Slashdot Mirror
5.2 Earthquake Shakes Up SF Bay Area
Joe Kaz wrote in (along with a number of other concerned folks): "There was a 5.2 Earthquake in Gilroy, CA, 70 miles south of San Francisco. The epicenter was 4.7 miles below surface. It lasted for about 10 seconds, and it did seem like a long time. Everything shook for a while, and it was a little scary. No reports of damage yet. Hope everyone is ok." I've got a report from my sisters father-in-law in gilroy (the epicenter) and he barely noticed it. Nate Oostendorp noted that "My stereo shook a little" in Walnut Creek. The SF Gate story on the quake notes that there are some phones out in some small parts of San Jose. The usgs has an event monitoring page if you are interested.
it didn't make it north of the GG, it seems,
or not too far north of if it did
Didn't feel a thing. No apparent damage. No injuries. Carry on.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
first post :)
On the peninsula, between SF and SJ it was barely felt. The house shook a bit, but just two fast shakes and nothing more. Definitely not making any damage and hardly waking up anyone who was already asleep.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
(*Vancouver is one of the rainiest placed in North America.)
Yeah I was in the Oly, WA quake last year, that was 6.8. Those things can be crazy. Glad it wasnt a very big one.
Saw it on ESPN first.
I felt it too
Until an earthquake's magnitude rises above 6.5, it's really not so bad.
Buildings that cannot withstand a 5.2 earthquake should be investigated.
I have been pwned because my
Move along....
(Lame Officer Barbrady)
I felt it here in Monterey. News said it was based just NW of Gilroy.
Felt nothing, my sister felt it a bit. I still remember my third night in the US I was living in Santa Barbara, and the '94 LA Quake happened. Suffice to say I was scared shitless(Israel and Russia are not earthquake hot zones). Now I rarely notice those 4 and 5 richter ones.
I live near Palo Alto (think Stanford), and my whole family felt it, but i missed it... oh well .
The road around my house in Woodside is so rough that I thought it was a pothole....
Firstly accept my humble appologies if you have lost property or been hurt. However from the sound of it this is a bit of a joke. /. story.
My stereo shook a bit
and the guy at the epicenter who didnt notice.
IMHO I dont think this should qualify as a
The Borg assimilated my race & all I got was this lousy T-shirt
since the big san francisco one in.....90 something?...and i was in tahoe..now that was interesting..
admit defeat, live in decline, be the victim of our own design
Lots of side-to-side shaking. 'Bout time we had some quake action out here. I moved from Indiana because I never saw any of the tornados I was promised, and the SF bay had been largely disappointing 'til now...
-Scott Hutton
5.2 is nothing, this is not news worthy. Not news for nerds, not stuff that matters.
guess it didnt reach australia
Just twenty seconds after the earthquake, an elderly man in china watched as his car was severely damaged by an unexplained explosion.
=p
No worries, seen worse. Be a good Californian and go back to bed.
Heh. Course I live in Oregon now so I bet if they had a 5.2 out here everyone would be out on the street talking about how scared they were.
__ No registration required to read this message. They did it in the Matrix.
... they shake loose the dust from the processor fan so you don't have to vacuum as often!
The aftershocks days after the Northridge quake of '94 were registering 5.2. I've always thought (since I am completely nuts and want to experience an earthquake) that 5.2 would be about the perfect strength for a first time quake. It's enough to rattle you but death is not likely.
Okay, forget karma or what not for a second. Honestly, why is this on slashdot? I'm not sure I approve of reporting minor earthquakes in San Francisco when I know hundreds of people die every day or so in huge catastrophes across the world. I'm an American, but I'm a little sick of this American-centric view of what's important. Either all minor disasters get reported, or none of them.
F-bacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
I absolutely swear to God that this happened 20 seconds after I smoked a joint. I thought the goddamn police were busting my door in to come after me. I broke down, and started throwing things everywhere.
Seriously, that really happened, and I'm glad I wasn't halucinating.
Ok, flamebait aside, I still find it amazing that people can deal with this stuff on a regular basis. I've been through quakes a few times, and I have absolutely no desire to repeat the experience.
How on earth do all you Californians deal with it? I would be heading out on the next flight.
