Greeting everyone,

My name is Bryan Castillo and I am currently pursuing my master’s degree in earthquake geology. I have always had a curious passion for earthquakes, which is why I decided to dedicate my life to studying earthquakes. I absolutely love teaching people about geology and I plan to pursue a Ph.D in order to one day teach at a University. A little bit about myself other than the known obvious; I enjoy playing, watching and following baseball. I look at baseball as more than just a sport. I tend to wonder about the physics behind hitting a homerun, the exact timing of a swing, the velocity of the baseball…Ahh. I enjoy dive bars. I probably cannot live without rice. Avid beer drinker. Metalhead \m/.

Enough about me. Lets get back to Earthquakes and blogging shall we?

In my first year of grad school,  I just recently finished teaching my first introductory geology 101 laboratory. It was such an eye-opening experience, something I’d look forward to doing every Wednesday night. I am very grateful to have had the chance to teach a lab course. Due to this amazing opportunity, I finished this quarter learning some very awesome traits about myself.

1. I love to teach people, what I love to do, which is Geology. Yeah yeah, you might be thinking “Oh Bryan you are abusing the word ‘love’.” But may I ask you? Have you ever experienced “THAT FEELING!!” Yes, I am talking about “THAT FEELING”. It’s very difficult to describe this specific feeling that I felt which I am now calling “THAT FEELING”. Hence, the capital letters and the quotation marks. Let me give you an example. Because why not? That’s what we do in science. I was attempting to elaborate to my students the principles of faulting. My student (Kyle) was having a difficult time differentiating the three different types of faults. I then draw up some block diagrams of all the three different faults and explain the environmental setting of each fault. IMPORTANT: the next 10 seconds are the most important 10 seconds. I witness a beam of light, at first I have no idea where it is coming from. Is it an alien spaceship light? No! It is a combination of the big smile on Kyle’s face and the light bulb that is floating above his head. Man, that moment that these concepts of faulting finally made sense to Kyle, it’s priceless. That feel good moment, the one where you feel like an accomplished citizen is what defines “THAT FEELING”. Oh man, let me now tell you I felt “THAT FEELING” dozens of times this quarter. “THAT FEELING” confirms what I already know, that I simply enjoy the art of teaching.
2. I am going to be honest, I like to remember earthquake dates, the magnitude of the quake, and other cool facts. Week 2, was our earthquake lab. My class and I worked through the lab exercises diligently and rather quickly. Once we finished I opened up the floor to any questions they might have about earthquakes. I flashed my leather and handled each and every other question with hard facts and dates. You can say I felt pretty good about myself. Then I was officially known as “The Earthquake dude”.

So to wrap this up, I was inspired by my students, friends and family to expand my horizon and address the topic of earthquakes to people. I am intrigued by earthquakes and I want to pass on and share all this wonderful information to you my supporters. I do not look to get famous, or to make money from it, I am completely happy knowing you learned a thing or two about earthquakes from these blogs. With that, I hope you subscribe, enjoy and just be ready to learn.

Thank you all so very much!

Much Love,

Bryan Castillo