It starts with a rumble.  And it may end there.  But then there might also be a few jolts, or just general low level shaking.  Nothing like this morning.  At first I didn't pay much attention, knowing in my head that they were just aftershocks.  But my body isn't always attached to my head, and it's starting to perk up with each initial rumble.  It seems to be viscerally asking, "Is this a nothing, or is this going to be more serious?"

I looked at the earthquake label on this blog.  I found eight posts with a magnitude level listed in the title - from 4.1 to 6.2 - since 2012.  (There were other earthquake posts as well.) My point is that they were significant enough to get me to blog about them.  We've already had more than eight aftershocks in that range already.  

Notice, the listing below was 7 hours after the big quake, or at about 3:30 pm.  It's 1 am as i write this.

Here's a map showing the magnitude 7.0 along with all of the aftershocks we reviewed in the 7 hours after the quake. Most aftershocks have not yet been reviewed and are not on this map, but these precise locations give a good overview of the sequence so far. pic.twitter.com/FM7oZL7t4n

— AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) December 1, 2018

(Anchorage is that pig snout just below the lowest red dot.)

A follow up Tweet says:

"The little black dots on the map are just a way of showing what the background seismicity looks like. It's all of the historic earthquakes larger than magnitude 2, not scaled for magnitude."

And then t0here's this, which is base, I guess, on the premise that knowledge is a good thing, that we'll be comforted knowing what's ahead.  Part of me agrees.  Another part says a 4% chance of another 7,0 sway too high.

AIFF 2018: Earthquake Shakes Up Festival - Opening Night Cancelled While Bear Tooth Cleans Up

 I talked today and he said they were cleaning up damage and there'd be no films there tonight.  I even went by to see, but the door was locked and it's hard to see much, but what I could see didn't look damaged.

I can't find anything on the Film Festival Website, but their FaceBook page has this cryptic announcement I just found:

What exactly does this mean?  I called the Matanuska Brewing Company, where the after party was scheduled, thinking they might show films there.  But no.  No films there.  No after party.  But maybe folks will go there just to party.

I did go by the Bear Tooth this afternoon to see if I could assess the damage and whether they might be open tomorrow.  But it was all locked up.

Strongest Earthquake I've Ever Experienced Just Now In Anchorage - Updating Regularly

House shook violently.

Pictures still on hooks, but at slants.

Things fell out of bathroom cabinet, off shelves.

I'll update this.

UPDATE 8:50am

There was an aftershock, not as violent, but still one of the strongest earthquakes I've felt (I grew up in LA and went through the 1971 earthquake, plus numerous ones here in Anchorage)

Some pictures inside our house.

UPDATE:  9:01 - a second smaller aftershock.  Earthquake Center says preliminary estimate was 7.0 10 miles north of Anchorage.  I've been in 7.0 before and this was far, far stronger. But that has to do with how close you are to the epicenter.  We apparently were close.

Update  9:14am -  Another very minor aftershock.  Here's a map from the USGS website:

Click to enlarge and focu

The shaking must be related to how close this was - very.


UPDATE 9:17:  Another Tweet from the Alaska Earthquake Center - I'll just copy the text so it's easier to read:

Tweets
AK Earthquake Center
‏
Verified account

@AKearthquake
 1m1 minute ago
More
Fortunately we are headquartered in Fairbanks, so we're fully operational up here with the exception of the website slowdown. We do not yet have much information about the situation on the ground in Anchorage beyond widespread power outages and non-specific reports of damage.

As you can tell - at our house the electricity is still working - internet connection is ok.  We are just west of the UAA.  Water and gas are working.

UPDATE 9:21 - I had looked out the window just before the earthquake hit and saw - another aftershock as I'm writing, but just creaking - the school bus pull up to pick up kids.  After the earthquake, I looked out again and saw it drive away.

UPDATE 9:29am  Here's a message - apropos my last update - from the School District

Emergency message from ASD, asking parents to pick up students @ktva #Earthquake pic.twitter.com/NaX7SzAiFv

— Daniella Rivera (@RiveraDanie) November 30, 2018

UPDATE 10:09 am - Well we went to check on downstairs.  It looked ok, but the door to the downstairs bedroom was closed and something behind it was blocking it.  There were some old mirrors and pictures behind the door.  After some experimenting, I was able to get my hand through the door and to push them back far enough to open the door.  Here's a picture of them after we got in.









