There is a particular feeling of helplessness that comes with being a seismologist when a disaster like the Nepal earthquake happens. I spend most of my day thinking about earthquakes in some capacity; I get a couple of alerts a day from the USGS about M3s and 4s in Oklahoma and think, ooh, data, or a M6 hundreds of kilometers deep where it will never be felt, but waking up to a 7.8 last Saturday provoked a moment of both clarity and confusion – that this one was going to mean something real and something terrible. Continue reading →