Emily's+Story

I woke up to shaking. Quickly, I glanced at my glowing clock- it was 3:00 AM. I wondered what the shaking was, half-awake. Was this the end of the world? Did the earth implode? No. I then realized that it was an earthquake. The shaking increased, and a crystal chandelier fell from my ceiling... This was bad, because 1) Broken chandelier= glass flying everywhere= bad. And 2) I had never seen this chandelier before in my life. Magical earthquake? This seemed likely... However, I had bigger problems. Shards of glass were flying toward me and my house was probably about to fall to pieces from the seismic waves, vibrations in the earth caused by an earthquake. So, to escape the glass, I jumped out of the window and into a helpful nearby tree. I noticed that the road in front of my house was now curved dramatically- we must live right near a strike-slip fault, I realised. These faults were created when two continental plates moved past each other, causing earthquakes along the way. Thankfully, the nearest ocean was about 70 miles away, so we likely wouldn't be hit with a tsunami, a huge wave of water caused by an earthquake. I wondered if my family was out of the house and then remembered they weren't home- my parents and brother had gone to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Since I would apparently rather try to survive through an earthquake than revisit the disgustingly boring museum (is it a museum? Whatever), I had been allowed to stay behind. One trip to the Hall of Fame is already too much, thank you. I flew over to the outdoor TV and turned on the news. Most of the shaking seemed to be over for now. Apparently, the epicenter of the earthquake was only two miles away from my house! The earthquake had a Mercalli rating of 6- not very traumatic. The Mercalli scale, a newscaster explained, was based on the damage caused by the earthquake. The tension along the fault had been building for only a short while, which was why the earthquake had been so minor (More tension along any fault, where earthquakes occur, means a more extreme earthquake!). The wreckage of the unknown chandelier seemed to be the only damage. Just then, more shaking caused the trees too sway. I ran to another tree to take cover. This must be an aftershock - a smaller earthquake occurring after a more major one. The clouds had become a ghastly green colour and it began to hail. What a messed-up day. Thankfully, the skyscraper next door to my house (I had been a bit nervous since the earthquake started about it possibly //falling on me!//) was a base-isolated building. This was quite a relief since the building was constructed to withstand earthquakes. The shaking was over now. I headed inside to clean up that stupid chandelier... hopefully I'd be done by 5:00 AM. Damage to the road from the earthquake.................. Why am I so obsessed with this chandelier? Hello, because it flew into my room one morning and shattered. That is actually kind of weird.