Feeling all shook up

by Amanda Egan
News Editor

If I walk outside on a scorching hot summer day with dark clouds overhead and feel a slight breeze I am reminded of something that my family calls earthquake weather.

Is there such thing as earthquake weather? Well it seems like every time someone utters those words California is struck with a trembler, whether it be significant on the Richter Scale or just something to bring up in casual conversation.

I can recall being young and someone saying that it was earthquake weather and then a 7.2 hit in the early morning.So, I guess you could say that I am a little superstitious about it.

The state of California is known for earthquakes, yet we all get frightened at the thought of one.

Anyone that has lived in this state longer than a year has experienced the ground shaking at least once. I have experienced so many they feel like a part of living in California. So what’s the big deal?

Why is there an abundance of earthquake talk going on in Southern California lately?

It could be the fact that a prediction was recently made that an enormous earthquake will hit 60 miles east of Los Angeles before Sept. 5.

Probably the biggest one we have experienced yet. Are you scared yet?

It is hard for me to comprehend an earthquake hitting with a higher magnitude than 7.2.

It is just a prediction yet residents are running scenarios through their heads and preparing for the worst.

But, yet again television has a lot to do with the fact that Californians are frightened.

A recent miniseries titled “10.5,” about earthquakes, aired on NBC Sunday and Monday night was slightly unrealistic.

It was a bad decision to even show this on television. Most people believe everything they see on T.V. Which is really pathetic.

The series shows a 10.5 earthquake destroying the Golden Gate Bridge and sending the Pacific Ocean’s giant waves over Los Angeles.

Basically it showed California as an island, no longer attached to the rest of the United States.

This is scientifically never going to happen. But, people watching these types of shows believe it. Get your own mind and quit watching T.V. if it has that much of an effect on you.

Seismologists say that an earthquake with a magnitude of 10.5 would be 8,000 more times powerful than the 6.7 Northridge quake.

The faults in California are not capable of generating a 10.5 earthquake. It could be possible somewhere else but the reality is, T.V. is not always reality and it is impossible for a 10.5 to hit California.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying do not be prepared for an earthquake, because it is very likely that one could hit any minute.

But, it is not going to send us swimming in the Pacific. T.V puts  radical thoughts in our heads and makes us consider all possibilities.

But, in this case there is no possibility.

T.V. is very entertaining, especially with shows like "10.5." But in California earthquakes are very real, so a show like that has stirred up the state and has some expecting to be floating somewhere off the coast of California sometime before early fall.

Amanda Egan, a senior journalism major, is news editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at aegan@ulv.edu.