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Earthquake hazard map for the United States (credit: USGS)

Just before 2 p.m. this afternoon, my office began to shake. At first I thought it was just another train passing by but then the shaking got stronger. Earthquake! I dived under my desk while other people ran for the stairs. The USGS quickly reported that a magnitude 5.9 5.8 quake had struck in Mineral, Virginia, about 75 miles southwest of where I sat in Washington, D.C. People reported shaking as far away as Cleveland, Toronto, Chicago and South Carolina.

When we think about earthquakes in the United States, California comes to mind. Maybe Oregon or Washington or Alaska, which also sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, or Hawaii, with its volcanic action. But those aren’t the only places where earthquakes have occurred in the United States, as you can see from this hazard map. I was actually researching this very topic as the earthquake started; Colorado, another site not known for quakes, experienced a 5.3 magnitude earthquake this morning and I had been wondering where else might be next.

The upper Midwest is seismologically pretty safe, according to the USGS, but there’s that big red and fuchsia spot in the center, where five states meet. That’s the New Madrid Seismic Zone, and four of the largest U.S. earthquakes ever (in 1699, 1811 and two in 1812) were centered there. Scientists aren’t quite sure if another big one could happen there again, but the USGS erred on the safe side in a 2009 report and remained concerned about a destructive quake.

Another fuchsia area in an unlikely spot is in South Carolina. Back in 1886, a magnitude 7.3 quake shook Charleston, killing more than 100 people. It was the largest and most destructive earthquake east of the Mississippi. The area’s fault zone has been active for thousands of years and is likely to remain so. And if a similar earthquake struck today, one simulation estimated that 900 people would be killed and the quake would cause $200 billion in damage.

Out West, Colorado gets earthquakes rarely, but Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah are more active. Montana was the site of one of the country’s most intense quakes, in 1959, when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook Yellowstone. And Nevada, too, isn’t quake-free.

New Englanders feel earthquakes once in a while, though they’re often centered farther north in Quebec, Canada. But Boston experienced a bad earthquake back in 1755, and New York City in 1884.

And what about Washington, D.C.? Well, as you can see from the map, the hazard isn’t zero, and it’s even higher in Virginia, where today’s quake happened. The ground could shake again. But next time, I probably won’t mistake it for a train.

(Oh, and all my colleagues who evacuated the building in fear? Well, that wasn’t the best strategy, as FEMA explains. If you’re inside, you should drop to the ground, take cover under something like a desk and hang on until the shaking stops. Then you can take the stairs, not the elevator, if you’re going outside.)

What would you do in an earthquake? (Credit: xkcd)

Oil spills are a far too common occurrence and whenever one happens we start to question what to do with the wildlife. Should we put in the time and effort to clean the animals up, or would it be better to just let them die? Last June, I wrote:

Some scientists, however, have questioned the value of putting so much effort into saving birds when the benefits are unclear. “It might make us feel better to clean them up and send them back out,” University of California, Davis ornithologist Daniel Anderson told Newsweek. “But there’s a real question of how much it actually does for the birds, aside from prolong their suffering.”

In a reader poll, 83 percent of you said “We should do everything we can to clean them.”

Arguing on the readers’ behalf (to save the animals) is Dyan deNapoli, in the TEDxBoston video above. DeNapoli, a penguin expert with the New England Aquarium, was called in to help when the MV Treasure, carrying iron ore from Brazil to China, sank off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa on June 23, 2000. The ship spilled hundreds of tons of fuel oil into waters close to the island homes of African penguins, and around 20,000 birds had been rescued from the contaminated waters. Luckily, deNapoli and the other scientists who traveled to South Africa to lead the effort had plenty of volunteers to help them clean and feed the birds. And, as you’ll see in the video, they had the advantage of experience, as sad as it was, from another oil spill in the penguins’ territory just six years before.

In the end, they saved about 90 percent of the birds, and after being released into the wild, those birds went on to live as long as never-oiled birds and breed nearly as successfully, deNapoli says. Chicks were even more successful, and now a local seabird rehabilitation center uses the techniques learned during the oil spill to bolster the endangered bird population by rescuing and raising abandoned chicks. Researchers also figured out that it is possible to save birds before the oil reaches them—at one point in 2000, they captured another 20,000 birds and released them several hundred miles away from their homes. By the time they swam back to the island, the oil was gone.

We’re getting better and better at cleaning up after our messes, it seems. But I still think it would be better to not mess it up in the first place.

