We just had an Earthquake!
 

Cool! About 8 or 9 minutes ago. Sharp jolt. I'm going to check the news and see what's up. It felt like a 3 if it was close, or higher if it was in L.A.

More later.

Take care,
-Chris

Check this out

So far I've felt 3 jolts (1 quake and 2 aftershocks) if this map is right, this had to be very shallow, because I'm 40 miles from the epicenter.

More in a few.

Wow. Here in MN, no tsunamis, no volcanos, no earthquakes, no hurricanes.

We do get serious winter storms, and tornados though. Hope it winds up being minor.

I have already felt 6 aftershocks, but the website says there was 7 so far, and they ranged in depth from less than a mile to several miles.

Sky, you okay?

Take care,
-Chris

Thanks kell, but it's cool. I actually love earthquakes. I haven't felt this pumped up since my drug days. So far there hasn't been any damage, except for a few pictures off of walls, but the epicenter has some remote areas. Actually, it was within a couple miles of Hawaii Racing. I'll call Jim tomorrow and see if there was any damage (earthquake sale at Hawaii Racing!!)

15 aftershocks so far, but I haven't felt any in 20 minutes or longer. A guy on the news is calling this an aftershock of the 1994 Northridge earthquake! That's kinda lame, IMO. Anyway, it's been fun!

Take care,
-Chris

Yeah I heard on TV you had 3. The biggest was a 4.3. Supposedly aftershocks from the 1994 earthquake. :rolleyes: I have my fingers crossed for you guys. Stay safe....

Earthquakes...That's scarry dude. If I could fly, I guess it'd be diff,...but I can't...

Unit have you seen a tornado in real life. I want to, but then again, I don't want to....

Chris...

Just in case you ever decide to get the hell out of california, we have lots of great sprintcar tracks herein the middle of the country, where there are no earthquakes, and no chance of sliding off into the Pacific ocean..hehe
:D

Damn i didn't get to feel any of them down here. Quess they weren't strong enough to reach me. I know what u mean pkrwud earthquakes can be fun.

Yeah I like earthquakes too, kinda shakes you up and gives a litle excitment.

But I didnt feel a damn thing. My friend called me and asked if I did, but I didnt notice anything.

So I dont know?

Skyler

Fox Body,

You oughta come spend a spring with me here in West Texas. We'll go chace a few twisters. It has really become second nature to watch the sky around here, although the last couple of years have been fairly quiet. I've had tornados jump my house, and I actually watched one touch down in the field behind my house. That was the most sinister sight I have ever seen in my life. The wall cloud came in from the west and pretty much stopped above us. You could look right into the heart of it...spinning and churning like a cauldron. Dirt devels were kicking up all around the house. You could look out any window of the house and see 2-3 of 'em. Give me shivers thinking about it. A few years later, we were driving to town, and noticed a bunch of traffic coming out of town and going down towards my neighbor's house. We looked over, and the house was all but gone. That tornado came within 2 miles of our house, and we didn't even know it. No warnings or anything. Anyway, it keeps the adrenaline going.

PKRWUD,

Glad it wasn't a big one. I know exactly how you feel, though. Getting pumped up and the adrenaline flowing. Severe weather does the same to me. Take care and God bless.

--nathan

Sky-
I'm right across Victoria from the Govt. Center, and there is a fault line that runs from Valencia to the ocean, along the 126 freeway. Because of that, whenever they have an earthquake in that area, I feel it. I was in my office in the basement, sitting at my Mac, when it felt like getting rear-ended in a car. It was a very sharp jolt. The after shocks weren't as sharp, but I still felt several of them. If I had been in bed, it would have been worse because my bedroom is on the third floor! Still, it was cool.

Everyone else-
Tornados are what scares me. I love earthquakes. They're actually fun. The destruction you see on TV is usually limited to a few small areas, not much bigger than a city block, or two. The news coverage catches it from every possible angle, though, and makes it look like every building in town is destroyed. The advantage to living here, unlike the south east, or the tri-state area (N.Y./N.J./Conn.), is that most of our buildings and bridges have all been either designed with earthquake safety in mind, or have been retrofitted. I seriously fear for the people of NYC when they get their "big one". They have recently been having mild quakes, and are not prepared for anything serious. If the quake(s) we had last night happened there, thousands would have died. Back to tornados, I have only seen one, in person, in my life, and it was the most scared I have ever been. Anyway, thank you for all the well wishes, I do appreciate them alot! I was just sitting at my Mac building a website for someone when it happened, and I wanted to share it with my family, which includes all of you.

Thanks again.

Take care,
-Chris

Here you go. This is a graphic showing the areas that felt it. Sky, you should have. You're in it. Oh well, better luck next time.

