A whole lot of shaking going on
I have never felt an earthquake until my move to the bay area. Not that I haven’t had any opportunities. Believe it or not, the midwest does have some seismic activities due to the New Madrid fault line, the cause of what is believed to be the strongest earthquake in U.S. history. Presumed of course, the rector scale didn’t exist in 1811-12. I was 12 (I think), and there was a 4.0 earthquake, centered around southern Illinois. I don’t know how much it shook my parents house, I slept through it. So, I never felt any significant quakes until I moved to Berkeley. Now I live less than a mile from the hayward fault line. FYI, U.C. Berkeley, back in 1923, built their football stadium right on top it. They still use it every year, and every year the east half and the west half slide a minuscule amount past each other. The first earthquake I actually felt, a 3.4, occurred at 3:30pm about a month after I moved here, on my walk back to lab from getting coffee. It felt weird, like my legs got all wobbly for a second.
Last Friday night around 9pm, the latest quake hit. A 4.0 about 25 miles east. April and I were on the couch, and it felt like a Semi-truck hit the house, which was followed by some rolling aftershocks. This wasn’t the worst. So far the worst has been a 4am, 4.2 quake that was centered in Berkeley. Believe it or not, the shake didn’t wake us. I’m not sure what it was, but something woke both of us at the same time about five seconds before the quake hit. It was kind of odd, we could hear it rolling towards us, and then our apartment became a 007 martini. It was a bit scary, probably more so because we were still sleepy from just waking. It broke windows at the grocery store down the road, and made a small crack in our mirror in the bathroom.
I wondered what the Native Americans thought when the earth shook like that. It scared me, and I knew what was going on.
On a side note, counting the quake I slept through when I was young, I have been in six quakes. All of them have occurred at night, except one. It’s a small sample size, but it made me wonder if earthquakes happen more at night? I did some looking, and this is all I’ve found. Still, every time I drive across one of the many bridges here in the bay area, or when taking the train across the bay, I always think “this would be a really sucky time for a quake.”
Yikes!!! Glad you both were okay!
I’ve only felt one quake, when I was living in Seattle. But I thought that was pretty cool. Maybe not so much if they’re more frequent.
It almost sounded like you lived through the New Madrid Quake which would have made you 200 something years old. You’re aging pretty gracefully.
That’s so funny how you described your latest quake. My one and only earthquake was when I was living in New Hampshire (never would have expected to feel a quake there!). I described it exactly the same way. I thought a semi truck had smashed into our condo buidling and it was followed by these rolling waves of aftershocks. No semi truck outside and I learned later that morning that it had been a small earthquake centered near Lake George, NY.
Can’t wait to see you all on Saturday!