The Princess and the Tremors

"You know I felt one more earthquake after you went to bed last night" Wookie told me as I drove her home from school.

"You are the princess that can feel the pea!" I said slightly amazed.

She told me she felt six total. I felt or rather "heard" four - they manifested themselves as slight rattles in the house. No sensation of movement like the larger earthquakes I experienced living in the Philippines and Alaska.

Wookie noticed the first quake sometime after dinner.

"Did you feel that!" she said excitedly

Jules did. I didn't. I had been napping half on the love seat.

After we went to bed I heard what sounded like the cat playing under the bed. The window blinds rustled slightly. I thought I had taken the cat out before I shut the bedroom door. I couldn't be sure. For a moment I thought maybe it was a tremor. I really didn't want to get out of bed to toss the cat out.

Then I heard movement from Wookie's room. She was making a beeline to Jules' and my room. No doubt in my mind then - it must have been an earthquake. Or we had two cats.

Wookie made her way to my side of the bed in the dark.

"Dad! Did you feel the earthquake! I'm scared" she said.

"Yeah, but it was a little one. Maybe it was an airplane  or truck that drove by" I replied

"No! it was an earthquake!"

"Well, let's see if there is anything on the internet" I said getting out of bed.

I found a seismograph web site. The nearest station was on the North end of Antelope Island. Probably in the visitors center I thought. I pulled up the chart and it took me a few minutes to figure it out. First it was recording in Mountain Standard Time one hour off from our Daylight Time. Then I realized each line covered fifteen minutes - four lines to the hour. Sure enough there was needle movement in the middle of the third line below the 21:00 mark. Converting to Daylight Time it happened at 10:38.  There also appeared to be a 10 minute delay.

"Look at this squiggly line. It shows an earthquake at 10:38, just a little while ago." I pointed it out to Wookie.

"See, I was right" she said. "You said it was an airplane!"

Shortly afterward we heard slight rattling throughout the house.

"There is another one Dad!" as she grabbed my arm. This happened two more times, each with the same accompanying arm grab from Wookie.

We waited and refreshed the seismographic plot. Sure enough, three more squiggly lines appeared, starting around 10:55.

I convinced Wookie that a bunch of smaller earthquakes released pent up energy making it less likely a large earthquake would happen soon, then I went to bed.

The next morning I printed off the plot at work and showed Emma. She had also felt the 10:38 earthquake but she didn't feel the three others.

"Huh!" I thought, when I saw the last set of squiggly lines at 11:50. There was one more tremor after I went to bed for the final time. I didn't feel it.

But the princess did!