My little old truck has been under the weather the last week, confining me to where I could walk from here.
Nowhere.
As soon as possible this afternoon, I loaded up the dogs (well, actually, they just jump up on the seat) and headed for Mississinewa Reservoir and Pearson Mill S.R.A. It has the most vertical relief anywhere on the reservoir, with two fairly steep hills, and the boat ramp, a climb when the lake is at winter pool.
Indiana is a fairly stable tectonic area, although it would be very much affected by any realignment of the New Madrid Fault. The 1813 quake, estimated as the US' second largest, changed the course of two of the nation's largest rivers, in places by miles. Kentucky gained some Indiana, but we got Evansville.
Oh, joy.
The quake spread the fear of the Lord in our once-proud nation (you know, back before the middle of the last century, when we could still win a war), prompting the most prolific church-building era we've seen.
The ground reportedly rolled three feet, up and down.
There are three types of waves generated by an earthquake. The third is a lab-measure, so the two of concern are the primary, p, and the secondary, oddly enough, the s wave.
The waves propagate at perpendicular to one another.
The p wave resembles a wave in the ocean, like any wave you see on an oscilloscope. The s wave moves side to side, and is much more damaging, responsible for everything from a cracked foundation to total destruction.
The s wave moves slower than the p wave, because of the resistance in the earth. The difference in arrival times for the two waves fairly accurately locates the epicenter (with the help of triangulation).
The s wave also loses energy faster, from the force expended to propagate through earth, while the p wave has to varying degrees only has total resistance in one direction - which is why it was so much easier to move the surface of the earth six feet.
The s wave does the real damage, though, and another 8.6 (estimated) shaker would turn St. Louis into a graveyard. Dams up and down the Mississippi, and up the Ohio, would just go.
And if you live south of the Soo, your house will be damaged.
So it came as a real shock to me that, in just the last nine days, there was seismic activity at Pearson's Mill. Today, the hills were steeper, and higher, than just last week.
I've been walking around the pool table that is Converse for a week, and I'm laboring on these little hills. Lordy, lordy, I'm in crappy shape.
I was kinda guessing about going back on SR 13 or going across Red Bridge, wondering how clear that road was. Being the adventure maven I am, I opted for the icy possibilities on the chance I might see something.
About a mile along west, a red tail rose up from the shoulder and flew across the road in front of me, low, low. After she crossed, she made a hard right and began a short, unhurried climb about thirty feet up into a tree and lit, maybe ten feet from the (smaller) male.
Okay, now I'm glad I went that way.
Across Red Bridge, just as the road turns to the south, there were two hawks in a tree about 40 yards off the road, perched two feet apart, facing each other. I have never seen this, as I'm a total novice, and maybe everyone else sees it all the time. If anyone knows, don't make me work for an answer.
Meanwhile, I'm guessing foreplay.
I'm going to hazard an uneducated guess here, and say they were red-shouldered hawks, because they were closer in size, and the red tails I have seen in the immediate area have much lighter, usually almost white, breasts.
Left turn: good choice.