7.1 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Up Southern California

Are you guys OK with all this going on? I've never felt an earthquake. I slept through one once, but that doesn't count.

7.1 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Up Southern California

I've been in a couple of small earthquakes.

During the 1965 Puget Sound earthquake, magnitude 6.7, I was just getting into Mark Graham's car to go to 5th grade.  The car's springs absorbed most of it, it felt like somebody jumped on the back bumper at the same time I was stepping in.  I do remember seeing waves come down the street toward the car, which was odd.  They were very low -- maybe an inch or two -- and very long, maybe a half a block long.

During the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, magnitude 6.8, I was working from home.  My office/music room was in the basement, and I'd just stood up to go upstairs.  I stood in the doorway as the whole house waved back and forth above me.  Fortunately no damage, but unfortunately I didn't get to see the streets or the ground.  I turned on the news and saw a bunch of brick storefronts had collapsed.

This most recent series in Ridgecrest was too far away for me to feel anything.

The oddest thing about being in an earthquake is the feeling that the ground underneath you isn't solid.  It's like you're standing on floating platform or a trampoline maybe.  We are so used to "the good solid earth" that when it behaves like a liquid, it just doesn't feel right.

My new house is single story, wood framed, with tie-straps and a brace wall so we should be well-positioned to withstand the next one. We're far away enough from the cliffs (the houses with views) that we shouldn't slide into the sea.

However, if my CDs come down off the shelves it'll take a lifetime to realphabetize them!

Howard's 233.6 miles from Ridgecrest, so he may not have even felt it either.

More like 170 miles in a straight line. But we felt nothing here.

Around 5,000 of the more than 7,000 earthquakes in the US last week, complements of the USGS. These cover just a very few hundred square miles. The diagonal measurement of the swarm is about 35-40 miles.

I guess we had a 4.6 quake just NE of us at 2:51 this morning.  We didn't feel it.  My daughter was awakened out of a dead sleep.

Does this mean the whole West Coast will be sliding into the sea?

NoCoPilot wrote:

Does this mean the whole West Coast will be sliding into the sea?

Nope. It's colliding. Well, no that's not 100% true. One plate is slipping under the other but it's having trouble and getting stuck. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one