Take care,
-Chris

http://www.trinet.org/shake/9753485/intensity.gif

That graphic is pretty cool. We live about ten miles "New Madrid" Fault line. WE are also waiting for "The Big One". Fortunately being farm country, we dont have many building over about 6 stories other than a bank or two. nbot even the hospitals are that tall. Were waiting. researchers say there hasnt been a signifigant quake here since the mid 1800's or something like that.

How close are you to San Diego. I have some friends that live there and I know nothing at all about California geography.

Brad

Looking at the attached map, San diego is at the lower left corner of California, right where the Mexican border, California and the ocean meet. I am just to the left of the cluster of earthquake marks just above there (red & blue big ones). In fact, the blue one in the ocean was at Santa Cruz Island, which is just off the coast from Ventura. I can see it from 100 yards away from my front door. San Diego is probably 200 miles away, or less.

Take care,
-Chris

http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/index_map.gif

A few years later?? What do you mean a few years later?!? Crap, if that was me, my skinny behind would've been outta there dude. :eek: :D My worst nightmares have tornados in them (seriously). Screw that.

Hey, I wouldn't mind visiting west Texas, see a few tornados from a distance, wisper a few "ooohh, aaaaah's" and then skidadle all the way back to the safe, tornado-free south east :D.

Man I wish I could have been there, I would love to experience one of those. I would also like to see a twister and I am still waiting for a good hurricane to come through florida.

The last hurricane we hade come close and we got winds around 60 mph here and I was out in the rain playing in the wind.

The rain kind of stings when it hits your face but it was still fun; and really cold. My friends thought I was nuts but I love that kind of stuff.

I just happened to be visiting my Mom and Grandmother in Florida when Floyd came through. They live just south of Cocoa Beach, and we were evacuated to Orlando. When we saw on the news (from the safety of a Holiday Inn in Orlando/Kissimmee) that the storm wiped out the pier at Cocoa Beach, we became concerned. Ended up just breaking a few trees off right at the roofline, and ripped the TV cable out of the roof of their house.

Earthquakes are more fun. So far.:D

Take care,
-Chris

Hehe,

I grew up with that kinda stuff. I've been carried to the basement while I was asleep in the middle of the night like you see at the begining of the movie Twister. I've seen hail stones the size of grapefruit. I've seen it hail golf ball size hail for two hours straight. The drains of the underpasses clogged up with ice and the underpasses filled with water and hail stones. Cars were floating in what looked to be a giant slushy. That same storm burried cars under overpasses. Seriously. They stopped under the overpass to get some protection, and the hail drifted up like snow. It burried the cars up to the roofs. They had to get bulldozers to get them out. The hail storm that ripped through Fort Worth in 1995 had light-bulb size stones with spikes like a mace. A stone actually punched through the hood of a parked car.

I won't lie to you. As many storms and tornados as I've seen, they still scare the living piss out of me. But it also gives a huge rush. The main thing is knowing what signs to look for. You gotta read the sky to know what's going on. Otherwise, they'll catch you with your pants down. The neighbor's house that got hit a couple of years back...they were napping on Sunday afternoon. The both heard the noise at the same time and Robert yelled at his wife to get in a closet. They both jumped into the same closet about 2 seconds before the twister hit. It was the only part of the house left fully standing with a roof. And that was a sissy little F2...maybe a weak F3. Not anywhere near the power of the one that hit Oklahoma City a few years ago. In that storm, even a basement wouldn't have saved your life. A storm of similar magnitude ripped through a large ranch in South West Texas a couple of weeks after OK. It was a very large area with no population, so no one was injured. However, they found cattle...dead...completely stripped of their skin. That's some crazy *** power.

Ahh well, enough of my story telling. I've got a lifetime of weather stories. Oh, and I actually almost felt an earthquake once. It originated somewhere in New Mexico. Tremors were felt as far as West Texas. Unfortunately, it occured like at 2:00 am and no one was awake to feel it. Can you imagine the power of the one that hit the Mississippi river valley a couple of hundred years ago. Powerful enough to make the entire Mississippi river jump its banks and change course. And the river flowed backwards for weeks. Crazy stuff we live with. Maybe we all oughta move to the moon.