Give me nor-easters and rude subway drivers any day...;-)
Come on, give it up, that's
Those Israelis who were caught running explosives probably dumped their cargo somewhere around Northern Cal, where it blew up, and triggered some kind of post-Nevada-testing-site showdown with the San Andreas Fault.
Or something like that.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Felt it here in Hayward (yes, one of the armpits of the bay area, but hey, its better then San Leandro). Didn't seem much more then a 4, much less a 5.
If you felt the quake, or if you were in the area and didn't feel it, be sure to record your observations here so that the data can be displayed and analyzed.
It's amazing to see 700 responses be recorded in about 20 some minutes, and more data just helps the cause of the USGS. It was minor up here near the bay, but hey, it was my first :) You can access the current map as well.
wow, this makes me really glad I bought that $3500 bio-terrorism survival kit back in october...
But really, amplitude-wise it was no great shakes.
And the brethren went away edified.
...you EXPECT that kind of thing in CA, we had a 5.2 here in the NY/VT area (I'm in VT) back in April. Now ofcourse I had no goddamn idea what it was, I thought it was a bomb or something! I mean, you don't exactly put 'Vermont' and 'Earthquake' together in your head, now do you?
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/STORE/X401
Go there if you are in the area of the quake. Report what you felt. Don't make shit up, don't troll the USGS.
I felt some moderate shaking. Biggest quake I've ever been in, but I just moved to Palo Alto from New York. Neat, but scary.
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Dog Bites Man.
This poster's name secretly replaced by Folgers Crystals
I don't think I've seen Slashdot report on any similarly significant earthquakes before... What's changed?
Is Slashdot now a general news site, or will the reporting be random based on who has been personally effected by it?
How is this "stuff that matters"? So a few people in California were shaken for like 20 seconds. HOLY SHIT!
This site has really gone downhill. I remember just a few short years ago, there were still a few decent stories being posted.
The quake hit in the 3rd period, while the Avs and Sharks were tied 1-1 (both goals having come in the 2nd, within 30 seconds of one another). It may have jolted the announcers, but it sure didn't faze goaltenders Evgeni Nabokov or Patrick Roy, who never let anything through in that period. The game was finally decided in OT, on a goal by Avs forward Peter "The Great" Forsberg, winning the game 2-1 and sending the series back to Pepsi Center in Denver for Game 7.
GO AVS!
Be who you are...and be it in style!
...here and here
Twelve-and-three-quarter inches. Unyielding. This wand belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange.
Coming from someone who lived in California, and lived through the "Big One" (Or at least my "I survived the Big One" mug says so), I'd say you're whining too much sissy man. I slept through a 4.8 in San Martin, I was in a hammock, I probably had a good time! Anyway, what I'm getting at, is no one bothered to post anything about *our* earthquake. It was 6.8. And we sure felt it. It didn't shake my stereo a little and get posted on slashdot, it got made fun of on Leno for good reason! We're still repairing damages, I want my bridge back. Yeah ...
I wonder what the Slashdot effect rates on the Richter scale?
I am in Foster City, 75 km away from the Epicenter. Yup, I felt it. First thing I did was to shout "Sweetieeee, wake up!" to my husband who has *just* gone to sleep. But it only lasted for 10 secs or so, so it was not too bad.
In Greece I've seen worse that this quake.
And in fact, I was feeling like it would be a quake today. In Greece, (older) people have three things to undedify earthquakes that are going to happen in the next few hours:
1. If the climate is unsusally dryly hot and it feels weird to your.. ears (there is an unusual sound of silence, a low pitch sound that masks the other small sounds). It is a different sort of heat. It is like humid heat, but very dry at the same time. I can't explain it better in words, sorry.
2. If for some weird reason, while you just sit somewhere fine and daddy, your ear just "blocks", like it does when water gets inside when you are in the bath or something.
3. If the dogs just bark all day, and no matter what you do to them, they just don't stop barking.
At least these are the ways older people in Greece get a clue about nature's surprises.
US Geological Survey Info here...
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
I was lying in bed (In Capitola, east of Santa Cruz) and the building shook a for about 15 seconds. Big deal. 5.2 is nothing. What's more fascinating is that this rates an article on Slashdot. I'm going to sleep now, ok? Shall I post an article on that?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I received this news via Slashdot and checked CNN's webpage, who has no word of it. And people say that Slashdot is slow.....not in this case at least....
