Just as earthquakes are the release of energy stored in subterranean faults, these gravitational waves were set in motion when two black holes – faults in space itself – became a single, stable object. Call it a spacequake.
Gravitational waves are already the science story of the week but if the rumours hold up they will one of the science stories of the century.
Books could and probably will be written about this saga (science writers, call your agents): there is ambition, drama, excitement, Nobel fever, science-by-media, a telescope at the South Pole, and astrophysicists so hungry for data that they analysed images lifted from in Powerpoint slides when the originals were unreleased.
Of course, we know how this sort of thing happens – it happens because "everyone knows" who the problems are, but nothing happens to stop them.
A Hollywood movie whose most memorable line is "I'm going to have to science the shit out of this" is guaranteed to get a good deal of attention from scientists.