--nathan

YIKES!!!! :O
 

HHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! WHY DOES THIS NOT SURPRISE ME???? The thought of the earth opening up and swallowing me whole does not appeal to me too terribly much!!! I"ll take a hurricane or a flood ANY DAY!!!!! Guess cause i've been through about 5 or so major ones that I can think of!!!!! Guess its all what your used to!!!!! Your coast gets hammered by Earthquakes, my coast by Hurricanes and floods!!! ALTHOUGH, I do think it would be WAYYYYYYY COOOOL TO SEE A TORNADO!!!! I've always thought about that. I used to dream about them chasing me!! Maybe I should have been a storm chaser instead of a hairdresser????? ahhahahahhaah. Thats crazy!!! We've had a few around here, but i've never seen one in real life. I love watching them on TV.
So, did stuff rattle and fall off the shelves like they do in the movies???? :D

Re: YIKES!!!! :O
 

Not at my place. There were reports of pictures falling, and stuff like that, but I just felt like someone shoved the back of my chair. What was kinda cute was that at first, I thought it had to be one of my cats jumping on the back of my chair, so I spun around to see who it was, and the two that were in my office at the time were cuddled together on a chair behind me, looking at me like I had pushed them. It was then that I realized it was an outside force.

It was very cool, but I prefer the "rolling" earthquakes. See, it kinda works like this: There are two types, depending on where you are in relation to the fault. If you are located inline with the fault, you get a sharp jolt, but if you are perpendicular to the fault, then they tend to be rolling, kinda like on a waterbed. Those are alot more fun because they last longer. As far as the earth opening up, that doesn't happen very often. Most of the quakes are underground, and never actually break the surface of the earth. Some do, but not many.

Take care,
-Chris

Hey Pony Power.

When was that quake at the Madrid Fault. Wasnt it 1812. They said the Mississipi stopped flowing for a few hours that day.

If I remember correctly, that was a pretty big shaker on the Rictor scale. When ever I ask someone about that Quake, that supposedly knows Natural Diasters, they look at me like I'm smoking Crack.

Mercury,

Yeah, that's the one I was referring to in the end of my last reply. If my information is correct, the river actually flowed backwards for a while.

Here's a firsthand account of the earthquakes of New Madrid (Missouri) of 1811 written by Eliza Bryan. There were three major quakes which were classified as magnitude-8 earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks:

"On the 16th of December, 1811, about 2 o'clock, A.M., we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake, accompanied by a very awful noise, resembling loud but distant thunder, but more hoarse and vibrating, which was followed in a few minutes by the complete saturation of the atmosphere, with sulphurious vapor, causing total darkness. The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go or what to do, the cries of the fowls and beasts of every species, the cracking of trees falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi, the current of which was retrograde for a few minutes, owing, as is supposed, to an erruption in its bed, formed a scene truly terrible.

From that time until about sunrise a number of lighter shocks occurred, at which time one still more violent than the first took place, with the same accompaniments, and the terror which had been excited in every one, and indeed in all animal nature, was now, if possible, doubled. The inhabitants fled in every direction to the country, supposing (if it can be admitted that their minds can be exercised at all) that there was less danger at a distance from than near the river. In one person, a female, (Mrs. Lafont), the alarm was so great that she fainted, and could not be revived.

There were several shocks a day, but lighter than those already mentioned, until the 23d of January, 1812, when one occurred, as violent as the severest of the former ones, accompanied by the same phenomena as the former.

From this time until the 4th of February the earth was in a continual agitation, visibly waving as a gentle sea. On that day there was another shock, nearly as hard as the proceeding ones; next day four such, and on the 7th, about 4 o'clock A.M., a concussion took place so much more violent than those which had preceeded it, that it was denominated the hard shock. The awful darkness of the atmosphere which, as formerly, was saturated with sulphurous vapor, and the violence of the tempestuous thundering noise that accompanied it, together with all of the other phenomena mentioned as attending the former ones, formed a scene, the description of which would require the most sublimely fanciful imagination.

At first the Mississippi seemed to recede from its banks, and its water gathered up like a mountain, leaving, for a moment, many boats which were here on their way to New Orleans, on the bare sand, in which time the poor sailors made their escape from them. It then rising fifteen or twenty feet perpendicularly, and expanding, as it were, at the same moment, the bank overflowed with a retrograde current rapid as a torrent. The boats, which before had been left on the sand, were now torn from their moorings, and suddenly driven up a little creek, at the mouth of which they laid, to the distance, in some instances, of nearly a quarter of a mile. The river, falling immediately as rapidly as it had risen, receded within its banks again with such violence that it took with it whole groves of young cottonwood trees which ledged its borders...."


Crazy Stuff.

--nathan

I didnt feel any of it but i am pretty far away hehe. I havent felt a earthquake in a long time. I miss them they are cool. I remember when i lived in Monterey in like 88 or 89 i think we had one where you could actually see the street rolling. It was pretty cool LOL. Hey pony power do your friends drive mustangs? Do you know if they are in the San Diego Mustang club if they do? I think it would be interesting if I know them from the club hehe.

Later