Hey, I'm in Danville! Let's get together sometime and bump sausages!
My brother was hit in the head by large falling pieces of the ceiling during the earthquake. They just took him to the hospital. The paramedics are saying that they haven't seen an injury this bad for a long time.
If you are so inclined, please remember him in your prayers.
It's always nice to be on a safe kraton. No earthquakes above 4.5 on the Richter Scale in more than 2,000,000,000 years. Where? The Fennoscandian peninsula! Where people don't have earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, and drive Volvo.
Shouldn't this be a game server? :)
a news for nerds? or a slow news day? or maybe another evidence for the stranglets? hee-hee
geek page at KY speaks
When the BIG one comes, all the land east of the San Andreas (or mebbe Hayward) Fault will slide off into the Atlantic. Betcha wish ya were in sunny ... uh ... cool and windy (and often foggy during the summer) Santa Cruz, eh? :-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
is this a joke? 5.2, especially for californians, is nothing!
why this warrants a post on slashdot is beyond me
I felt the quake here in Capitola - about 20 miles from the epicenter. I've been through several quakes in the last 12 years here (including the '89 Loma Prieta) and this was strong enough to kick off my internal "oh shit" alarm and have me standing up in doorway.
What's the relevance to slashdot? Folks, Silicon Valley is smack in the middle of prime earthquake country (remember Superman-the movie?) It's easy to forget how a major quake in Santa Clara county could damage the tech industry here, but a minor earthquake like this is going to have folks in the area thinking about it.
"How bad was it," I asked.
As a friend of mine in San Jose put it, "um...nothing fell from the bookcases."
Who needs the Richter Scale with that kind of scientific observation?!
I think we all know what your sister felt. You need to keep your family matters off here, lest you want several jibes at the topic.....
The East Coast is prone to earthquakes as well. Even New Jersey and New York. Have a look here. There are regions on the East Coast that are even more susceptible, and unlike the West Coast, the East Coast is almost completely unprepared for even a moderate earthquake.
I remembered that on 1989 june earthquake in San Francisco I was near general hospital and when i was just about to cross the street i saw this bus bouncing up and down like heck and i was like "what the heck?? am i seeing things??"
http://www.palmzone.net
Apparently there have actually been four events. First one was an "Is this an earthquake?" That gave way directly to the 5.2 shake, which lasted a few seconds before diminishing. Whole-building motion, and you could feeling the building twisting and deforming. But no apparent damage, and subsided quickly.
/ 36 . 8.-123.-121.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Maps/US2
Couple of aftershocks (they say) but they were much lighter, at around 2.5, and weren't felt here (at least, not by me in a quiet apartment...)
NOooooooo! Not the SourceForge Bay Area!!! i hope my projects are backed up
Got friends?
We're about 30 miles from Gilroy, it shook pretty good. I was in k-mart and they had ice chests stacked against the walls up to the ceiling infront of the checkout counters and they swayed back and forth for about 2 minutes after the shaking stopped... Kmart is definitely NOT earthquake friendly...
Everythings fine here tho... no worries - it was a baby quake
They didn't even stop the hockey game, eh?
According to the news they said there was a hockey playoff game going on when the earthquake happened..hmm..i wonder what would happen if it was Ice Hockey and if the quake is strong enough would it crack some of the Ice?
http://www.palmzone.net
Earthquake 5.2 - the new Linux disto of choice!
Uhhh...so what? It doesn't sound like it was all that powerful. A story on 9/11 I can understand, but a moderate earthquake? When did /. switch to general news?
Young folk of today don't know what an earthquake is. A 5.2 is about enough so that everyone feels it, and maybe a shaky brick chimney or two will fall down at the epicenter. In my day (circa 1994) we had REAL earthquakes. Bridges fell! Bridges over water, mind you! And buildings! Dern whippersnappers are so starved for news they'll make a story about a 5.2! Honestly, folks, there's got to be something else going on!
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
We Mac users are certainly glad all you Cupertinoians are safe. And Apple as well.
