So, a mild tremor from an earthquake woke me up the other morning. Note, when I say "woke me up", I mean "roused me just enough to readjust my blindfold, think 'why the hell is the train running so early?', and promptly fall back asleep".
This may not seem odd until you take into account the fact that I am firmly embedded in Middle America. And there aren't any trains that run near my apartment.
I probably would've forgotten the whole thing had it not been for the fact that the first thing I heard on the radio was "...early-morning earthquake in southern Illinois". This was something of a shock to me, as I had spent my entire life under the impression that there weren't any earthquake-causing fault lines in this part of the country. I figured it was a trade-off for our lack of fresh seafood and the idiot Two-and-a-Half Men-watching stereotypes.
How wrong I was. It turns out the New Madrid zone sprawls across southern Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee; and it was the site of three or four of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded in the US. I don't want to freak out, but holy shit! It turns out scientists have been speculating that this region's due for a "Big One". Some time. Like, between now and 2040. Yeah, I'm suddenly not too concerned about it.
In an appropriately odd end to my day, I also learned that Bai Ling has a blog.
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