Earthquake Rumor Hits With A Jolt

Duane in Puyallup heard the earthquake rumor from two guys at work, one of whom heard it from a Federal Way woman, whose friend in a fire department supposedly heard it from an emergency services worker, who learned about it from a citizen’s fax.

Cathy in Tacoma heard the rumor from a co-worker, who heard it from a “pretty reliable source.”

So spread the latest urban myth to bedevil local public officials. In espresso lines, office cubicles and e-mails in the region, people are stewing about rumors the earth will open up in the next 48 hours and kill everyone in sight.

Now a touch of reality.

The region’s legion of seismologists are NOT predicting a humongous quake in the Puget Sound area this weekend. Such predictions are scientifically impossible, they say, and those who make them talk poppycock.

But that hasn’t gotten in the way of this bogus portent of doom.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on,” said Tom Yelin, seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle. “It didn’t start with any … scientists.”

Bill Lokey, director of emergency management for Tacoma and Pierce County, said his staff has been trying to gear up for a real emergency this weekend: floods.

But this quake stuff has buzzed away like an annoying horsefly. Secretaries have fielded a couple dozen frantic calls since Thursday.

At one point, Lokey even heard he was the source of the rumor, he recalled with some indignation.

The University of Washington seismology lab in Seattle has been bombarded with hundreds of calls, coordinator Bill Steele said.

“We’re buried,” he said. “We got a call from the House of Representatives in Olympia. We got calls from the Army Corps of Engineers in San Francisco.”

And none of the callers seem to know the origin of the rumor, UW seismologist Steve Malone said.

Stories of how it got going are almost as weird as the rumor itself. Some think it originated on late-night talk radio when a California woman called out of concern for her sister in Seattle.

Jim Berkland, a San Jose geologist who says he predicted last month’s 5.0 Puget Sound temblor, wants all to know he didn’t start it.

“I didn’t do it!”’ he blurted in a telephone interview Friday, before a reporter could even ask.

Though many scientists scoff at his claims, Berkland says he can predict quakes based on syzygy - the linear alignment of the earth, moon and sun. He said the quake rumors sound like quackery, and he plans to say so Saturday night on - you guessed it - late-night talk-radio in Seattle.

Dr. Tom Kohlenberg, a UW psychology professor, said he has a little theory about why people fall for such rumors.

Children don’t understand how the world works, so everything is mysterious. Some of this perspective may still be lurking in the minds of adults, making them susceptible to believe in the irrational or pseudo-scientific, he said.

“It’s like we have this background that lurks down below our awareness,” he said.