Earthwobbles!

Yesterday I experienced my first ever earthquake. It wasn't a big deal, but I've never felt the ground shake like that before, so it was actually a little exciting. Honestly, I was kind of hoping for some aftershocks because I felt like I hadn't had enough time to properly appreciate the experience. I have a basement apartment, and for the first 10 or 15 seconds I just thought there was a big truck outside, rattling the windows. I didn't realize what was going on until the wall I was leaning against started to sway back and forth and the building began making alarming creaking noises.

The most entertaining part for me (aside from the CBC's jokes about how all of the office workers in central Canada were sent home from work because they were "so shaken up") is that I sent a text to a friend in southern Ontario that said, "I think I just felt an earthquake." She responded, "That doesn't make any sense." But then she immediately called me to tell me that her house had started shaking as soon as she had sent the text message. Making a wild estimate, based on the distance between her house and my house and the time lag between when we had felt it, I declared that the epicentre must have been near Ottawa. The official declaration placed it 61 km north of Ottawa. That semester of Earth Science 170 in university really paid off!

It brought to mind the first tornado I ever saw, which was last summer in Edmonton. That was also a minor event, but much scarier. Seeing big trees like the one pictured above torn up and come crashing down towards my house was a legitimately frightening experience, and I got a huge adrenaline rush as I was being herded into the basement. I feel like I have started a trend for myself of one new natural disaster each year. A tornado in 2009 and an earthquake in 2010. Maybe next year there will be a volcano, and then I'll be set for a meteor strike in 2012. I can't wait!