[Rockhounds] Volcanos, earthquakes and things

[J. R. Hodel]

Hi:

Well, Martha got a book about the 1906 SF earthquake, which is loaded with geo facts.  She reads me some of the factoids that strike her as interesting or surprising.

One recent one was that there was a huge volcanic eruption (Vesuvius  I think?) 17 days before the 'quake. Then today on one of the news shows there was a mention of someone being killed in an eruption.  We didn't catch where, so she said "Google it" so I did.

Much to my surprise, there were a lot of new volcanic eruptions in the news today!  One was in Chile, where they were rescuing tourists, and one was in the Red Sea, near Yemen, where they talked about how bright the glow was from the lava.  I think there were others too...

Should I be strapping the bookcases to the wall?  I'm being deliberately - what's the word, maybe obtuse? - here, but isn't it a little odd to have several volcanoes go off at once?

I'm in WV, where there are several thousand feet of stable sedimentary rock between me and the real basement.

I did feel an earthquake here once, 3.? on the Richter scale, while I was driving on a bridge over the Kanawha River, I thought a towboat had hit a bridge pier - it wasn't too long after the Silver Bridge collapsed.  It would have been really scary in an underground coal mine, you bet!

Speaking of Richter, Martha tells me (the earthquake book says) he was an avid nudist and famously sexually active - I guess that's easier in California.  Is there some famous geo-gossip about him beyond his work on earthquakes?

JR

       
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