Holy Crap... EARTHQUAKE!!!

[PTPreacher]

We are also used to them up our way here on the West Coast, Eureka and Arcata, Ca. Have watched as the ground looked like ocean waves and the trees and telephone lines were bending toward the ground....(made you think it would never stop) but when it was over all was as before....strange! We have gotten to the place that we can feel earthquake weather...Usually come after a real warm couple of days, and a certain feeling in the air ....PTpreacher

[missourimule]

I woke up for the first one, but didn't really know why. I was at work for the aftershocks. They have all of the emergency lights on in the building, as if we'll forget where the doors are if there's a huge quake. lol

[GOLDMEMBER]

It was felt in Toronto, I slept right throught it here in Ontario over 500 miles away. I remember living in So. Cal and feeling the house rock and Roll.

At least it wasn't the big one the New Madrid quake of 1811 - 1812 cause the Mississippi river to change its path and shook the ground off and on for 18 months.

Here are some details of that quake, Hey we drove right over the fault at the chain of Rocks bridge.
************************************************** *************************
New Madrid Earthquake

1. Roman numerals indicate estimated Modified Mercalli intensities for a 6.5 magnitude earthquake.
   
   Based on maps in W. Atkinson, 1989, The Next New Madrid Earthquake, Southern Illinois University Press
   
   

The recent earthquake which struck Kobe, Japan, resulted in the loss of over 5000 lives and millions of dollars in property. However, large parts of the United States are also subject to large magnitude quakes - quakes which could be far more powerful than the Kobe quake! Although we tend to think of California and Alaska as the places where most of our earthquakes occur, the fact is that the central U.S. has been the site of some very powerful earthquakes.
In the past three centuries, major earthquakes outside of California and Alaska generally occurred in sparsely-settled areas, and damage and fatalities were largely minimal. But some took place in areas that have since been heavily built up. Among them are three earthquakes that occurred in 1811 and 1812 near New Madrid, MO. They are among the Great earthquakes of known history, affecting the topography more than any other earthquake on the North American continent. Judging from their effects, they were of a magnitude of 8.0 or higher on the Richter Scale. They were felt over the entire United States outside of the Pacific coast. Large areas sank into the earth, new lakes were formed, the course of the Mississippi River was changed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres. Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. "Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up" one source notes. But fatalities and damage were low, because the area was sparsely settled then.
The probability for an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater is significant in the near future, with a 50% chance by the year 2000 and a 90% chance by the year 2040. A quake with a magnitude equal to that of the 1811- 1812 quakes could result in great loss of life and property damage in the billions of dollars. Scientists believe we could be overdue for a large earthquake and through research and public awareness may be able to prevent such losses. Los Angeles can expect to be mightily damaged by movement on the San Andreas Fault, or the Newport-Inglewood or other neighboring faults, most probably within the next 25 years. But the Eastern and Midwestern states also face ground shaking of colossal proportions, repetitions of such known upheavals as the 1886 Charleston, S.C., quake, the 1755 Boston quake, and the Jamaica Bay quake hundreds of years ago on New York's Long Island. The granddaddy of them all was the 1811-1812 series of three great quakes on the New Madrid Fault (halfway between St. Louis and Memphis beneath the Mississippi), which shook the entire United States. The next time the New Madrid Fault produces such a quake, it is estimated 60 percent of Memphis will be devastated, leaving $50 Billion in damage and thousands of dead in its wake. Memphis, you see - like Armenia - has looked down the barrel of a loaded seismic gun for decades, but has done virtually nothing to move out of the crosshairs.

[Robinh]

OMG next comes rivers running in blood and a rain of toads...

[DJ RickH10]

Bet that scared the pants off ya! We havent had a major quake here in the Seattle region now since our 6.8 in Feb 01. That was the big one after having 5 "magnitude 5+'s" over the previous 4 or 5 years. The higher up you are in a building, the more shaking you're going to feel! I was up 5 stories with our first in 96 visiting a friend in the hospital. I got him out of bed and was ready to haul his butt out the doors fearing something bigger was coming.

When they announced your quake they also reported that the southern half of Oregon's "subduction zone" fault had experienced 600 minor quakes in the past 10 days! That fault runs all the way up past Vancouver BC. We've been in range for a magnitude 9 or greater for the past 18 years now. They discovered right after the last SF quake in 89 that we have a huge one approximately every 300 years! All I can say is OH baby! Whole lotta shakin' gonna be goin on!!!

[PTPreacher]

Are you guys still rocking and rolling out that way? anymore small shakes?
PTpreacher

[midcoastme]

Geez, you guys have all the fun...

[Big Kahuna]

Originally Posted by PTPreacher

Are you guys still rocking and rolling out that way? anymore small shakes?
PTpreacher

We've had a few aftershocks on Friday and Saturday morning but seem to get less and less intense as time goes on.

Looks like we can finally calm down now.

I did finally go downstairs this weekend and found a bunch of things on the floor downstairs around my workbench. At first I was wondering how the heck all that stuff got scattered all over the floor... then figured that must have fell off last week during the quake...

[missourimule]

We had another one early this morning, just after midnight...4.5. I didn't even wake up.

[Big Kahuna]

Originally Posted by missourimule

We had another one early this morning, just after midnight...4.5. I didn't even wake up.

Guess I spoke too soon.... that was our 18th aftershock....

I was still up and awake during this one last night, but I was thinking that I was making it up in my head due to all of the earthquake talk around here. I just blew off that rattling for a possible airplane over at the airport.

I had no idea that was actually an aftershock until I heard it on the news this morning.