A Mystery Writer's Notes From Tahoe:
Where the water is pure, the air is cool, and the bad guys all get caught...
I was at my computer when the most recent quake hit, two days ago. It was, for us, a whole lotta shakin' goin' on. People who reside near major fault lines would probably scoff at our reaction, considering no building fell down, no tsunamis washed up on shore, no pipelines were severed by shifting land.
The quake was a mile or so below the center of Lake Tahoe. It was close to the location of one of the last significant quakes. Hmmm. Are the Earthquake gods trying to tell us something?
People are already talking about how low the lake is this spring, and which boat ramps are closing due to low water level, and how maybe this is the beginning of the next 500-year mega drought.
Yes, it could be bad. Meanwhile, long-term drought or not, it will snow again. Unless you're on the Atacama Desert in the Andes, precipitation keeps returning. A drought just means less quantity and less often.
So if your boat has a deep draft, maybe leave it at home, come walk the shore and hike the trails and take pictures of our beautiful pure lake. And don't throw away your snow shovels just yet.
Our much-loved Lake Tahoe Community College art professor David Foster passed away last week.
David was a friend to hundreds and instructor to thousands. An icon of the arts and a part of the bedrock of the Tahoe community, he was one of the original founders of the Lake Tahoe Community College, and he served as head of the art department for decades.
Some knew David as a professor who taught figure drawing, others as the leader of many student trips to Europe to study art. Some knew him as a marble sculptor who worked in Italy. Some knew him as a photographer. Some knew him as a fitness enthusiast who could seemingly run forever.
All knew him as a dedicated, thoughtful man who, while fun and often funny, never lost his focus on being an earnest, smart teacher, tireless supporter of the community, and husband of his great wife Joanne and father of their kids.
We will miss him very much.
When we moved to Tahoe, we never thought about earthquakes. We knew of course about the major quakes that leveled buildings and freeway overpasses and killed lots of people. But Tahoe was never on the list of places with major risk. So when we experienced our first shaker, we were actually excited. This was what everyone talked about! The lamps teetered, the pictures on the wall went crooked, and dishes "walked" across the counters and shelves.
Since then we've experienced many earthquakes that were significant enough to feel. (For those who don't know, there are hundreds and sometimes even thousands of earthquakes a day across the west, most of which are too minor to feel. We only know about them because sensitive instruments pick up the movement.)
We've also learned about plate tectonics. The earth's crust is made up of giant plates that are constantly moving. The reason for their movement is not totally understood, but suffice to say that the interior of our planet is a dynamic place, full of movement. And what goes on down below affects what happens on the surface crust.
The main thing is that those crustal plates move in different directions and at different speeds. The intersection of the plates is where the action is. The stresses build up, and, periodically, those stresses are released when the plates suddenly move. Sometimes one plate pushes up against another, and that process builds mountain ranges. Other times, a plate gets pushed down, or sideways. No matter what direction the tectonic plates suddenly move, we feel it as an earthquake.
In the last two weeks, Tahoe has had two dramatic quakes. They haven't caused much damage. But they sure get your attention!
It's May 1st, and we still have a patch of snow on the north side of our house. That's no big deal. Some years we have snow until June.
But it's a fun contrast when we're out hiking and come to a meadow covered in yellow wild flowers. What kind of wildflowers, you ask? The little yellow kind that look like crepe paper up close.