It was the book case that I was worried about.  Attaching it better to the wall was still on my todo list.  But it was fine.  Not one book fell off.

I assume the shaking is more severe on the second floor than on the first floor.  But it also looks like the house shook east/west.  This book shelf is facing north.  But then I went into the garage and two shelves had fallen over.  These were west facing walls that the shelves fell from.

Another minor rattle as I'm putting up these pics.

But my $90 million David Hockney picture was fine right next to the shelf above.

The pictures on the wall along the stairs were fine (the wall faces east.)

And in the kitchen all was ok - I've been worried about the wine glasses all along.  It's looks like things moved inside the cabinet about 1/2 an inch east, but everything was ok.  The cabinet door was closed.


UPDATE 10:26:  Just had another aftershock - Not terrible, but something I would have blogged about - clearly more shaking but just a few seconds.


UPDATE 10:47 - Getting phone calls and messages from folks outside.  We're ok.  But here's a link to a Twitter feed from Dustin Miller that is collecting Tweets about the earthquake.  There's some serious damage around town.

It looks like the Minnesota Offramp to International Airport Road collapsed.  Screenshot is from a tweeted video on on Dustin's Twitter thread.

UPDATE 12:46PM   Just talked to the manager at the Bear Tooth Theater where the Anchorage International Film Festival was supposed to have its opening night tonight.  The theater has been damaged and there will be NO FILMS today.  They aren't sure about tomorrow.

The 1964 Alaska Earthquake & Northern Acorn Barnacles - Why Knowing Lots And Integrating What You Know Is Useful

I'm reading Henry Fountain's The Great Quake:  How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet.  It's for my October book club meeting.  We're actually discussing David McCullough's  The Johnstown Flood at our next meeting, but it wasn't in the library and Quake was.


The whole Quake book is about figuring things out - basically, how the field of geography was still resisting the idea of earthquakes being caused by shifting tectonic plates.  I took geography at UCLA in 1963 (a year before the Alaska earthquake), and I don't recall anything about plate tectonics in that class.  Fountain argues that what the learned from the Alaska earthquake moved the field to accept plate tectonics.

But I want to focus on a tiny part of the data collected after the earthquake.  Fountain focuses particularly on a field geologist with the US Geological Survey - George Plafker, who had done a lot of summer field work in Alaska.  The USGS sent him and Arthur Grantz and Reuben Kachadoorian to Anchorage immediately after the quake.  They did a lot of flying around, taking pictures, talking to folks, and generally documenting changes in the landscape immediately after the quake.  (I'd note the turned out a report on the earthquake on April 27, 1964, just one month after the quake.  I can't imagine too many government agencies pulling that off today.  It was a preliminary report with lots of qualifications, but still, it was out there.)

Pince William Sound Google Map 

He came back up again for the summer to study uplift and subsidence in Prince William Sound.  Fountain writes that so much of the land to be studied was on the water where things were easier The Don J. Miller -  at their disposal.  (Don Miller was an old mentor of Plafker who had drowned in Alaska.)
to see and measure.  He points out that Prince William Sound (about 100 miles from east to west - Cordova to Whittier) has about 4000 miles of coastline.  But they had an agency flat-bottomed motor barge -

"The Don J. Miller, Plafker realized, would make most of [the coastline] easy to reach.  And measuring the changes in elevation along it would be made easy by something else:  the barnacle line.

Plafker had first learned of the barnacle line during his two weeks in Alaska immediately following the quake and had talked to marine biologists then to better understand how barnacles fit into the environment of the Alaskan coast."

Newfoundland Rock Barnacles - *see note below

Barnacles had been used to measure uplift and subsidence after a previous earthquake, but Fountain says that Plafker and his crew perfected the technique.

"The concept was relatively simple.  Because northern acorn barnacles establish themselves at a certain spot on rocks and pilings - at or close to mean high water - they could be used as a reference point to measure both uplift and subsidence.  In an area where the land had risen up, the prequake barnacle line would now be higher than it was before, and out of the water.  After a few weeks the barnacles would have died, but their white- colored plates remained, firmly cemented to the rocks or wood.  For ears where the land had sunk, the barnacle line would now be underwater most or all of the time.  Either way, to determine the amount of elevation change, in most cases all that was needed  was to know the stage of the tide - which the US Coast and Geodetic Survey had been busy recalculating all over Alaska after the earthquake - and them measure from the waterline to the top of the barnacle line."

