My Weirdest First Day of School

 My Weirdest First Day of School 

    By Julia Dworkin 

A low-quality photo of me taken on the day of the disaster

    August 23rd, 2011 was my first day of third grade, which was supposed to be just like any other first day of school. The day was, in fact, a normal first day of school until math class. In the middle of math class, the day took a weird turn. First, I felt my desk shake. I thought the person who was sitting across from me was pushing my desk, and I got annoyed. However, I was only annoyed for a moment because I soon realized that their desk was also shaking. Then, I, my classmates, and my teacher realized that we were experiencing an earthquake. Because we were at an elementary school in Arnold, Maryland, we were not prepared for an earthquake. Because of this, we all panicked. Then, we all went outside and sat down. Even though the earthquake only lasted about a minute, we sat outside for about ten minutes, probably because we were really scared. After about ten minutes, we went back inside. I remember my teacher said that at first, she thought that the earthquake was people doing construction on the building. I also remember that one of my friends, who was in a different classroom when the earthquake struck, said that the clock fell off of the wall during the earthquake. Unfortunately, I do not remember what the state of the classroom I was in was like. However, I assume that the damage was minor because I would have remembered the damage if it was major or moderate; and, if I remember correctly, we continued math class almost as if nothing had happened. No one that I know of was seriously hurt, and there was no serious damage to my elementary school. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for other areas impacted by the earthquake.  

 

Image address: https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/side_image/public/IMG_4644.JPG?itok=sE6IQTZw

    The earthquake was a magnitude 5.8, and the epicenter was near Mineral, Virginia. No lives were lost, but it caused $200 to $300 million in property damage. The large amount of property damage was due to the lack of earthquake resistant infrastructure, and the fact that the earthquake was felt as far as 340 miles away from the epicenter.

Image address: https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/DYFI_Mineral_map_revised%20%281%29.jpg?itok=0gyQ0QTD

    But why was this earthquake felt in such a large area compared to earthquakes on the West Coast? This is because rocks on the Eastern side of the US are older than rocks on the Western side of the US. Because of this, the faults on these rocks have more time to heal, which allows seismic waves to cross them more efficiently. 

Image Address: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/NorthAmericanPlate.png 

    Now to address the main elephant in the room: why was there an earthquake on the East Coast of the US, where there are no nearby tectonic plate boundaries? Part of this is because there used to be an ancient tectonic plate boundary near what is now the East Coast of the US. This boundary existed when Pangea was first splitting apart. The splitting apart of Pangea would have created faults, such as the one that caused this earthquake. However, this does not answer the question of why this fault is still active.

Image Address: https://www.air-worldwide.com/siteassets/airimages/publications/air_currents/2017/images/2017_us_eq_fig1.jpg

    Fortunately, according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU), there was a study that found a possible explanation for why faults in the Eastern US, such as the one that was involved in the Mineral earthquake, are still active. The study found that the thickness of the lithosphere in this area of the world is uneven, and the thicker parts are older than the thinner parts. The scientists involved in the study hypothesized that the unevenness was caused by parts of the underside of the lithosphere breaking off and falling into the asthenosphere. This creates gaps beneath the lithosphere, and mother nature does not like gaps, so the asthenosphere fills in the gaps. When the gaps exist, the lithosphere above the gaps is thinner. The thinness of the lithosphere makes it more prone to slip along ancient faults. 

     Therefore, it is likely that another big earthquake will hit the East Coast; it is just a matter of when. Hopefully, by the time the next earthquake hits, people would have built better infrastructure and made everyone more prepared for an earthquake than I was on my weirdest first day of school.  

 

References:

https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/10-year-anniversary-uss-most-widely-felt-earthquake 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-east-coast-earthquakes-travel-far/ 

https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2016/05/03/scientists-find-likely-cause-recent-southeast-u-s-earthquakes/