Ohio Is Having Many Mini-Quakes

Elaine Meinel Supkis

This is like watching a tropical depression slither over very warm waters just like Chris is doing today. We know it will suddenly become a very violent storm. These cluster earthquakes aren't merely an event, they are the earth, jiggling under tremendous pressure, about to let go. And California isn't out of the woods, not at all, either. It has only been a year and a half since the earth violently rearranged itself next to Indonesia.

This is a dangerous development.

MENTOR, Ohio (AP) -- A corner of suburban Cleveland has become the earthquake capital of Ohio, shaking on average every two weeks since New Year's Day and making people wonder: What's next?

The quakes haven't caused any serious problems and sometimes even go unnoticed. Experts aren't sure why they are happening, but they do know they are happening frequently: Twelve were recorded in the area by July 1.

"I heard one," said Jim Farrell, 79, of Mentor, a retired plasterer with an eye for wall damage. Still, he hasn't seen any damage and hasn't felt any of the quakes recorded in Lake County and under adjacent Lake Erie.

The earthquakes have been small, measuring from magnitude 2.0 to 3.8.

The Chinese view earthquakes as this mighty dragon. And it is a good way of looking at it. The dragon usually stirs in its sleep before jerking awake.

Ohio and the whole Mississippi Valley is very unprepared for not only earthquakes but tornado damage, too. There are lots and lots of brick buildings with no ties or supports or anything that will keep these old buildings from disintigrating during even a 7 mag event much less an 8.5 event like in the early 19th Century. Building codes in California are much more earthquake-aware than the Ohio/Mississippi Valley. It costs a lot more to build secure buildings which is why, despite the fact that making buildings secure during earthquakes also makes them much safer during tornadoes---this logic is bypassed by the 'trailer park' ethos that seems to be the chief operating philosphy of much of this country.

This 'Maybe it won't happen to me' attitude is at the root of much of the problems brewing that might destroy the last bits of our lovely empire. The same idea, 'Let's not pay taxes and run up huge bills with opposing nations,' is a world-view that amuses Mother Nature and anyone duelling with us like bin Laden.

Instead of being adults and taking responsibility, we mess around, hoping nothing will happen. This is the attitude gamblers have and do note that America is now wall to wall gambling like mad. We think we can seperate this gambling mania from sober considerations about dangers. This is a false hope.

Knowing that these tremors are happening, the goverment should be sending out inspectors trained in California to understand how to protect property and people from earthquakes and begin forcing people to retrofit their buildings to make them slightly safer.

My house is built to take terrific winds and eartquakes. This is deliberate. Everything is tied into everything else. And not just one way, multiple ways, including triangulating corners! It isn't all that hard to do.

And the electrical grid might collapse on a sunny summer day...AGAIN.

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: August 2, 2006
A smothering heat wave shattered records for electricity use across a wide swath of the country yesterday as utilities and government officials called for conservation and braced for even more strain on the power grid today.

Mike Mergen for The New York Times

Power systems held up well despite worries about overloaded plants, transformers or lines. But utility executives warned that the risk of breakdowns rises steadily as a heat wave wears on, and with today’s temperatures expected to top yesterday’s, with possible record highs along the East Coast, power companies were girding for a huge challenge.

Three independent system operators, agencies that manage regional grids for New York, the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, set record highs for electricity demand yesterday, breaking records set just two weeks ago. New England was just shy of a record.

This weather is perfect for solar energy! All those millions of solar arrays on everyone's roofs would be merrily pumping tons of energy directly into the house upon which they sit and the house will be nice and cool, too! And the price of gas which is SHOOTING UP TODAY would be stable for no one will need the utility companies' energy since the sun is brilliantly shining.

NO! Instead, the 'trailer trash' view of the world had us all spending a fortune buying huge, hulking SUVs which pumped more pollution into the air which aggravated global warming which is now causing us to roast to death and virtually no on has any solar arrays anywhere so the sun beats down upon our bare roofs.

Talk about dumb.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Comments

[Jsmith]

"Ohio and the whole Mississippi Valley is very unprepared for not only earthquakes but tornado damage, too."

Ohio gets tornadoes ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME!! The thing about tornadoes is, they tend to devastate a relatively small area copared to other natural disasters one might have.

[JSmith]

The point being, since the odds of a tornado hitting any one particular area are quite small, it doesn't make a lot of sense to overbuild (just in case it MIGHT). Likewise - we haven't had a major earthquake in this part of the country for ~150 years... so why would we want to be as earthquake resistant as Cali? Just in case?

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Did your mother ever read you 'the three little pigs'?

When one know for certain there WILL be a high probability one might die because one lives in a cheap house, it would make sense to invest in a better house, no?

Trailers are death traps for the poor. Most houses are occupied or left standing for more than 100 years except in places with high land costs which 90% of the midwest is not.

[DaliWood]

I try to be mindful of the damage that even small quakes can do. Here in East Tenn, for instance, we had a comparatively tiny quake about a year ago--in fact, I wasn't even sure it was an earthquake. I heard what I thought was a sonic boom, then the house jerked a little. As a result of that small quake, I have 4 broken tiles in a bathroom floor and several small cracks in the sheetrock of 2 rooms--and my house is new and well built. I'm out about $1000 in repairs because of a quake that was orders of magnitude smaller than a big one.

People should also realize that most homeowners insurance policies don't cover earthquakes--you have to buy a separate policy. Can you imagine the economic consequences of a major quake? Geez.

I used to live on the New Madrid fault near a bayou/lake (Reelfoot) that was probably created by the massive earthquake in the early 19th Century. I'm no seismologist or geologist, but I believe the New Madrid fault is due for another whopper quake within my lifetime. I feel enough little ones when I was there to believe that the forces at play are enormous and restless.

[JSmith]

"When one know for certain there WILL be a high probability one might die because one lives in a cheap house, it would make sense to invest in a better house, no?"

Um... no. It makes sense to balance the high probability one might die because one lives in a cheap house against the much lower probability that a tornado will strike right here. That's the essence of risk management and cost-benefit analysis.

An analogy is to say I should include Kevlar body armor as part of my everyday attire. Sure, there's a high probability of my being injured or killed IF someone shoots me, but there's a much lower probability of someone actually shooting me (since I'm not a police officer and tend to stay away from the parts of town where people get shot at.) Hence, I don't wear body armor.

However, there's no way I would live in a trailer. You don't need a tornado to wreck a trailer - just a moderately high wind, for which the chances are much better.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

A dear girlfriend of mine thought she would never see a tornado, living in NY (thanks to global warming, we now get tornadoes every damn year lately!)---so she let a boyfriend talk her into living in his trailer.

It was hit by a tornado!

She will never live in one again.

[JSmith]

"She will never live in one again."

Is she alive to live anywhere (I hope)?

One thing about tornadoes: they are absolute proof that God hates trailer parks.

[thebizofknowledge]

We tend to not take seriously any "doomsday" type scenarios that are proposed because they seem too farfetched to be credible. But the lesson we should have learned from Hurricane Katrina is that these events can--and--do occur, often with devastating consequences to the unprepared.

[Quowintonia]

Great website. Do you want to improve my innocent capacity I have a nice joke. What's happening when you hear "woof...splat...meow...splat?" It's raining cats and dogs.