A wild capybara by a lake in Brazil (courtesy of flickr user otherthings)

Did you hear that there’s a capybara on the loose in Los Angeles California? It’s been roaming the Paso Robles wastewater treatment plant since at least last month, possibly for years. And it’s likely to stay there–game wardens won’t do anything as long as the animal appears healthy and isn’t harming anyone or anything (though if someone decides a capybara would make a good hunting trophy, they’ll change that policy and capture the animal for its own protection).

But what is a capybara anyway?

The capybara is the world’s largest rodent and can grow four or more feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds. It’s a native of South America and though there may be a small population in Florida (established after a few animals escaped from a research facility), the Los Angeles California rodent is likely just a lonely animal who has managed to survive after escaping (or being released by) its owner. “Somebody probably brought it in as a pet, and they either got away or people couldn’t deal with it anymore,” Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan told the Los Angeles Times.

Capybaras like to hang out in semi-aquatic environments, among the dense vegetation near lakes and swamps and marshes. (Maybe a wastewater treatment plant feels like home.) They’re herbivores that feast on grasses and aquatic plants. They hide from predators by diving beneath the water’s surface, where they can stay for up to five minutes.

Solitary living is not the norm for the capybara. In the wild, they gather in groups of 10 to 20 (and up to 100 during the dry season) headed by a dominant male. They’re a social bunch that likes to chatter; when they feel threatened, capybaras bark like a dog.

Some people in South America eat capybaras (they’re numerous enough that they’re not threatened by hunting). It’s said that the meat tastes like pork.

One of Amani's five cubs at seven weeks age (Photo by: Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian's National Zoo)

If you’ve been paying attention to the goings-on at the Smithsonian Institution, you probably noticed the baby boom at the National Zoo. And one of the biggest success stories is that of the cheetah Amani, who gave birth to five cubs on May 28.

But the rest of her species isn’t doing so well. The wild cheetah population numbers only about 7,500 to 10,000 individuals (an 85 percent decline since 1900) and the captive population has had a tough time having babies. Amani’s litter will be the only captive-born cheetah litter from any North American zoo this year, and 80 percent of captive cheetahs die without producing any offspring.

Scientists are hopeful that may change, though. A new study, published in the Biology of Reproduction and led by researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, examined the eggs, hormones and uteruses of 34 captive female cheetahs. They found that once the cheetahs had reached about eight years of age, they still produced normal eggs but there were problems with their uterine tracks that would prevent pregnancy.

“We were relieved to find that, unlike in other older mammals, the eggs in older cheetahs can produce viable-appearing and growing embryos, which means we may be able to transfer them to younger cheetahs and preserve genetic diversity,” says the study’s lead author, Adrienne Crosier of the SCBI. Preserving genetic diversity is a prime concern of any breeding program, because inbreeding can contribute to higher numbers of deaths among young offspring as well as lower disease resistance.

SCBI scientists may try an embryo transfer within two years, Crosier says. And other scientists are already thinking about how to use this research to include eggs from wild cheetahs in the captive breeding program.

Check out the entire collection of Surprising Science’s Pictures of the Week and get more science news from Smithsonian on our Facebook page.

Captive zebra finches (courtesy of flickr user psmithson)

I’m sure this pains the people who take offense at the true-life tale And Tango Makes Three, but heterosexuality is not the rule in the animal world. There are hundreds of species, from bison to bunnies to beetles, that pair off in same-sex couples. (And then there are bonobos.) Birds often pair off this way, too. And now a study of zebra finches, published in Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, has found that the bonds between same-sex couples can be just as strong as those in heterosexual birds.

Zebra finches, which live in grasslands and forests of Australia and Indonesia, form pairs that last a lifetime. The males sing to their partners, and the two share a nest and clean each other’s feathers. They nestle together and greet each other by nuzzling beaks.

Researchers raised groups of zebra finches in same-sex groups, all male and all female, and in each group the majority of birds paired up. They interacted frequently and often preened their partners. And they weren’t aggressive to each other as they were to other birds in the group. These are all characteristics found in heterosexual finch couples.

The scientists then tested the bonds in the male-male couples by introducing some females to the party. A few birds were tempted by the ladies, but when the females were removed, the male-male couples reformed.

“A pair-bond in socially monogamous species represents a cooperative partnership that may give advantages for survival,” lead author Julie Elie, of the University of California Berkeley, told BBC News. “Finding a social partner, whatever its sex, could be a priority.” Having a mate could help a bird to find food or repel predators.

Elie also told BBC News, “relationships in animals can be more complicated than just a male and a female who meet and reproduce, even in birds.” Or in humans.