Do you have questions about how earthquakes happen? Sure ya do! Well, head here for some answers. There are drawings and stuff that make it easier to follow.

How bad are things in Japan? As with any disaster in any large country, it's both terrible and then also in parts, life is odd and normal. (Those who've been through these sort of things understand.) In America, the nuclear reactor news has dominated headlines all day. There certainly is a possibility that something terrible could happen! Also possibly not. Meanwhile, people estimate that 100,000 children are already displaced; and, here you can see the nuclear-crisis-related evacuation areas. And in Tokyo, at least one of the Hermes shops is closed, as per this list of signs of abnormality there. (It's true.) Also, a local McDonald's [...]

"Boobquake, a day of action that calls on women worldwide to dress scandalously and prove wrong an Iranian cleric who blames natural disasters on immodest cleavage, has started disastrously," with a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hitting Taiwan. Cover up, ladies.

Anxious about the possibility of a Fukushima-style nuclear calamity in the event of another earthquake here on the East Coast? You should be! But save some shelf space in your cabinet of concerns for our deteriorating dams:

In 2009 the American Society of Civil Engineers released a survey of the state of infrastructure in the U.S. The group found that dams are, on average, in terrible disrepair. Of the more than 85,000 dams, more than 4,000 are unsafe or deficient, and nearly 1,800 of those are located where a breach would cause severe damage to life or property. With so many dams, it is hard to [...]

The border city of Calexico, CA, shifted "as much as 2 1/2 feet (80 cm) south and down into the ground due to the magnitude-7.2 earthquake on April 4." Two questions: Does this mean that it is in Mexico now, and how long will it take for John McCain to demand that we wall it off?

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake hit Southern California yesterday, causing concerned citizens to turn to the most trusted name in news for information: Twitter.

Since everything that happens must now microblogged within seconds of—if not actually during—its occurence, let's take a look at how The Great East Coast Shakefest of 2011 was covered on Twitter.

Some chose to tie the news to current events:

.bbpBox106063541425020928 {background:url(http://a1.twimg.com/profile_background_images/21935751/Meets.jpg) #9AE4E8;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

I think Chris Christie just jumped into the raceless than a minute ago via TweetDeck Favorite Retweet ReplyAlex Pareenepareene

So I guess this happened:

A rare earthquake, measuring magnitude-5.5, struck at the Ontario-Quebec border region of Canada on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The midday quake was felt in the city of Toronto in Canada and in a number of U.S. states, including Michigan, Vermont and New York.

This article notes that tremors were felt in Brooklyn (Twitter produced claims of rattled parrots), but I don't buy it. (I'm not saying Brooklyn doesn't DESERVE an earthquake, I'm just saying that this one wasn't it.) I guess if we want a real natural disaster we will just have to wait until the oil makes its way [...]