Patterico's Pontifications

12/30/2009

Earthquake Near Mexicali

Filed under: Current Events — DRJ @ 12:15 pm

[Guest post by DRJ]

The USGS confirms there was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake south of Mexicali, Mexico, which is on the California-Mexico border just east of San Diego.

This Fox News report has more on the quake. Any readers feel it?

– DRJ

29 Comments

  1. i got nothing here in the Valley….

    Comment by redc1c4 — 12/30/2009 @ 12:20 pm

  2. Neal Mexicali? The guy who was in the Tijuana Brass?

    Comment by Official Internet Data Office — 12/30/2009 @ 12:23 pm

  3. Heh. Thanks, OIDO. I mixed up my “l”s with my “r”s. I don’t know how I did that but I’ve fixed it now.

    Comment by DRJ — 12/30/2009 @ 12:28 pm

  4. Yep, I felt it in Ensenada too

    Comment by Keith Irvine — 12/30/2009 @ 12:38 pm

  5. I’ve been to Mexicali and I gotta think a 5.8 is less pleasing in Mexicali than it is in Calexico (if I spelled that right). Not pretty streets and not-so-hot buildings.

    Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 12:47 pm

  6. not to worry DRJ: when i first read it, i saw 8.5, and was wondering why i hadn’t felt it….

    Comment by redc1c4 — 12/30/2009 @ 12:50 pm

  7. 5.8 is a pretty good shake. One quick bump and it’s over almost before you know it, but if the shaking goes on for half a minute or so, it can empty your kitchen cabinets, or even bring down brick or adobe walls.

    BTW, Calexico/Mexicali is about 125 miles east of San Diego area. Tecate is the border crossing just east of San Ysidro.

    Comment by ropelight — 12/30/2009 @ 1:27 pm

  8. I mixed up my “l”s with my “r”s.

    <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning Japanese?

    Nothing felt in my bunker in Far North San Diego. The border fence works. Who knew? Maybe they’ll have to back down the 5.8 number like they always do the growth rate figure. That has to be the humblest 5.8 I’ve ever experienced. Didn’t even make it to Rancho Bernardo.

    Comment by political agnostic — 12/30/2009 @ 1:28 pm

  9. “… just east of San Diego…”

    If your idea of “just” is approximately one-hundred miles after crossing three 4000+’ summits on I-8, and then going below sea-level in the Imperial Valley?

    Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 12/30/2009 @ 1:29 pm

  10. I take it back. The earth moved right when I was typing in the last part of the link to the Vapors and their Turning Japanese song from the 80s.

    Comment by political agnostic — 12/30/2009 @ 1:31 pm

  11. AD, in TX, 100 miles is a trip to the grocery store.

    Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 1:33 pm

  12. When the westernmost part of TX is closer to the Pacific than it is to the easternmost part…
    When Chicago is closer to Texarkana than El Paso is…

    Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 1:35 pm

  13. Well, not quite.
    My memory of TX is that everything seemed to be about 40-miles away in every direction – but that’s what you get being in a “dry” county.

    But, my point was that Mexicali is as far from San Diego as San Diego is from Los Angeles, but with a harder road. There is a reason that they’re not planning on building any border-fence from just east of the Otay Mesa crossing to Jacumba … it is very tough country. If you ever take I-8 west from El Centro, you’ll wonder how anyone got over those mountains a Century ago.

    Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 12/30/2009 @ 1:40 pm

  14. AD,

    John is right. I’ve driven 100 miles just to go to dinner. Plus, where I live, we’re 300 miles from anything.

    Comment by DRJ — 12/30/2009 @ 1:40 pm

  15. I don’t remember whether I drove I-8 but I was a trucker back around ‘90 and I did drive a load of taco shells from Calexico to Rancho Cucamonda. And I prolly butchered the spelling. I remember thinking that was beautiful country. Postcard beauty, even.

    Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 1:44 pm

  16. Rancho Cucamonga? ‘burb of LA.

    Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 1:44 pm

  17. Gee, I never knew San Angelo was such a metropolitan center?

    Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 12/30/2009 @ 1:44 pm

  18. NG felt that here in LA. She said hey did you feel anything I said nope and she said she thought she felt something. Then we talked about how long it’s been since we really had some shaky shaky. We’re on the top floor of our building so maybe that’s why she could feel it.

    Comment by happyfeet — 12/30/2009 @ 1:45 pm

  19. The Mexican Beans dey is a jumpin today!

    They have had almost a dozen quakes today!

    Living a mile high, 4000′ hills seem like a downer to me. :)

    Comment by TC — 12/30/2009 @ 1:46 pm

  20. Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 1:44 pm

    Well, you probably took either 111 or 86 north along the Salton Sea until reaching I-10 in the Palm Springs area. Banning Pass west of PS isn’t much of a bump, not like the climb out of the Imperial Valley – a steady 6-7% from sea-level to 4000′ in about 15 miles of climb-arounds.

    Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 12/30/2009 @ 1:55 pm

  21. Sister still lives in El Centro and works at a car dealership. Rocked rather well. They had some architectural damage (broken ceiling tile). Said that there is some damage down in Mexicali; I would presume that’s the buildings that are URM.

    Comment by David in San Diego — 12/30/2009 @ 3:07 pm

  22. I was in the area on a business trip to promote an iphone app called “Mexicali” – it was a frightful experience to feel the 5.8 tremor!

    [note: fished from spam filter. --Stashiu]

    Comment by Tracy — 12/30/2009 @ 3:31 pm

  23. “If your idea of “just” is approximately one-hundred miles after crossing three 4000+’ summits on I-8, and then going below sea-level in the Imperial Valley?
    Comment by AD – RtR/OS! — 12/30/2009 @ 1:29 pm”

    I was thinking the same thing. When I read it was near San Diego, then it said Mexicali, I was wondering which map they were looking at. We felt it in Yuma. Seemed a little stronger than we normally feel from Mexicali or El Centro.

    Comment by PatAZ — 12/30/2009 @ 4:03 pm

  24. Hopefully it destroyed those tunnels they’ve been using to smuggle las drogas across the border.

    Comment by GeneralMalaise — 12/30/2009 @ 4:23 pm

  25. I didn’t feel this morning’s earthquake at the border, however, we just had a little shaker, 1.3 magnitude. Correction: California Seismic Net tells me it’s called a microearthquake. Not quite big enough for the real deal, but big enough to startle the dogs.

    Comment by Dana — 12/30/2009 @ 4:29 pm

  26. I spent the day getting rained on in Santa Monica and felt nothing except for cold and a frustration at myself for failing to wear socks.

    Comment by aphrael — 12/30/2009 @ 10:40 pm

  27. Hawai’i gets the shakes from time to time, too. Just not usually at the 5.8 level.

    Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 11:55 pm

  28. Oh, that first link came from this page.

    Comment by John Hitchcock — 12/30/2009 @ 11:58 pm

  29. [...] MEXICO Earthquake near Mexicali [...]

    Pingback by Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » The first 2010 Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean — 1/4/2010 @ 12:53 pm

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