Cathleen O’GradyIn an earthquake zone, near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in southern California, stands a precariously balanced rock that Anna Rood has nicknamed Damaris, after her best friend. “The joke is that she’s incredibly fragile,” says Rood, a Ph.D.
student in geology at Imperial College London.She thinks Damaris has stood in place for 21,000 years, which might seem pretty sturdy.
The fact that it’s still standing means an earthquake strong enough to fell it hasn’t come along in all the time it’s been so perilously perched.