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Aftershocks, those who live through major earthquakes often say, are worse than
the main shock in their own way. At least the main shock took them by surprise
and was over fairly soon, in less than a minute usually. But with aftershocks,
people are stressed already, dealing with disrupted lives and cities. They expect
aftershocks at any minute, day or night. When a building is damaged by the main
shock, aftershocks can take it downmaybe when you're inside cleaning it up. No
wonder Susan Hough, the government seismologist who gets in the news
whenever temblors do, calls aftershocks "ghosts of earthquakes past."
Second, aftershocks don't necessarily get smaller as time passes. They get fewer,
but sizable ones can happen long after most of the little ones have ended. In
Southern California, this phenomenon aroused so much concern after the
Northridge quake of 17 January 1994 that Hough wrote an op-ed piece for
the Los Angeles Times on the subject three full years later.