A Rockin' and Rollin' Easter in Southern California
Wow...I've been through the Sylmar, Whittier, Northridge and Landers quakes, but we just had a doozy here in Southern California. The initial report is 6.9 in Baja California, although typically the magnitude is scaled down in later reports.
This was the longest earthquake I ever remember experiencing; it seemed to last a couple of minutes. It wasn't a sharp, scary jolt like some other quakes, but a rolling quake which went on, and on, and on. Initial anecdotal reports on the radio share my opinion that it was unusually long. It left a couple of us feeling quite a bit dizzy.
We looked over the fence into our neighbors' yard and the water was still sloshing out of their pool after we stopped feeling the quake.
It was gentle enough, due to the rolling, that we don't seem to have had anything fall or be damaged. (In the summer of 2008, while we were in Reno, there was a quake here in Orange County's Chino Hills which caused several items to fall, but nothing broke.) So all is well in our particular home, we're just still feeling a bit as though we're on a boat!
Update: The quake has been upgraded to a 7.2. There has been a swarm of aftershocks, including a 5.1 in Imperial (now upgraded to 5.4).
posted by Laura @ 3:55 PM
10 Comments:
I just got a call from my brother about this, he lives in San Diego, and he said the weirdest part was standing outside his house watching it sway back and forth. No damage, just stuff falling. Scary stuff.
Had pretty much the same feeling here in the Lakewood/Long Beach area. They have now upgraded the quake to a 7.2. My one cat took off to hide under the bed. Another cat is very nervous and the slightest noise spooks him. I guess this one will be called the Easter quake of 2010. I think my brother is at Disneyland today. It will be interesting to hear about it there. (I know they shut down all rides when there is a major quake, check them and then recycle them to get the ride going again - takes a long time for some)
That would be weird, La Peregrina. It was weird watching the interior sway back and forth yet nothing fell.
Wow, they upgraded it, Irene? That's unusual.
Last time we had a minor quake our dogs alerted in advance of it and ran out of the room as though they knew something was up. Today they didn't react at all! Maybe because it was more rolling than jolting?
I saw on MousePlanet Twitter they were in the process of inspecting and restarting the rides...I'd be interested to hear more about what it was like. I wonder what happened to the water levels on Storybook and Small World!
Best wishes,
Laura
Hope you're all right. I've never experienced an earthquake, but since I hope to move to the Los Angeles area in a few years, I suppose I will have to get used to them.
Here are some entries from "Carole & Co." about the famed March 1933 "Long Beach quake":
http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/6116.html
and
http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/85427.html
Thanks, Lolita. My family is from Long Beach and the story about the '33 quake is that my grandfather ran out of one door of the family market, my great-grandfather ran out the other door, and the store collapsed between them.
Best wishes,
Laura
whoa. I'm glad nobody was hurt.
Glad you and your family are safe!
Missy http://www.missyisms.com
Thanks very much, Tom and Missy!
Hope you had a good Easter. :)
Best wishes,
Laura
Greetings from the Northern San Andreas fault zone. Geology is my hobby and I like to report the shaking. Check it out, contribute your own data: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/ci/14607652/us/index.html
My geology prof once said he heard an earthquake: he was preparing to sleep on the ground about 2AM. He heard a very very low rumbling noise. At first he thought it was a truck but there was no traffic, then he felt the earthquake. He was very excited about it as the sound is usually only picked up by instruments. Another time, he was on a hill overlooking a grassy valley when an earthquake occurred and he could see the ground rippling like water. Wouldn't that be cool to see?
I like that website. I've had a different USGS page open today tracking the aftershocks, as we continue to feel them periodically.
Our college senior daughter has a minor in geology, with an emphasis in "geohazards"...lots of interesting field trips looking at faults. If only we didn't live near them...!
Best wishes,
Laura
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