Patterico's Pontifications

6/14/2010

Earthquake

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:13 pm



We had an earthquake a few minutes ago. It was very mild here in Rancho Palos Verdes. The chair in front of the computer wobbles a bit. I felt the slight rocking and called out “Earthquake!” but everyone else was upstairs and the dryer was on, which makes noise (we keep the door to the garage open because of the stupid cat), so nobody heard me. Then I figured maybe I imagined it and went looking on the Web for information and could find none.

Then DRJ e-mailed to say happyfeet had felt it.

The early report says it was a 5.7 at about 9:30 near the Mexican border. I didn’t really note the time because I wasn’t sure it was for real but I thought it was at 9:40 or 9:50, something even like that. Did I feel an aftershock?

I still can’t find anything on the official earthquake maps. They must be slow tonight, or I must be clicking on the wrong ones.

Your feedback is welcome.

33 Responses to “Earthquake”

  1. Oh yes, I felt it here in Sandy Eggo. A bit more and I’d have been worried. Stirred, but not shaken.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (fb9e90)

  2. Happyfeet provided links but I can’t match the times to what I noticed. I immediately went to Twitter and saw nothing. After red mocked me for noting a 3.0 here in RPV I thought I should keep my mouth shut unless I knew for sure. But the 3.0 here was way sharper than the 5.7 at the border. This was barely noticeable.

    Bradley, did you note the time?

    Patterico (c218bd)

  3. Here’s a link to the recent CA/NV earthquake map and a link to a list of the earthquakes on that map. The second link shows a lot of earthquakes in that region in the past 24 hours, but only two significant ones with magnitudes of 5.7 and 4.5.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  4. Didn’t feel it in Redondo. ESPN just showed it at the Padres-Blue Jays game and how it affected the downtown ballpark. Sounds like it shook for several seconds there.

    JVW (36eb17)

  5. Ah, turns out Twitter was down!

    So that answers THAT.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  6. It’s listed here, now.

    Click on the time and you’ll get the tabs.

    Dusty (109a16)

  7. my wall made a loud crack and then I felt it… I’m on the third floor so it’s easier to feel … the best sense of the time would be maybe three minutes from before the timestamp on my comment maybe cause I messaged a friend first what has a dangerously heavy mirror over his couch

    happyfeet (19c1da)

  8. The times look strange because the USGS provides time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). “Seismologists use UTC to avoid confusion caused by local time zones and daylight savings time.”

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  9. Sorry, it wasn’t any 26 minutes after the hour. What I felt was either 40 or 50 after the hour.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  10. At least that’s how I remember it. But again, I wasn’t paying close attention.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  11. Okay, but happyfeet first mentioned it at 9:31 PM Pacific time after waiting a few minutes to email someone else first.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  12. DRJ/Patterico, there have been several other ones on lesser magnitude. If you click on each in this list (the time stamp) and go to the tabbed section, it will note the local time.

    Dusty (109a16)

  13. Maybe it was. I remember looking at some report of something at 8 minutes past the hour and it was off. Maybe it was 30 minutes past the hour.

    Damn redc1c4! He has me scared to say anything. I almost posted right on the dot.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  14. I don’t look at the USGS that often. Is it normal to have 1.0-4.0 magnitude earthquakes in that area every 2-3 minutes? Because that’s what it looks like now.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  15. I don’t think it is normal at all. The ground seems very unstable there right now.

    I have felt nothing since that 7-8 second minor roll either 30, 40, or 50 past the hour.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  16. [Comment by DRJ โ€” 6/14/2010 @ 10:31 pm]

    I don’t look at the M2.5-4.5 much at all, DRJ, because there are so many of them and there would be dozens upon dozens after a 5+. But even without a 5+, the West Coast can have dozens each day in the lower magnitude.

    Dusty (109a16)

  17. Dusty,

    You’re probably right but there are 40 shown in just the last hour centered around Ocotillo CA. That seems like a lot for one place.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  18. Patterico, I sent a text message while it was happening at 9:27.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (fb9e90)

  19. This was just like 9/11?

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  20. 5.7…. 4.3….. please.

    until the East German judge holds up at least a 6.5, spare me.

