I Feel the Earth Move, Under My Feet, I Feel the Sky Tumbling Down, uh Tumbling Downnnnnn...

Yes, we felt the effects of the earthquake way down here in the South Carolina lowcountry yesterday.  I was eating lunch in my car shortly after 2:00 p.m., when it started gently rocking back and forth.  At first, I thought something was wrong with my car.  I had the engine running and the air conditioner going full blast, which I know you aren't supposed to do, but it was freaking 93 degrees outside.

I immediately turned the car off and when it was still rocking, I thought, "oh Lord, it must be me. I'm having a heart attack." I never heard anybody say they felt like they were swaying from side to side during a heart attack though, so I looked at the leaves on the trees and saw a tiny bit of a breeze.  My next thought was that if my brand new Camry was flimsy enough to rock from side to side in an itty bitty breeze like that, it was going back to the dealer!  It wasn't until I got back to my laptop and checked on Irene's projected path that I found out what it was.

Many people don't know it, but earthquakes in South Carolina are not as uncommon as you would think.  I did a little digging (no pun intended) on South Carolina's earthquake activity at the US Geological Survey's website.  We have had more than 20 earthquakes since 1698, the most significant being an 1886 quake that leveled much of Charleston.

The Palmetto State is apparently a hotbed of seismic activity.  I believe we are on a major fault line, and our rocks over here on the East coast are older than those on the West coast and more dense.  That rockin' and rollin' travels further through thick rock, doncha know.

Okay, so this week has been a bit unusual, what with the escaped convict/idiot, an earthquake, Irene looming over us, and the Braves winning 9 out of the last 10... and you thought life in the Deep South was slow and boring.