Our little corner of Alaska has been very busy this last week…more specifically the earth in this little corner!
On Monday or Tuesday this last week, I went out for my run to the beach. Right after I hit my turn around point, a very thick ocean mist started rolling in off the sea. Not long after I got home, the mist had completely enveloped Pilot Point in a thick fog.
The next day we found out that it wasn’t just an ocean mist, but that the volcano Pavlof had erupted over the weekend and we were getting remnants of the ash!
It was pretty wild. We didn’t see much more ash in the sky, but today on the beach we noticed there’s quite a bit of charcoal-like rocks that must have washed up. Pavlof is farther down on the chain (south west) about 200 miles. It’s crazy to me that it made it this far! But, you know, I’m not really well versed in volcano eruptions…
Aaaaaaand then…
Last night we felt an earthquake! Ben and I were just lounging and reading and the house started shaking. It truthfully wasn’t that bad but I was terrified! I am so grateful for Ben- he stayed level headed and just said, “Well, let’s get outside in case it gets worse.” When we got onto our porch, we paused and I couldn’t tell if the ground was still shaking or not because my legs were shaking so bad! Ha! As far as I could tell, it only lasted about 10 or 15 seconds. You can read more about it here. Alaska, like many other coastal places, has earthquakes fairly often, and one source I found said that there have been over 9,000 earthquakes in Alaska just this year! Alaska is pretty ginormous and all the earthquakes had varying magnitudes, but still very crazy!
Random psychology fact: in one of my college classes we learned about human responses to disasters and crises. In movies, responses to disasters are always portrayed with people running around screaming. In reality, only about 15% of people respond this way. 70% of people will just stay where they are, frozen with fear or just not knowing what they should do. The last 15% are the ones that will actually respond in an effective way.
Apparently, I’m incredibly average. Luckily my husband is a doer and has my back 🙂
pineconesandcactus.com 
You live in a wild wilderness!! After reading this Matt and I did the what if game. What if there was an earthquake, who would freak out more? Matt would. What if Yvonne fell down and got hurt, who would freak out more? Heather. What if a bee flew in the house, who would freak out more? Matt. You get the picture! Matt is more irrational. BUT in an earthquake I would most likely freeze too! Stay safe y’all!
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Such an adventure! Glad you guys are safe!
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So scary! Once we were evacuated from a campsite because of a huge fire…and I’m definitely not the calm one. Adam and Seth are the ones you want around during a natural disaster. Glad you are all safe! I’ll probably (actually, I’m hoping I will) just pass out when the big Utah earthquake happens.
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Woah! That’s sure some adventure you’ve got going on up there! I’m so glad you share it with us!
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Yikes! Craziness all around! Pretty sure Spencer would be levelheaded and I’d be a wreck. I dint think I’ve ever seen spencer panic!
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