Just settling down again on my couch with my morning coffee and queuing up a show to watch while the laundry and the dishes run through (And taking a break from my endless task of organizing my digital photo collection, but that is fodder for another discussion) when the cat’s head pops up from her VERY relaxed position in ‘her’ chair and looks furtively around the room.
Then the windows rattle and the ceiling fan sways. I felt the couch do a little shimmy and watched as my projected image danced a little on the wall. In about 6 to 9 seconds, it was all over except for the Cat getting relaxed again right away 😉
After a couple minutes, the other Cat came in to the living room looking a little on edge as she asked to be picked up and comforted. Only another few minutes after the shimmy and life started to return to an even hum as the Francolins began their shrilling again and the various lawn equipment started back up in the neighborhood.
Just as I headed for my phone, I got the call. I knew who was calling and what question he was going to ask. I answered with, “what Earthquake?” 😉 You see, I had not felt the sizable shimmy that happened a few months ago on Mauna Kea volunteering at the VIS nor the little shimmies that have happened since moving to the Island of Hawai’i.
Thus my husband, Andrew, was calling to find out if there had been any damage and that I am okay as well as whether I even felt this one or not? Yep, the Cats and I all felt this ONE just fine! I was (and still am) making sure that little things about the house are well away from counter or table edges just in case “‘quake-maker” is not finished making this Island ‘dance’ 😀
This particular seismic event was located just off of the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i near Laupahoehoe and is reported to be only a magnitude 4.0 according to the USGS Recent Earthquakes in Hawai’i page.
In the picture to the right, the “USGS Recent Earthquakes in Hawai’i from 9 March 2009 at 9:44:53 AM (HST)“, this event is the big blue square off by its lonesome on the North by Northeast coast out in the “ocean’s blue”. It felt stronger than a mag 4.0 to me; but my internal earthquake magnitude seismograph is apparently not calibrated accurately nor with any particular precision.
Aloha and Happy Shimmies!