    DRJ: that many after a decent quake is absolutely normal, and this is more than likely an aftershock from the one in Mexico awhile back.

    its all part of living on the union of two major continental plates. if it makes y’all feel better, 2131 is right about when HRH asked if we;d had a quake, since it rocked the bed. i felt nada being up and about.

    the unshakeable redc1c4 (fb8750)

  21. We got a bit of a rockin’ and a rollin’ here in Temecula and the water in our pool was sloshing with a wave that went from one end to the other. I heard 5.7 centered near Ocotillo.

    Sara (Pal2Pal) (4d3f49)

  22. I didn’t feel a thing. However, there is a peculiar commonality — growing over the past 12 or more months — among quite a few so-called psychics or pre-cognitives that 2010 is a watermark year for this part of the country. But perhaps it’s a case of their being not so much affected by mass hysteria, as much as a case of one person triggering another person?

    I have to sound skeptical in order to not also sound gullible or ridiculous. But I’ve seen and read some things from a wide range of people, including those who have a surprisingly good track record in peering into the future (and a mystifying phenomenon at that) that makes me believe something is up in the air.

    All I can say is if people in southern California have valuable breakables in their house, it wouldn’t necessarily be an overreaction to place them in a secure location over the next several months.

    Mark (411533)

  23. A very slow roll here in Downey @ 2126. Ch-9’s initial report a few minutes later said the epicenter was along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Jacumba-Coyote Wells area. Initially a 5.9, downgraded to a 5.7!

    AD - RtR/OS! (780d5b)

  24. How the heck do you folks get used to that? I’d be freaking out (I live in NJ).

    JEA (dffa7e)

  25. Hmmm. I never felt a thing. ๐Ÿ™‚

    The Dana in Pennsylvania (3e4784)

  26. And the cat isn’t stupid. After all, he’s trained you to leave the door open for him! ๐Ÿ™‚

    The feline Dana (3e4784)

  27. How the heck do you folks get used to that? Iโ€™d be freaking out (I live in NJ).

    How the heck do you get used to living in NJ? I’d be freaking out.
    ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (fb9e90)

  28. Heh. Bradley, I agree, and I’ve never even watched “Jersey Shore”~

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  29. Between the Real Housewives of NJ and Jersey Shore, it boggles the mind to think that they could not get used to a little rumbling.

    JD (b2079e)

  30. Have you considered the possibility that the cat isn’t the stupid one? ๐Ÿ™‚

    Anon Y. Mous (c5978e)

  31. Boehlert and Google and PayPal

    enoch_root (9548cd)

  32. I was sitting on my couch watching tv in Yuma, AZ, when it started a slow roll, which seemed to last several seconds. If it hits on/near the border, we usually feel it here. Sometimes it’s hard to tell, so I look at the on/off strings on my ceiling fans. Yes, they were swinging back and forth. If the house doesn’t start creaking, I just ignore it.

    PatAZ (9d1bb3)

  33. DRJ

    After the 7.2 near Victoria Guadalupe, there were more than 3200 aftershocks in the first week. In the weeks since then there have been nearly 15,000 additional aftershocks. But the interesting thing is to look at the distribution of those aftershocks. They were initially centered on the immediate areal around the initial quake. But they have been gradually working their way north north-west and now are primarily centered around Ocotillo and the fault lines north of there. We are also seeing earthquakes on unconnected faults such as off shore west of San Diego and just north of Barrego Springs. This last area has been very quiet for many years but has suddenly gotten much more active.

    Basically when the earthquake happened in Mexico it released stress at that one point but the sudden motion just transferred some of that stress further up the fault line and into adjacent faults. Expect to see more quakes in this region as many of these faults have been judged ready to go for some time. Not saying that there will be “the Big One” but expect more small to medium quakes for months to come.

    An interesting side note. The southern edge of the Salton Sea had been plagued with hundreds of micro-quakes per week for months before the 7.2 in Mexico. There have been none in that area since.

    Jay Curtis (8f6541)


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