Fountain explains it's a little more complicated than that and gives details, then writes:

"Later in the summer the work became easier and Plafker found that often he didn't need to worry about the tides at all.  Late summer was when juvenile barnacles, which had hatched after the quake and developed, settled down for good - at the new, post-quake mean high-water line.  Then Plafker would have two barnacle lines - before and after - and determine the elevation change was simply a matter of measuring the distance between the two."

There were, Fountain points out, areas where there were no barnacles, such as where the rocks were exposed to strong waves.  But there was a type of seaweed - Focus distichus, or Rockweed - that offered a similar mark that could be used.


I'm writing about the norther acorn barnacle here because I think it's cool, the way that these scientists used knowledge in one field to assist them in this difficult task of measuring how much the land had risen or sunk due to the earthquake.   The more we know, or communicate with people who know other things, the more we are able to integrate that knowledge to know more.  I also have to think about Alexander von Humboldt, about whom I wrote not long ago, who had this incredible breadth of knowledge across different fields that enable him to see what most people couldn't.


*Newfoundland Nature calls this a 'northern bar 'acorn barnacles' AND '  balanus balanoides.  I found other pictures labeled 'northern acorn barnacle' but also called semibalanus balanoides.  The Effects of Land Level Changes on Intertidal Invertebrates, which references George Plafker's use of the barnacle line, his barnacles are identified as balanus balanoides.  Other northern acorn barnacle pictures I found were also labeled semibalanus balanoides. They also required permission to use.  But I'm sure these are very close, if not the exactly the same sort of barnacle. I was hoping to find some pictures of the barnacle line - I'm sure I have my own somewhere from pictures I took kayaking in Prince William Sound.  If I find one I'll add it.

Alaska And Radio History Dramatically Fused: 99% Invisible's Show On Gene Chance

The Alaska Press Club tweeted a link to 99% Invisible's show about Gene Chance and the Alaska earthquake of 1964.   For good reason.  This is a great show.  Partly, of course, because it's about one of the most important events in our state history.  But it's also a story about the power of radio.

Just click the link and listen.  (I don't see a way to embed this here.)

Screen Shot from 99% Invisible

I'd note that while this show is focused on Anchorage, but the earthquake was centered 75 miles away and most of the deaths were due to tsunamis that followed.  Accounts I find online vary and don't identify Anchorage deaths which were low because no tsunamis hit Anchorage.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) splits the total deaths and tsunami deaths.

The quake took 131 lives and caused $350-500 million in property damage (One hundred twenty-two of the deaths were attributed to the tsunami.) The area of the damage zone (50,000 square miles) and the duration of the quake (3 to 4 minutes) were extraordinary.

(You might also note that NOAA says it lasted 3-4 minutes while the 99% Invisible story says 5 minutes.)

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Earthquake Center splits between the Alaska and Outside deaths:

"The number of deaths from the earthquake totalled 131; 115 in Alaska and 16 in Oregon and California. The death toll was extrememly small for a quake of this magnitude due to low population density, the time of day and the fact that it was a holiday, and the type of material used to construct many buildings (wood)."

For another first hand account, see Anchorage cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shoal's 2007 animated video which recreates his experience as a five year old when the earthquake struck.


For a lot of pictures of the earthquake, see this USGS site.

Moses At Yosemite

We walked over to Temple Sherith Israel for Rosh Hashanah services today with my son and his family.  This is a large and beautiful old synagogue.

While I looked at the stained glass window of Moses and the ten commandments, my brain blinked as it seemed to recognize Half Dome and El Capitan.

It wasn't appropriate to take pictures during the services, 

so this image is from the temple's website.  It's only part of the window.

Later I read more about the window on the Temple Sherith Israel website:

"West window: This dramatic work, "Moses Presented the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel," was designed by Paris-trained artist Emile Pissis, brother of architect Albert Pissis. Emile created a movie-star handsome Moses, red robe flowing, surrounded by vibrant tribal flags and the Hebrew people. But instead of standing at Sinai, the Jewish people are gathered on granite rocks at the gateway to Yosemite, Half Dome and El Capitan in the distance. This is a modern Moses, and California is the Promised Land. . .

The identity of the glass artist/s was unknown until congregants Joan Libman and Ian Berke discovered an invoice for $1,100 made out to Emile Pissis. Emile, who frequently painted scenes of Yosemite, designed the Moses window on the west wall and seven other windows in the sanctuary."

