earthquakes, seismographs and life crises Tags: sensors measuring
On the morning of 22 March 2020, at approximately 6:24 AM⁽¹⁾ I was awoken by blood-chilling frantic screaming of my then girlfriend laying next to me, with her hands over her head, trembling. In that moment my sleep deprived brain looped through every nightmare I had as a kid leaving me for a moment thinking that demons are finally here for me, ripping my house roof off, pressing on all the door handles on the house, throwing items onto the walls of other rooms. I felt my hair rising even before I opened my eyes, adrenaline and intense fear of supernatural overwhelming me.
As I jumped over my girlfriend to protect her I realized its just an earthquake and as soon as it stopped I fell back down on my back, relieved, pulling the girl closer to tell her we are fine and that it was just an earthquake. But it was not fine for either of us.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 5.3 M, VII (very strong) to VIII (damaging) on the MSK scale. Soon the aftershocks followed, which continued for weeks, counting hundreds of them, keeping everyone on their toes, waiting for the big one.
Hour or so after the initial earthquake and one stronger aftershock realization that staying inside stirred incredible anxiety prompted us to leave the house and head for the store to fetch some food. On the way there we saw a mass of people on the streets, a granny sitting under a pine tree in the park, on a fancy chair, too scared to go back in. First snow of the year started not long after the earthquake as well. To top everything off, all of this occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, which means if front of the store we were greeted by the longest, quietest waiting line I have ever seen. As ground kept growling and shaking occasionally people would wince and murmur for a minute or two, before becoming haunting silent again.
After few days of my heart rate going up with every new aftershock (and rediscovered fear of dark) I have decided to research earthquakes. Part of it was general curiosity, and part was trying to rationalize the fears that resurfaced. After some extensive reading and research I have decided to build a seismograph at a future date, but forgot about it until 28th of October same year when a strong earthquake hit Petrinja (50km from zagreb). That night I have drafted this document, in hopes of helping others cope with their fears as I did, by researching and understanding what happened. However, next day, Oct 29th, another, stronger earthquake hit Petrinja again, bearing casualties and destroying so many homes. I felt project like this was less than needed at the time so this document was set aside until Jan 2023.
rocks?