Actually I think it's pretty damn interesting. The article poll too (an underutilized feature in slashdot, imho).
sulli
RTFJ.
I was just watching ESPN, and they're like "We've had an earthquake and we'll be back for the third period. The game was almost over.
Glad to see that not even earthquakes will stop a hockey game!
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
It shook for about 10 seconds here. I am in the green area (Moderate, light damage) on the USGS map (already filled out the survey). We got a few things knocked off the edge of counters, and a stain glass window that sitting a window sill fell and broke. It should have been secured. I can't say no damage, but it was pretty light none the less. The only thing these little ones really do for me is hope that the epicenter isn't really bad.
This message is encrypted with Quad ROT-13 to protect the author's copyright under the DMCA.
I'm surprised the strangelet story wasn't mentioned as a related link. With the epicenter 4 miles below the surface it may rule them out (?) though. I didn't feel anything down here in Australia, but it could've come out somewhere else. :)
I.O.U One Sig.
Just a few shakes, maybe a couple of seconds.
I have moved into the Valley since the last 3 years and this was the first time that I felt a shake. It was scary enough for me. I live smack in the middle of the Valley in Mountain View.
:)
On the lighter side of things, I wish our economy was even close to something like this.
So I voted in the poll, and it now tells me I've already voted on the page (can't vote again). interesting enhancement!
Gee Chris... was this your first earthquake?
5.2 is really nothing to write home about.
First thing I thought when I saw the story was "ooh, I'll click on the event monitoring page." Then, as the page took a while to load up, I suddenly realized that idiots like me were slashdotting a very important resource.
I've been checking that USGS earthquake page since I moved to California a couple of years ago. The only two website worth reading these days are the CDC and the USGS. I'm proud of my tax money going to provide such in-depth time wasting. Carry on, beloved Federal agencies.
'jfb
To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
This was the perfect earthquake for an earthquake virgin like me. It was just strong enough to know that it wasn't my imagination but not so strong that anyone got hurt or any property got damaged. I'm in Redwood City, CA and it was a thrilling experience.
--Asa
Did anybody else out there read this story late at night and see "John Katz" instead of "Joe Kaz", and wonder why he didn't post the story himself? Of course, even in my bleary-eyed state I knew it wasn't Katz posting, as it was only a paragraph of text.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who enjoys
earthquakes. They are by far the coolest natural disaster. You never know if it's gonna go big, or just peter off. Very, very exciting stuff. Also, you have no advanced warning. It's not like all those weather ones, where you can feel it coming. More like volcano's in that regard.
Sure it sucks when a really big one hits. But I've been here 25 years and in that time, there's been one damage causing quake in norcal and one in socal. Not too bad. Hardly not enough to live in fear. Shit, lots of things can kill you, and happen more often that once every twenty years.
Plus they remind me of that scene from 12 Monkeys, where Brad Pitt says "when my father gets angry, the ground shakes!"
First off I live in one of the super windy portions of the San Francisco. Wind funnels down market and the various hills so that I experience regular wind blasts.
This was just like a normal wind blast, in that my huge windows pushed in and the pressure changed in the room. Then instead of slowly going back out like normal the windows shot out REALLY changing the air pressure in the room. It was at this point that I realized it wasn't just a normal blast of wind. Then the TV shook, the shelves moved and the windows came back at me.
Basically it felt to me like a roller coaster... gentle turn (rolling sensation), jolt (hard turn), roll, roll, and a sigh as it was over. Stuff shook but nothing too special and nothing was broke. I also happen to live in a new building designed to handle big earthquakes.
The cool thing was looking out my windows and watching the city light up as everyone turned on their lights and went to their own windows.
--- I do not moderate.
Apparently there have been a series of mostly minor quakes around the world the past couple of weeks. Related or coincidence?
On the 4th floor at the oracle campus in redwood city, just a little jiggle and some folk are freakin out.
:]
Geeze.. I must really be jaded
Giants announcer Jon Miller mentioned his "chair shook" during the broadcast of the Giants vs. Braves game. Jon seems fine (*sigh*) and even better news, Giants beat the Braves 7-6 in 11 innings.
seems hotmail servers are in SF and got hit cause i cant check my freakin email! =(
[alk]
My mom called from the hospital and says that he's lost a lot of blood. He's not responding to any stimuli. Part of his skull has been cracked.
