I have no earthquake related photos, so here's a dandelion instead.
A deep rumble beneath the house combined with random rattling of my crappy windows woke me before 6am. Since I live in an earthquake zone, I knew exactly what it was—EARTHQUAKE!!!!
This morning's had a magnitude of 3.1 and happened just off the coast about 20 km away and 25 km deep. Cracking out Pythagoras' formula (you know that formula attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician, cult leader and bean fearer), I did a quick calculation. The earthquake's epicentre was roughly 40 km away, in a direct line from my pillow. Math before coffee on a Sunday morning.
It wasn't the first time I've been rattled awake. Each time it sets my heat racing. Is the 'big one' on its way? Apparently, my region is overdue for a quake of magnitude 9 or so. Even after the (minor) shaking stops, I wonder if it was just a precursor to something much bigger.
Note, the magnitude of an earthquake is on a logarithmic scale (like sound and light intensities). That means a magnitude 4 earthquake is 10 times stronger than a magnitude 3. So the expected big one of magnitude 9 would be (roughly) 1,000,000 times stronger than the one that woke me up. Yep, one million times stronger. Good thing my earthquake kit is loaded up and ready to go.