Wednesday, January 26, 2011  I Slept Through the Big One  311
years ago today, a so-called "great earthquake" struck the
coastal region of the United States Pacific Northwest. Here's my
post from last year explaining some of the details of why we
think we know this; I'm not going to rewrite it here. However,
this year's anniversary is somewhat special for another reason:
Oregon conducted its first "shakeout" to encourage preparedness
for the inevitable next great quake at 10:15 this morning.  I
slept through it.  Unfortunately, metaphorically speaking, so
did public awareness. @GlacialTill pointed out earlier that many
members of his geology department weren't even aware of it. I
was aware of it, and its coincidence with the anniversary, but
it was sort of a peripheral awareness, something to which I
wasn't paying attention. As I mentioned to him, this is our
first such event, so expectations shouldn't be too high. On the
other hand, I see my own complacent attitude toward the exercise
as cautionary and a lit