He's going in for surgery now.
I never thought it would be like this.
This is not news. It happens all the time. The only thing exciting about it is watching the reaction of the tourists.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Back in 1989 when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, I was a freshman at UC Santa Cruz -- about 7 miles from the epicenter. That was a strong earthquake (~7.1). I'll never forget the way the plaster on the ceiling started floating down (or the roof tiles, for that matter).
This is eq is about the closest in feeling to what I remember Loma Prieta being like. Maybe it's because the building I'm in is built over sand (Sunset dist, SF), but it felt pretty strong, and book cases and that kind of stuff definitely were moving around a bit.
Heh, it's kind of funny; I was watching them demolish the tower of De Young museum earlier today, and someone said "wouldn't it be cool if we had an earthquake right now?" Someone must have been listening =)
Right now, Caltrain is running at Restricted Speed south of Redwood Junction, I'm listening to the dispatcher dish out track-n-time as the track and bridges get inspected...
...-.-
WHO CARES !!!!!
it doesnt really matter to anybody. its not news for nerds unless redmond fell into a volcanic molten pit and satan himself took bill gates back to the murky pits of hell. god. this is almost as bad as john katz! joe kaz. hah. nice pseudonym
hope to God it don't fall into the sea."
T. Petty
====== Flash!
If this month is 'earthquake awareness' month, next month is 'rubble awareness' month. Ho...baby! Look out for that building!
Why the hell is this on Slashdot?
The quake was small and it was short. For the most part, California is built to withstand these things. I think the above average blizard in New England causes more damage.
If the quake was 30+ seconds, was greater than a 6, or if this took place in Boston, NY or another non-earthquake place, it probably would be newsworthy.
The one interesting thing is that a postseason sporting event (SJ Sharks vs. CO Avalanche) was in progress during the quake. Remember the last time that happened?
At 5:04 Oct 17, 1989, the pregame show was on for the world series which had the Giants vs. A's. Oh wait. This is slashdot.
The Sharks and the Avalanche are hockey teams.
The [SF] Giants and A's are baseball teams. At the end of the season, two teams play against each other. This is called the world series.
Many years back, we had a 7.4 earthquake followed by a 6.5 aftershock, and many other aftershocks of decreasing intensity. The death count? One person who had a heart attack because of it.
Everyone will like to say that they're more devastating when they are in heavily populated areas. That's completely untrue. They're more devestating when they are in areas where buildings are made extremely cheaply. I had a very large TV jump off of a table and about 5 feet across the room. I had a set of shelves with quite a load on them shake so hard that they damaged the wally they were up against. And in all of that, not a single bit of structural damage. Not a single bridge needed the slightest of repairs (and we've got plenty of those).
Then, a year later, a 6.4 earthquake hits Los Angeles, dozens of people die, several bridges collapse, and buildings collapse. It's simple folks. If you live somewhere that every contractor is cutting corners, even a small quake will destroy everything in sight.
I'd been through a hurricane when I was living back east. I'd rather have 8.0 earthquakes every week, than a hurricane once a decade. Hell, earthquakes really don't do any significant damage. If you were driving, you wouldn't even know that there was an earthquake.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
we are looking forward to hearing about other insidents like this: ...)
3 relatives of yours got sunburned after exposing their noses for 15 minutes, it rained somewhere and two people didn't have omprellas and other shocking news.
(for some places in this world (scientists now believe that USA is not alone in this planet) small earthquakes are normal situation, as well as rain, sun, cold, worm, traffic jam, births, cinema etc
Fie, Slashdot, fie!
5.2 Earthquake Barely Nudges San Francisco
Are we going to start reporting heavy rainfall in Hawaii next?
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
At an IHOP in Cupertino, around closing time.
It was very mild over here, but we still felt it.
I think god is just trying to destroy the place like how he destroyed Sodom.
Anyone looking for proof that hockey fan's seats don't fold all the way down need look no further.
Somewhere, a village is missing an idiot.
Just felt it. Moderate shaking but seemed to last a long time and built up before subsiding.
Not looking forward to the big one!
