Earthquake!

El Salvador experiences earthquakes as a common occurrence. Typically, they aren’t dangerous and often undetectable due to the depth or distance from the epicenter. However, to me, earthquakes are novel. Prior to living here, my experience with earthquakes was contained to disasters seen on TV, standing in an earthquake simulation at the science museum in Portland, OR and teaching earthquakes as torsion waves to my freshmen in Clinton and watching them try to create earthquake-resistant structures from blocks. My students here occassionally ask me expectantly if I’ve felt any of the earthquakes since living here and I always get a little deflated and reply negatively…until Thursday!

*Disclaimer* I know that earthquakes can cause a lot of devastation and shouldn’t be taken lightly, so please interpret my excitement and enthusiasm knowing I only want safe, science-experiencing earthquakes!

I was sitting on my bed skyping with Laura and it was approximately 10:24pm when things started shaking like someone had bumped into the wall (except, I have concrete walls that clearly couldn’t be easily “bumped”). Then, I realized, EARTHQUAKE! It was SUPER exciting!!! It lasted for maybe 30-45 seconds and definitely felt like someone was taking my entire house and shaking it continually for that period of time! I was kind of freaking out to Laura asking if she could “see” it, but we determined that there wasn't an appreciable difference from when I shifted my legs beneath my computer…but this wasn't shift legs, this was REAL! I feel like I have now completed one more part of the Salvadoran initiation process!

The picture below gives the stats of my first official earthquake. I think I could definitely feel the combination of transverse and longitudinal movements creating the torsion wave! :)