MONUMENT: IMPOSSIBLE--Cool Photos Of Damage Control Team

Last August, Washington DC experienced a rare 5.8 earthquake which did some serious damage to the Washington Monument, the city's tallest structure at 555 feet 5/18 inches. It has been closed and will remain so likely until 2014, according to a recent story in the Washington Post. Meanwhile, a damage control team from the engineering firm of Wiss, Janney, Eltsner and Associates have been scaling the surface trying to keep the massive slabs of stone together.

This weekend, the Washington Post Magazine ran some stunning photos of the team at work. They reminded me of scenes from a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE film as men (and women!) dangle from cables hundreds of feet off the ground with incredibly panoramic views of the cityscape.  To view the photos as a slideshow, you have to click thru to the Post's website. They are really amazing...but then again, I'm an old DC tourguide so I live for stuff like this!

A Man-Made Earthquake Suspected In Ohio

With all the Iowa election news sucking up the air this week, there was this somewhat alarming story on Yahoo news yesterday that got lost in the Iowa rush.  The New Years day 4.0 earthquake in Ohio appears to not have been a natural seismic event but rather something potentially caused by a side effect of the controversial practice of "fracking".

CBS News did a report on this as well which you can watch here.  It's not conclusive but certainly alarming that this method of disposing water waste from fracking could be setting off fault lines. So if the world does actually end in 2012, humans may be the direct cause of it.

Washington Monument Closed Indefinitely After Earthquake

The National Park Service announced yesterday that the Washington Monument will be closed indefinitely after a survey inside of the obelisk revealed more damage than initially thought from the August earthquake.  Specifically, the top or "pyramidium" of the monument really got shaken around.  On top of that, the elevator is busted too and only can get half way up the 50 stories.

The Washington Post has the full story on this, (and this graphic which shows the problems) along with some video of the inside of the monument with tourists racing for the stairs during the earthquake as debris falls down on them.  Amazingly, no one was injured.  A full assessment of the exterior stones begins this week with man rappelling down the sides of the monument.  

The entire interior and exterior was restored in 1999 and, during that process, each stone was numbered, photographed and catalogued so that they will be able to compare their condition before and after the earthquake. It's amazing that the earthquake wrought such havoc on the monument which has been standing there since 1884.  But, unlike modern office buildings of the same height, there is no steel frame that can sway and counterbalance with the movement.  It's just stones and mortar and, when shaken up, it simply starts to fall apart.

A History of Earthquakes in NYC

As anyone with a Twitter account or Facebook found out today within seconds of it happening, there was a major earthquake along the eastern seaboard of the United States today at 1:51pm.  Centered outside a small town near Richmond called Mineral, VA, it was a 5.9 on the Richter scale.  And it was felt pretty strongly here in NYC, which does get earthquakes from time to time.  The last "big one" hit October 27, 2001 and was a 2.6.  That one was quicker than today's quake, which lasted over 30 seconds.

Back in March, the NY Daily News ran an informative piece about the history of earthquakes here in New York.  The city has had it's share of "big one"s, a 5.2 in 1884 and 1737 that originated closer to home. As for something of a magnitude of 7 or more, that is incredibly rare, happening only once ever 3,400 years.  But yesterdays event was big news anyway, seemingly amplified by all the social media tremors that were sent out in its wake.