Flat5
here's mine, northridge earthquake, I dont remember exactly the date, but I wsa playing Wing Commander I or II, I dont remember which, and I had *just* blown up some huge ass ship, a carrier I think -> My speakers are blasting the sound of the ship exploding, and at that percise moment the earthquake begins, and as the ground begins to rumble Im thinking, "holy shit thats a great sound effect", then I realize whats going on and dash to the doorframe where your supposed to be in an earthquake. I think I ended up loosing the level to, got attacked while my ship was unmanned :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
There's an EDIS Bulletin on the quake, but it's a routine report, with a priority too low to generate an E-mail message from EDIS. No indications of any significant emergencies to be dealt with.
Press reports indicate that several plates fell down at a china outlet store in Gilroy, and a coffee pot was damaged at the Gilroy Rodeway Inn.
For some reason, phone service in San Jose was affected. Unclear why.
An earthquake in San Francisco who'd have thunkit! I'm in Sunnyvale, of Wargames fame, closer to Gilroy than San Francisco is... I was walking for a cup of coffee, and didn't even feel it.
About to connect the firewire coord to the camera to do some DV editing, and the window shades start to rattle. Thought it was the wind blowing hard. The shades kept rattling, and I started to get concerned about the strength of the wind. Then the walls and everything else start shaking and wobbling and I realize it is a quake. The kids who were playing outside in the street start screaming. Shit! Move to the doorway. Do I have food stored? Nothing falling/crashing yet. Then it stops. 7 seconds or so stretched out to a minute.
;-)
Cool
I've often said, as an east coaster, that I'd like to feel an earthquake. Well now that I have, I have two reactions.
IOW, I was scared more than was appropriate for the size of this thing. Thank GOD that they make the building able to survive this kind of thing. As I think about it, the fact that an 8 story building was gently rocking back and forth (probably about 1/2 inch in both directions), and didn't fall is pretty amazing.
Want to simulate it? Have someone go up to your wheeled chair and wiggle it back and forth at a rate of about 3-4Hz. Now, imagine that the desk that you're leaning on, and the floor that you have your feet on is also moving.
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/nc40 133377.htm
Hope Slashdot didn't ruin anyones day in CA by posting this, since we east coast people will find out so far before them.
I like music
5.4? This is local news, maybe.
Hmm...well, maybe it's good news. Maybe it will delay SF getting a real killer quake.
Three weeks ago the northeast was hit by a 5.5 earthquake, but that wasn't newsworthy for slashdot. The northeast gets a big earthquake about once every hundred years, California gets them all the time!
You're the author of the book adaptation of AotC, aren't you?
episode 20 - staring Alex - Find it on KaZaa or similar file sharing software.
goto 48:20 and see a mysterious 5th person wearing an orange shirt quickly duck behind the back seat. Very hard to miss. Surprising it was not caught in the editing process.
Why is Slashdot blabbing on about earth quakes...If i wanted to find out about that kind of junk? Who REALLY cares about what happens in the US!! Your all just trying to act like victims after the WTC...well guess what, no sympathy over here....when you stop carpet bombing civilians...maybe! Lets see some real news, some real good Comptuer news!! Surely some good stuff is happening!
Moved to california about 10 years ago, this is the first quake that I felt (or didnt feel like a big truck passing by). When it happened I happened to be peeing, ya the house shook a little but not enough to miss the pot. I realize that 5.2 is only moderate, but it was not that big of a deal. I don't understand why everybody seems to inflate the 'effect'. It seemed like 3-4 seconds to me but the news is reporting 10 or so seconds reported by people in san jose (30 miles away). News talk radio had a caller in pleasenton (60-90 miles away) saying how bad it was, while I was disaponted 10 or so miles away. What are all californians a bunch of pvssies about quakes or what?
It was interesting. It felt like everyone in the Arena was stomping the floor... 'cept no one was stomping. It shook for a little and that's it.
There was more damage caused by the fight that broke out in section 224.
In college, inspired by one of the coolest professors ever, I wrote a java applet that simulated the mechanics of the Rayleigh Wave... wave propegation thru a solid material. Its basically a (WAY oversimplified) earthquake simulator. Here you go: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/brreed/Page1.htm most the source is here: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/brreed/src/ this project was my first java applet, first exposure to java 2d, and definately a big reason i left engineering for cs...