The building was consecrated on September 24, 1905, and for those who know their history, the big San Francisco earthquake hit seven months later on April 18,1906.  But the building sustained only slight damage, and none in the 1989 earthquake.  But it's recently been undergoing architectural strengthening required by the City of San Francisco.

4.0 Early Morning Earthquake Anchorage

I wouldn't have felt this if I hadn't been up.  About 4:27am.  So why am I up?  The body is still working on Paris time.  So I'm up sorting the stack of mail and paying bills.   I didn't post when it happened because I wasn't even sure it was an earthquake.  J didn't feel it.

But  the USGS confirmed it:

M4.0 - 40km ESE of Anchorage, Alaska 2016-08-30 12:27:58 UTC  [4:27am Anchorage time] 61.085°N 149.205°W 19.5 km depth

AIFF 2015: Lost And Found Eventually Lost Me

I'd seen the trailers for this enough that I was getting a bit jaded, but I had high hopes for this film.  What could go wrong?  People find tsunami debris on Alaska and Canadian beaches and track down the owners and take the things back.  International cooperation, returning lost items to disaster victims, all good fodder for a movie.  Generally the movie was good and I felt the people in the movie were sincerely trying to do some good.

But somewhere along the way it got a little cloying and annoying.  I think the underlying issue for me is the construct of helper and help.  Being a helper means you have the power to do something for another who, in this situation anyway, has less power.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't help others, but we should understand our motives and not get carried away with what we've done.  I posted long ago about charity and included some Jewish thought on charity that is relevant here, though not sufficient, I'm sure, for some to get my point about the power relationship in giving.  Part of the issue is that in Japan there is a very strong culture of gift giving and thanking.  So the degree of thanks became a bit embarrassing.  

After all, these people where doing what they enjoy doing - beach combing.  They found some stuff an said, wow, wouldn't it be interesting if we could find the owners?  So far so good.  But then they get on planes and fly to Japan and become the recipients of this overwhelming level of thank you.  I get all this.  It's my nature to try to find the person who lost something, to get something back to a rightful owner.  But I also know that it's what I enjoy doing and I'm not making any big sacrifice to help out.  I'm not interrupting my life or giving away money that I can't afford to give.  I'm just doing what I enjoy doing and if that makes someone else happy, then that's a bonus.

Kevin and kids answer questions after Lost and Found

So I was sitting there watching the film end and thinking about whether I'm being overly picky and critical.  But my gut was telling me this was a bit over the top.

And then the movie ended and one of the finders, who's from Anchorage, and his kids went to the front to answer questions.  Two things he said stood out:

• Some people weren't interested in getting stuff back or even talking to us.   Wow, that certainly wasn't in the story.  We were told about a signed volley ball whose owner hadn't been found, but not about people who weren't interested, who didn't want to be 'helped.'

• That he'd been contacted by the film makers and they were interested in his story and that they paid for his trip to Japan.   

OK.  That made more sense, because the returning of the found items and the meetings between the losers and the finders were all filmed.  So maybe that was my problem.  This was the story line for a film and the filmmakers found the folks to fit their story line.  Japan experiences disaster.  Debris crosses Pacific.  People find the debris and track down and return the debris.  What a wonderful heartwarming story.  But at least some of these folks wouldn't have gone to Japan on their own if they hadn't been encouraged and financed by the film makers.  And the film never mentioned the people who didn't want their stuff back and didn't want to meet or even talk to the people who found it.  Including that would have made this a much richer film.  But instead we got an, apparently, artificially sweetened feel good story.

It makes Ruth Ozeki's novel, A Tale For The Time Being, all the more remarkable with its richness and darkness.  This story, completed just before the tsunami hit, tells the story about a Japanese-Canadian who finds a teenage Japanese girl's diary on a beach in British Columbia.  She too wants to find the owner and return the diary.  But the story doesn't have the Disneyesque happily after after quality of Lost and Found.  The diary tells us very dark tales of life as a teenager in Japan.

That said, I have no criticism for any of the beach combers.  My sense was that they were each doing their thing and genuinely wanted to be helpful and that they all learned a lot and grew from these experiences. What I saw in the film makes me think the people returning stuff to Japan were themselves a bit overwhelmed by their reception. And it's up to the filmmakers to decide how to tell their story.  It's just that they told a story that didn't sit all that well with me. Their story put happy makeup onto a situation that wasn't nearly so happy.