People who have lived on the West Coast or in Alaska watched Tuesday’s television coverage of the East Coast’s earthquake with a certain bemusement. In those areas temblors like that are, if not exactly routine, certainly not uncommon.
It is tempting to complain that anything that happens in New York or Washington is a big deal while what happens here in the hinterlands is ignored. The truth, of course, is that among the factors that determine what makes something newsworthy are its rarity, how many people are affected and whether anyone was around to notice and record the event.
By those standards Tuesday’s quake qualifies as important. Centered in northern Virginia, it was felt along much of the East Coast and as far inland as the Midwest — the most populous part of the country. It was the first earthquake of that strength in the region in 67 years and only the second on record.
The second biggest earthquake in American history did not qualify as news. It occurred in what geologists call the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that stretches from British Columbia to California, on Jan. 26, 1700. The region’s only inhabitants at the time, however, left no record. The date is known because the Japanese noted the timing of the resultant tsunami.
The strongest recorded earthquake in U.S. history struck Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1964 with a magnitude of 9.2. The 1700 quake has been calculated as a magnitude 9. Those numbers provide a little perspective. Tuesday’s earthquake had a magnitude of 5.8. But that measure, often called the Richter scale, is not linear. A magnitude 6 is not one-fifth greater than a magnitude 5; it means it released 10 times as much energy. As such, the 1964 Alaska quake and the 1700 Cascadia event were both 1,000 times as powerful as Tuesday’s temblor. So, roughly, was the quake that rattled Japan earlier this year.
By more important measurements, the East Coast quake was even less of an event. A few buildings show cracks, books and merchandise were knocked off shelves, and some homes near the epicenter were damaged. But nobody died and only minor injuries were reported.
Nonetheless, the immediate reaction in the affected areas was such that one Fox News anchor felt compelled to repeatedly remind viewers that everything was all right. The West Coast and Alaska on average have a magnitude 5.8 quake almost yearly, but an earthquake is a awesome event and can shake up first-timers in more ways than one.
And with good reason. California’s 1971 San Fernando earthquake killed 65 people and destroyed two hospitals, two freeway interchanges and a dam. In 1989 a quake during a World Series game in the San Francisco Bay area killed 63 people, injured thousands and left more homeless. A 1994 earthquake in Southern California killed more than 30 people and injured 8,700.
In 2010 earthquakes devastated Haiti and caused serious damage in Chile. Chile has tough building codes, but the country nonetheless rebuilds itself after an earthquake about once a generation.
All but one of the 10 most powerful quakes in American history have been in Alaska. But three on the top-20 list were in southeast Missouri. Colorado had its own magnitude 5.3 quake Monday night centered near Trinidad. They can happen anywhere.
That might be what to take away from the coverage of Tuesday’s quake: The East Coast just got a gentle reminder that no one is immune to nature.
