Rare and Unusual 3.8 Earthquake Hits Northern Indiana Early Dec. 30

On Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010, a huge 3.8-magnitude earthquake was felt in Indiana and four states beyond it. And scientists have described it, according to the Herald Times on their website, as rare and very unusual.

Why so unusual? Simply put, it happened in Indiana. It centered in Howard County, and then rippled to surrounding states hundreds of miles away. This quake is so unusual because of its location - if quakes ever happen in Indiana (which are rare anyway), they happen on a fault like around the Wabash Valley fault in the southwestern section of the state. But certainly not in Howard county. In fact, it's only the third earthquake to rattle Northern Indiana in 175 years! And on top of that, it has left scientists bewildered due to the fact that there was very low, if any, seismic activity found in the area before it happened. Rare and unusual indeed.

Has something rare or unusual happened in your own backyard in years past? People have lots of stories, especially our very own grandparents, whom we love to hear recall their experiences, but one experience I personally had was located in my own backyard in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was the year 2002, and it was the biggest ice storm anyone had ever experienced in that neck of the woods.

It was the start of December, and from what I had heard (I just moved to the area, from Wisconsin believe it or not) North Carolina has very mild winters. If I had to wear a jacket, I was told, it was a cold and unusual winter. But on the night of Dec. 4, all that was about to change.

As can be read on USA Today, the storm knocked out power for more than a million customers - including me. And what was worse, the storm was so bad that it would take approximately a week to get power restored. And we lived in the city! People described the effects of this storm as those of a hurricane. In fact, it was dubbed "Ice-Fran" after the terrible and devastating Hurricane Fran.

And so the interesting experience began. Thankfully, unlike so many others, our home was built with a wonderful wood-burning fireplace in the living room. We went out hunting for dry wood to burn, and started our fire. And had to keep it going for a week.

I must say, it was kind of a fun experience... if you don't factor in the part about having no showers. After all, our house's water and sewer was run off of a pump, and that pump ran off of electricity. So, we were pretty much in trouble. Thankfully, though, we had a nice stock of bottled water... and this helped us keep our hands clean to prepare canned soups in the fireplace.

The storm was extremely damaging - once the beautiful (and yet so deadly) ice has melted from the limbs, power lines, etc., it looked as if a tornado had swept through the entire area. Once we were finally able to take our cars out onto the road (where every man on every corner was selling firewood), it was as if we had entered a whole different world. And it was as if the whole world had stopped, which it literally had! It took several days for basic businesses to start opening their doors again to hungry customers - grocery stores, fast food restaurants, etc.

"Trees are so stressed by the weight of the ice that they could continue to splinter even after the ice is gone," said USAToday.com.

At least 24 deaths were blamed for the storm, all up and down the East Coast, including in New York, where noted jazz saxophonist Robert Berg died. And also according to USA Today.com, during the week of ice, "some 3,000 travelers were stranded at North Carolina's Charlotte-Douglas International Airport."

Rare and unusual indeed, and very scary and devastating. You can also read more about the logistics and precise details of the storm at http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climate/winter/dec2002ice.html.