Jody Bourgeois is a UW professor who is currently in Japan studying the earthquake that hit there just 9 days ago. She specializes in Earth and space sciences and has been studying tsunamis since the 1980s. Reading her blog both before and after the earthquake is incredibly interesting. Just days after the disaster, she recalled her experience:
“Then I went out in the hallway to find out what was what. A colleague there said “big earthquake” —
yes, big, but of course I wanted to know HOW big. Having never experienced a big earthquake (my maximum was 5.6 near San Jose, CA), I hadn’t an internal gauge, but I did know that long-duration shaking characterizes big earthquakes. I went to the USGS website to see if the earthquake was registered — it was, with a preliminary magnitude of… 7.9 off northern Honshu, same area as the 7.2 on 9 March, a location which I’d expected. Actually, though, I suppose I was expecting a larger magnitude given the duration of shaking, but I had no real basis for doubt. In any case, both my colleagues in the Institute and also the Tsunami Bulletin Board were mentioning tsunami. I wrote into Facebook:
It’s a 7.9 off northern Honshu, there is a big tsunami warning, but don’t worry, I am not in danger.”
If you are looking for a way to keep in touch with everything happening over there, I definitely reccomend Jody’s blog. Not only is she covering the science of it all, but she is also keeping track of how citizens are dealing with the aftermath of the disaster. To read Jody’s blog, click here.