Earthquake in N. Illinois
Earthquake in N. Illinois
I was awakened this morning at 4 am by my house violently shaking. The headboard of my bed was slamming against the wall and windows were rattling. I thought at first it was a snow plow, then possibly an explosion. My 9 yr old daughter was sitting up in her bed crying and my older daughter jolted awake and kicked the end of bed so hard it broke. My wife was in the shower. I reassured my kid's and ran to the basement to check on my wife. She felt the floor moving. We live in a well built 100+ yr old house so I knew this was a powerful force. After determining we're all ok and no apparent damage or immediate danger I went outside expecting the neighborhood to be awake. There was nobody outside. No sirens, just silence. I was getting pretty freaked out. Now I'm thinking this was one of two things: earthquake or demon possession and my wife is leaning toward the latter. After 30 minutes and much speculation the local news reported a 4.2m earthquake about 15 miles from our house.
This doesn't happen in the flat lands of Northern Illinois, at least not where it's felt like this. I found this website depicting graphics of recent quakes: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/
I was shocked to see the frequency of quakes in CA. There have been a couple quakes in the last hour. Any other flatlanders feel this? Any california natives want to reassure us "plain" folk in the midwest?
Earthquakes are scary, especially for kids. Hopefully you don't have any structural damage.
4.2 wouldn't hardly phase anyone in LA. For us to get really concerned it needs to be around a 6.
I've been in a 7.2 earthquake in Sapporo Japan. That was unpleasant.
Good times...
Thankfully we don't them here much and if we do they're only small.
We did have a little shaker one time and that was scary, even though it didn't cause much damage anywhere.
I told my wife that day about it..I thought it was a snow plow going by the house...Didn't know it was a earthquake till later in the day!
The us geological survey provided more detail on this small quake. The epicenter was actually less than 5 miles from my house and the quake was down graded to a 3.8m. The unusual thing is there is no known fault near this area. They believe the fault is about 6 miles beneath the surface. Also, due to the geology of this area tremors from a quake will be felt at 10 times the distance compared to a quake in California.
My daughter Lauren checked out a book on earthquakes from the school library. She "needs" to know how this happened. Future scientist?
Lauren, my daughter, is sick so she wants me to type for her. Um and then say, Um, Dad! I thought it was a bomb and my dad just said he thought it was a demon, but I hope my grandpa is ok after the earthquake. He had surgery.
We experienced a 5.2 approx 4 miles from our home in Feb. 2008. It was the largest earthquake in the UK for 25 years, but all I experienced was a loud rumbling noise and a mirror smashing after falling from a shelf. Then again, it was 1.00am and I am a heavy sleeper.
The Ohio Valley has some major fault lines under it. I was in a nice heavy duty shaker back in the 80s in Cleveland. What's new there!
Just had a phone call from an Australian friend who was visiting Chile on business. She was in the city of Concepcion when the 'quake struck, on the 14th floor of a hotel! She said the room was moving 4 feet one way, then 4 feet the other, and she honestly feared for her life. Thankfully she is ok, but the airport runway is all torn up and she is stranded there for who knows how long? My thoughts are with her, as well as the victims of this sad occurrence.