I couldn't help but be impressed by the magnitude of the earthquake.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I suggested that we might compare earthquakes in terms of the measured amplitudes recorded at these stations, with an appropriate correction for distance.
I'm glad to see the press now referring to the open-ended Richter scale.
I experienced the California Northridge Earthquake of 1994 and the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, and I have thus seen firsthand how terrible and awesomely devastating a force of nature can be.
Incidentally, the usual designation of the magnitude scale to my name does less than justice to the great part that Dr. Gutenberg played in extending the scale to apply to earthquakes in all parts of the world.
What emerged, of course, was that the magnitude scale presupposed that all earthquakes were alike except for a constant scaling factor. And this proved to be closer to the truth than we expected.
We have witnessed the most extraordinary devastation. The magnitude of the situation is unbelievable. It's just heartbreaking.
Shortly after the 2004 Indonesian earthquake, I read that the earthquake had affected the rotation of the earth, shortening the length of our 24-hour day. Even though the change was extremely slight - only a few microseconds - I found the idea incredibly haunting.
Being here, it is just impossible to imagine what that was like, when the tsunami hit.
As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not be reduced to a single peak acceleration. In fact, a full frequency of vibrations occurs.
We had our first earthquake over here recently. That was a bizarre feeling. I just became disoriented and I remember my dad freaking out. Nothing broke or anything.