Hey Petra. Thanks for the great post. You pose some great questions that certainly apply to my neighborhood ;-) They probably apply to most neighborhoods throughout the cities in this nation. Some neighborhoods are at risk for catastrophic earthquakes like yours and mine. I don't have a thing against most of my neighbors. Some of them annoy me and living so close to people in a city makes that unavoidable. I know that if a horrible earthquake struck or one like the Nisqually quake that I would help anyone without batting an eye. I sometimes wonder if they would do the same for me. It doesn't matter in my eyes because I would do the same thing no matter what I think would be done for me.

I just noticed that there had been a 7.6 late this afternoon and I know that if there is another one this week I might not know until much later. I personally think this is a great time to travel around the Pacific Northwest and check out whatever I can. I think that this week is a GREAT time to do just that. Over the weekend I grabbed some willing participants and crossed the Cascades and headed over into the area of Moses Lake. There are always plenty of things to see when you cross the Cascades and this is a great time of year to do it. I wanted to take in all the geology that I could, but I also wanted to head to The Gorge to see The Dave Matthews band. The scenery was great, the auroras were great, the bands sounded great, and the weather was nearly perfect. Too bad they don't sell tickets for shows that are free of teenagers! I would certainly pay extra for THAT experience! I know....I know....we were all teenagers once and everyone has to go through it to become the great or not so great people that we will become. I just don't want to have to be around them while they are in the middle of it unless I absolutely have to.

If anyone knows the area in the Cascades along I-90 that is beyond Issaquah when you are heading east that has THOUSANDS of dead trees near a lake on the right....please fill me in on what happened there. Does anyone know this area and what I am talking about? It reminded me ever so slightly of the area outside of Yellowstone that I drove through on my way across the country. Hebgen Lake? Earthquake Lake I think. There was a sign but I can't recall now. There were dead trees in the middle of the river and huge landslide areas. The area in the Cascades didn't have any landslides that were visible from the road that were of major interest, but the thousands of dead trees certainly got my attention. Anyway, if anyone has any memory of what caused all of that I would love to hear about it. I wish I could tell you what town, but there isn't one very close to that area. Roslyn might be the closest for someone looking it up on a map but I can't be sure. I might have to go back for a closer look this week since the weather might cooperate.

Anyway.....now that I have ventured far away from where this started.....

Petra. You are right. Not as many people that frequent this board are sharing thoughts after a major earthquake occurs. I am thankful that Canie is posting the FFA maps when it happens and I should have posted a thank you when I access it to take a look. Just a reminder to myself to thank people for things that I appreciate I suppose.

It seems that people used to share more prior to Lowell heading out. Was he the "glue" so to speak? You can't tell me that we aren't able to get together and post intelligent thoughts about what's going on in the world seismically speaking or......? without those fabulous daily summaries that we used to read.

Anyway, please don't get caught up in all the news and video replay stuff this week. Go out and do something nice for someone even if it's just yanking that pesky dandelion out from between the crack in the sidewalk in front of your neighbors home. Ask someone you care about or someone you *might* care about one day if they are prepared for a natural disaster and give them tips if they need or want them. Ask someone you don't really care for if that is what works this week :-)

I will be on volcano and various other geologic field trips this week. If I find anything interesting which is highly likely, I will try to make a point of sharing it when I return.

Perhaps to get the posts rolling I will start a new contest :-) I'm not sure I have a prize to offer that anyone would dream of at this time, but perhaps the prize is distraction and the prize is that this board continues to have people that love sharing information.

It will be a very short contest and you don't have much time to enter your thoughts.

Where will the largest earthquake that is recorded by NEIS on September 11, 2002 take place? It will have to be GMT I suppose, although that is flexible since this is strictly for fun! We should probably exclude NEW GUINEA to keep it interesting.

I suppose I should toss a guess into the ring to get it moving. My very uneducated guess will have to be........hmmmmmm......the Aleutians. Perhaps it will be a 7+ in the Shumagin Gap! Doubtful and hopefully NOT! Anyway, keep posting your thoughts and ideas and get out and enjoy yourself this week instead of getting stuck in front of that awful tv! Take care all.