Has Reality TV Jumped the Shark?

Do we really need 12 shows about Alaska? Or 3 shows about the Amish? And that's just the first letter of the alphabet!

Funny or Die asks the question . . .

I Can't Believe These Are All TV Shows - watch more funny videos

Major Alaskan Earthquake Yesterday

There was a major earthquake in Alaska yesterday, 7.5 on the Richter scale (later downgraded to 7.2), which caused the government to send out a scary tsunami warning about "major inundation" of the coastline. But only a few waves were generated, thank goodness. Most of Alaska's population lives near the southern coast and there are so many islands and inlets where fishermen keep their boats, that the worst case scenario might look similar to the Japanese Tsunami. I hope people go to higher ground every time even if some of these warnings seem like the government is crying wolf.

Interesting that there were "loud noises" reported on Thursday which local authorities couldn't explain. Of course there are always small earthquakes rumbling in Alaska every day, so maybe the locals tune it out unless they hear a rumbling. But those could have been fore shocks of the big one.

Booming noises heard in Alaska on Thursday

Southcentral Alaska authorities didn’t have any immediate cause for a loud booming noise heard Thursday night and reported by Channel 2 viewers, but seemed to rule out sonic booms from aircraft in responses Friday.
Reports of the sounds were posted on Channel 2’s Facebook page Thursday evening by people ranging from Eagle River to the Mat-Su Valley. Some reports placed the phenomenon between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday, with Channel 2's Late Edition airing a brief update on the reports. Viewers' descriptions of the sound varied, but those who heard it generally agreed that it was a strong and persistent noise.

“I live in Peters Creek and I heard several loud noises outside and then muted the television,” Channel 2 viewer Rachel Lee wrote. “After about a minute of silence, there was a rumble and my chandelier started to shake. I thought it might have been an earthquake but I looked online and there weren't any listed at that time; it was 8:05 p.m.”

“About the only thing I can compare it to is someone going down a dirt road really fast,” viewer Deb Spaulding wrote. “(I)t was that sort of rumble.”

“I was in the garage and I heard it. It (lasted) for a while,” wrote viewer Michelle Thomas Hanks. “At first I thought it was the wind until I stepped outside… My (neighbor’s kids) looked for what was making that loud noise and they could not see anything just kept hearing the loud noise.”

John Pennell, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s chief of media operations, says the base wasn’t flying any of its supersonic fighter jets capable of causing sonic booms Thursday night, with only subsonic C-17 Globemaster III transports flying until 9:30 p.m.

From the Alaska Dispatch

Tsunami advisories were briefly in place from the Washington state and Canadian border to the Kennedy Entrance, 40 miles southwest of Homer, but those advisories were cancelled shortly before 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Also cancelled was the portion of the warning in effect north of Cape Fairweather stretching to Cape Suckling, 75 miles southeast of Cordova.

According to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, which was under heavy traffic Saturday morning, the quake was initially measured at a magnitude of 7.2, at a depth of 14 miles and 67 miles west of the community of Craig. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake 63 miles west of Craig and initially estimated it at magnitude 7.7, later downgraded to 7.5. The depth was also estimated at a shallower 6.2 miles.
. . . A small tsunami was observed in the community of Port Alexander shortly after 1 a.m., the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center reported. That wave height was only a half-foot above the norm. Sitka experienced an even smaller wave.
. . . Also briefly on the list for a potential bump in wave height was the area surrounding Kodiak Island, where the Shell drill rig Kulluk has been grounded in shallow water off the coast of the nearby Sitkalidak Island since New Year's Eve.

Science Nerd ~ Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

I'm an nerdish earthquake watcher and I probably check the USGS List several times a day. I think it helps in these days of  "Apocalypse Doomsday" prophecies to learn what is normal geological activity for the earth and what is not.
 USGS Earthquakes in the World ~ Past Seven Days
 USGS Nifty New Real-Time Shake Map
USGS General Information and Lists State by State

This week there have been at least four big earthquakes in two days, as well as myriad large aftershocks, which caused  LiveScience to wonder if these are somehow connected:

It's possible, geophysicists say, that quakes off the coast of Oregon, Michoacan, Mexico, and in the Gulf of California ranging from magnitudes 5.9 to 6.9 on the Richter Scale had something to do with the large earthquake that struck near Indonesia. But the west coast quakes were fairly standard for their location. "The Earth is in constant motion," said Aaron Velasco, a geophysicist at the University of Texas, El Paso. "I wouldn't necessarily say it's unusual, but we will definitely be looking at these earthquakes to see if there's any link between them."

But why didn't the big 8.6 quake in Indonesia this week cause a huge Tsunami like the one back in 2004 that killed so many people and destroyed villages all around the Indian Ocean? Here we go, via The Conversation:

It was a “strike-slip earthquake”, which results in the ground moving with a more side-to-side motion, rather than an up-and-down motion. The side-to-side motion means there isn’t much up-and-down movement of the sea floor, so the water isn’t disturbed much. As a result, large tsunamis usually don’t form from slip-strike earthquakes.

Most people don't realize how many strong earthquakes there are in the world on any given day. The Pacific "Ring of Fire" is the main area, and nearly every day you'll see new quakes 5.0 and above : Honshu, Japan, where three major geological plates are still sliding under the ocean after the Tsunami disaster last year; Vanuatu and the Mollucca Sea north of Australia; Offshore Chile, which has been rumbling since 2010; Mexico, which has live volcanoes and where there's a "swarm" happening around Oaxaca as well as the Gulf of California right now; and Alaska, which shakes all the time but has limited effect on humans due to the small population of the state. California is the opposite with people packed into cities large and small, but  residents laugh off the danger and try to ignore fears about "The Big One." Then there are occasional bursts of activity around the Greek Isles, Italy, Africa, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and even the Virgin Islands due to Volcanoes.

And this is the fun part of watching the earthquake list ~ once you are familiar with the "normal" quake areas, you can easily spot the oddities. The Virginia quake last year that shifted the Washington Monument was fascinating and historical, being felt as far away as New Jersey. The strange quakes in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Ohio that are possibly caused by gas-pipe "fracking" are unprecedented, and now those areas are hot-spots where there didn't used to be any quakes. But really earthquakes can happen in any state, so keep an eye on your shake map and be sure to report one if you feel it via the USGS interactive website!
Earthquake Map For the U.S. Heartland