A Quake! A Quake!

[Xepher]

"Oh really yeah no fake? We kind of had that feeling when the ground began to shake!"

But animaniacs songs aside...


We had an earthquake here last night. A couple minutes before midnight a 4.1 earthquake hit centered just 14 miles north east of here. I was lying in bed, listening to the final chapter of harry potter and the order of the phoenix when I hear a noise that sounded kinda like a jet approaching, then BOOM! it was enough to shake me back and forth in the bed. I jumped up and went and looked out the windows, because at first I thought it might be a sonic boom from a jet... then I realized I'd heard the "jet" before the boom, and that doesn't happen. Anyway, once I realized it was a quake... Awesome! Just thinking about how much energy is release in even a smaller one like this. I mean, enough that a 30 mile area of granite bounced around like that. Rock! :-)

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/usdrad.htm

A QUAKE! A QUAKE! from the Yakko's World album
Music and lyrics by Randy Rogel.

Music adapted from The Happy Farmer by Robert Schumann.
 
Yakko: It's a quiet, peaceful night
       The moon is shining bright
       Giving not a hint of what's in store
       A few hours before morning
       Without a single warning
       Something strange begins to move the floor
 
       A quake, a quake
       The house begins to shake
       You're bouncing 'cross the floor
       And watching all your dishes break

       You're sleeping; there's a quake
       You're instantly awake
       You're leaping out of bed
       And shouting "Oh for heaven's sake!"
 
       I ran outside with neighbors
       Their faces full of shocks
       That's because I'm standing there
       In nothing but my socks
 
W+D  : Oops!
 
Yakko: A quake, a quake
       This must be a mistake
       Just feel the ground
       Go up and down
       Won't someone hit the brake?
 
       A quake, a quake
       Oh, what a mess they make
       The bricks, the walls
       The chimney falls
       Destruction in its wake
 
       I did not have insurance
       I called them from the scene
       And suddenly I'm listening
       To an answering machine

       Say "Too late, too late
       You shouldn't ought to wait
       'Cause now you're stuck
       We wish you luck
       Here comes a six-point-eight!"
 
       Whose fault, whose fault?
       Blame it on the fault
       'Cause Mister Richter
       Can't predict her
       Kicking our asphalt
 
       Seismologists all say
       Tectonic plates are in between
       An encroaching crustal mantle
       Yeah, so what the heck's that mean?
 
       It means a quake, a quake
W+D  : Oh really, yeah, no fake?
       We kind of had that feeling
       When the ground began to shake
 
Yakko: And so we wait
       Resign ourselves to fate
       Because our lawn
       Is sitting on
       A continental plate
 
       We shivered through a blizzard
       Went swimming in a flood
       Then we blew off a hurricane
       And now we hear a thud
 
       Of a quake, a quake
       How much more can we take?
       We thought that we had seen it all
       But this one takes the cake
 
       The dirt, the rocks
       Those crazy aftershocks
       It's just the planet
       Moving granite
       Several city blocks
 
*YW+D: Now the town is falling down
*      While the ground
*      Moves around
*      We won't let it get us down
*      Get beneath the door frame
 
Yakko: A quake, a quake
       It's time to pull up stake
Dot  : The worst is over
Y+W  : We don't buy it
       We're fed up
       We can't deny it
       We just want some peace and quiet
YW+D : So we're moving to Beirut!
 
* - sung to "London Bridge"

[SpiritWalker]

I had to hit Quote to read your post.

Quakes are awesome. You get tossed around and there is nothing you can do about is. A real E ticket ride.

[Ashley_Rose]

Xeph, you rock.

[trekkie1701c]

There was a quake here once... well, not here, up slightly north near Richmond (I live near Raleigh, North Carolina).  Couldn't exactly figure out what had happened (I was sitting in a tech class when it shook and a few mice fell off desks) until the news came on that night talking about the earthquake.

[thefemnazi]

I got so excited when I learned that we're due for an earthquake around here.  My roommate thinks I'm nuts cuz I want to experience one.

[Aetre]

my family moved out of san fransisco in 1987... so my parents knew all about earthquakes and such.

when the '88 world series game got cut off (or was it '89? it was one of the two) because the tv screen told us, "there's been a minor quake," both parents knew it couldn't just be minor... no san fransisco ballpark's electronic system would be rendered unable to transmit signals because of a "minor" quake.

also, fun fact few people know about earthquakes: the scale they use? it's logarithmic, not linear. a 6.0 quake is a full ten times bigger than a 5.0, and a 9.0 is ten times bigger than an 8.0. the tsunami last year was 9.1.

*the more you know*

[Ashley_Rose]

Bahahaha, I totally heard the theme music too!