A Nice Little Earthquake

[PetersCreek]

Who needs an alarm clock? The Wife® and I awoke to a smallish 4.89M earthquake at 5:18 this morning. Quakes of this size aren't really a big deal but this one was close and shallow, so it was a fun little ride.

It was what I call a rumble-banger. It started off as a gradually building vibration then right in the middle of it, there was a sharp bang-like tremor...and then it just slowly faded away. What with the pots clanging on the rack still swinging from the ceiling, it was hard to know exactly when it was over.

Here's a link to quake info (http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/Seis/recenteqs_sub/quakes/2006208_evid136019/evid136019.html) from the Alaska Earthquake Information Center.

Their maps suck, though, so I Google mapped the earthquake location (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=61.1494,+-149.5856&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=61.145886,-149.429169&spn=0.402271,1.549072&t=h).

For reference, here's the house in Peters Creek (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=61.40633,+-149.4231&ie=UTF8&ll=61.320361,-149.512939&spn=0.800095,3.098145&t=h&om=1). I'm guesstimatin' that it was about 22 miles SSE of us.

[BigDon]

Hey Pete, we got a cute little fault in my home town too. (Not the San Andreas) Gave us a couple of little shakes in the past few months. You can tell when they are close when the S and the P waves hit near simultaniously. Like the flash and bang of thunder and lightening.

Hope nothing was broken. (Did you check your gas and plumbing connections? How about your chimney? Better check that before you light your next fire.)

BD

[PetersCreek]

Yep, I performed the requisite walk-around afterwards but it wasn't quite enough of a shaker to break anything. And we don't have a proper chimney, really...just the flue for the wood-burning stove. I'm not concerned about it, really but it gets an annual, end-of-summer inspection and cleaning anyway. So, it'll be fit for duty before the first fire.

Having lived in Alaska for going on eight years, I've been through a few quakes but I'm not sure I could tell the difference between the S and P waves.

[BigDon]

As an experienced "Earth surfer" I can say that the S and P waves (Primary and Secondary) are distinct and easy to tell apart. "P" waves are the rumble and the ones that give you that kind of queasy feeling underfoot and the sharp jolts and "bangs" are the "S" waves.

[Gillianren]

We don't get a lot of little quakes here, but the last time we had a good-sized one, I correctly estimated its Richter scale rating. Then, in a roomful of terrified Washingtonians, I got into an argument over the phone about whether the Whittier quake or the Rose Bowl one had been first. (Whittier. My sister was so wrong!)

The only problem is that, given that we go so long between little quakes, I get paranoid at times about big ones.

[ToSeek]

I experienced a quake at home when I was growing up, getting bounced around on my bed with box springs. But when I went downstairs, no one else had noticed.

[Gillianren]

I was babysitting in an earthquake once. At the commercial (yeah, I'm from LA!), I went upstairs to check on the kids, but they slept through it. Then again, since it hadn't been bad enough to interrupt Star Trek, I figured it was minor enough so they would. (New episode of TNG, in fact.)

[mugaliens]

I've been in a couple of doozies, including the SF earthquake in 1989 (I was in Sacremento at the time) and another in Portland, around 1992 (again, nearby, but definately rocked my world).

[mickal555]

About 5 years ago there was a load bang/boom at about 11pm, I missed it cause I was listening to music at the time, but my mum heard it. It turned out to be an earthquake...
Only one I've ever been near...

[BigDon]

Well we had a nice little shaker tonight. Got my 55gal aquarium rocking, but I haven't checked the earthquake sites yet so I don't know the power.

[01101001]

Well we had a nice little shaker tonight. Got my 55gal aquarium rocking, but I haven't checked the earthquake sites yet so I don't know the power.

Must be Magnitude 4.4 - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 2006 August 3 03:08:12 UTC (http://www.earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc40187964.php)
03 August 2006 03:08:12 UTC - Event 40187964 Shake Map (http://www.earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/shakemap/nc/shake/40187964/)

[BigDon]

Thanks 01!

I guessed it at about 4.2 'cause my fishtank weighs over 500lbs. and it lasted a bit too. There was a small tremor just before the bigger one hit.

[Tobin Dax]

I've been in a couple of doozies, including the SF earthquake in 1989 (I was in Sacremento at the time) and another in Portland, around 1992 (again, nearby, but definately rocked my world).
That one in March of 1992, that was centered outside of Salem IIRC, is the only one I've really been through. It was interesting getting woken up at 5am with the house shaking.
(I think we're talking about the same one, but this may have been a year or two later.)

[Pleiades]

Well we had a nice little shaker tonight. Got my 55gal aquarium rocking, but I haven't checked the earthquake sites yet so I don't know the power.

For a 4.4 it made my house creak and wiggle, even had some table items shake a bit. It was all the p wave motion that lasted not quite 5 seconds here in Alameda.