Crying and Earthquakes

I finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night and when I reached the part where the major character dies tears were falling so hard that I couldn't even see the book. And I was wondering why I let myself get so involved in stuff like this. I know the characters aren't actually alive, and therefore, can't really die, but it made me think. Is it possible that I cry at books and movies which I know aren't real because it's easier to cry about something which is finite than to cry about something real in my own life which doesn't seem to have an ending? I mean if I let myself think too deeply about certain things in my life, I might never want to stop crying, so to release tension, I cry at Harry Potter and when it ends, my tears end. And I read a while back that when you cry you release chemicals, endorphins, protein and stress hormones, all of which is supposed to help you to feel better.

Last week I read an old (1977) book by Alistair MacLean called Goodbye California in which the main plotline was somebody using nuclear bombs to set off massive earthquakes in California. Therefore, I found this article from today's sfgate.com to be incredibly fascinating. In the book, the scientists actually explained boreholes and how they were drilling ten of them in different locations in California. This article states that they only started drilling this particular borehole a year ago, so who knows if there were boreholes being drilled back in the 70s, but it's interesting that it's come about now. At least, I think it's interesting. But I have to say that I do not miss earthquakes.