Friday, February 24, 2006

Earthquake frenzy

I've always wanted to feel one. Since I've been in Ottawa (nearly 8 years) I've heard of several earthquakes in the area that could be felt, but I'd never been lucky enought to feel one. This evening, there was a magnitude 4.0 just a few kilometers away (38KM according to Google Earth).

Not much to speak of... a very low rumble, and vibration... kinda like a large truck going down the road... but the house creaked a bit, and the rumble seemed to carry on for about 10 seconds afterwards getting lower and dimmer all the time.

Tam thought a plane was about to fly into the house. Nova was a bit upset... and I believe he thought it was someone upstairs or at the door.

Included is an image from the Canadian National Seismograh Network that shows the quake I felt (aprox 8:40 EST = 1:40 UTC). I do wish NRCan would improve it's earthquake web service however... their servers were blocked shortly after the quake. I guess the 1/2 million geeks in the Ottawa area all wanted to know what they felt.

Fortunately, the USGS is on the ball: "A light earthquake occurred at 01:39:23 (UTC) on Saturday, February 25, 2006. The magnitude 4.0 event has been located in the ONTARIO-QUEBEC BORDER REGION, CANADA."

They also have some details including the depth (15 km), and distances from major areas (42 km from Ottawa center).

Update: NRCan has come in with some slightly different (and I assume more accurate) data: "An earthquake of magnitude 4.5 MN occured on 2006-02-25 at 01:39:22 Universal Time. The epicentre was located at latitude 45.66 North and longitude 75.23 West. 7 km N from Thurso, QC". This puts it slightly north of the USGS. There's some difference in the scales used in different areas (4.0 vs 4.5). Apparently MN and M are not the same thing, as quakes propogate differently in eastern North America so sometimes they adjust the numbers.

Congrats on Curling

Congratulations to our Canadian (ahem - Newfoundland) curling team on their well earned victory today at the olympics. I imagine it's the first ever Newfoundland olympic gold medal.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Jacques Cartier Park - Winterlude

We (Tam, Shirley and I) took a quick trip over to Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau today to look at the snow sculptures. It was quite an afternoon. Photos of the snow sculptures are on the website.

Parking was difficult, but once achieved, it was all merriment in the winter wonderland created in the park. Lots of sculptures, slides, food and entertainment. The place was packed!

A very sunny, but quite cold (-10 or so) day. But when well dressed, and with a beaver tail and hot chocolate to warm us, we didn't mind too much.

In some ways the snow sculptures are even more interesting and beautiful than the ice sculptures... They're certainly easier to photograph. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Winterlude and ice on the canal

Winterlude and some colder weather have finally brought some skaters to the canal. Between -10 and -15 these past few days. It's a little chillier than I usually like it, but it's nice for a couple of weeks in order to keep the ice and snow sculptures fresh. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Dual Monitors

I've setup my old Viewsonic (CRT) display as a secondary monitor. Kinda nifty. In my profile I have it displaying some network/system stats, monitoring some websites, and displaying a continually updated RSS feed. I can also have it display media center when I want to work and watch TV/Videos at the same time.

Better than having it underfoot as it has been for the past 9 months. Posted by Picasa