Here's to finally giving Bush his exit strategy in November
Gilroy?
Is the garlic okay?
How about the motorcycles?
--Blair
"The only other thing they make there is trouble for politicians wanting to create a freeway to the east..."
1) known that tonight was game 6 between the Avs and Sharks in San Jose.
2) refered to the game as "hockey" not "ice hockey".
I'm in San Francisco and it seemed to me that there was two separate quakes, separated by about 10 seconds.
:)). Then another one a bit longer but about the same magnitude.
The first wasn't that bad, a "trembler" (for a native San Franciscan like me I guess this is up to 5 or so
Having experienced the 1989 quake, I was expecting a huge (main) shock after the second one (two in a row isn't good...). Nothing yet, but perhaps later tonight or even tomorrow we might get something more.
The worst part is after a large quake and you're trying to fall sleep, but now you're senses are heightened, and you can feel every little aftershock. And while you're laying in your bed, you're looking up at the ceiling afraid it's going to fall on you the next minute (you've already calculated how much time you'll have to toss back the sheets and dive to safety). All the while, each movement you make makes you tense; you think it's another aftershock.
I'd rather have earthquakes, though, than tornados, blizzards, or hurricanes.
By the way, if you live in Oakland, Berkeley or Alameda, and you're paranoid... the San Andreas fault isn't predicted to let loose for quite a while. But you're sitting right on the Hayward fault and it's expected to slip "soon" meaning the next 10 - 30 years.
while some of you might think that this quake is a joke, you are wrong!! i was so scared that i urinated on my computer and broke it and also electroburned my penis off!! i need an ask slashdot right away!! how do i get 911 online?? please help me!!
While I was trying to research the earthquake to see where it was and whether we were in immediate danger, I found that I could no longer access the site because of "Service Unavailable". Seriously disturbed at the idea of not knowing, I thought I'd read Slashdot and try the site later.
And here I discover a Slashdot story linking to that site.
clicking reload...
So, just as daylight savings time supposedly reminds us to change our smoke detector batteries (because otherwise that annoying 'low battery' beeping always start at 4am), tiny earthquakes remind us about our earthquake kits and preparation. Includes...
And unless you live in Scottsdale, AZ, don't feel smug about the safety of your own location- St. Louis has had an 8.0, and New York State has seen 6.0's.
is the continent (and country) that is least prone to earthquakes due to the location of the teutonic plates around it. Whereas Russia has a number of earthquakes most notably towards the east but due to the sheer size and the density of the populatinon most of the small ones are probably not even documented (and due to their dire finacial situation...)
Live for the present, learn from the past, and dream of the future!
Here in San Francsisco, I definetly felt it, slight roll and low rumbling....windows shook and a picture frame (yeah, it was really poorly mounted) fell from the wall...and all i could think was "dear god, its a stranglet attack!"...now all we need is confirmation that somethings popped out of the indian ocean, and we'll have proof!
Is the garlic crop okay? I wanna go to the garlic festival this year!
...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...
The consensus here is this is a non-event. That being said, even if it is a slow news night, is it responsible to slashdot the USGS site? This is infrastructure that is useful to those affected at times like this, and there is no overwhelming interest to herding users to the USGS network.
When your local 911 operator upgrades its systems and uses Linux, are we all to call 911 because it's all of the sudden geek chic? Should we all of the sudden be junior geologists for the USGS if there's a small tremor in the Bay Area?
I'm not saying that linking to breaking news is a bad thing, even if thst site goes down as a result. What I am saying is that the USGS site should not be subject to overwhelming traffic for such a non-event. You say it was an event? Read the posts, even at level 2 and up. They all say the same thing.
At the very least it should be noted to visit the USGS site now only to report info if you live in the area.
Was in the living room of our house. I felt it (slight rolling motion). My wife 20' away in another room did not.
that said. I hate earthquakes.
GPS Coordinates (NOT) in Oakland California
Earthquake aside, it's a bit surreal to wake up on tuesday morning (UK) and read about the quake on slashdot before the BBC or CNN has it.
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE
I'm on in 3rd floor condo, the building moved around a little but probably just because it's old. That was the strongest I have felt since Loma Prieta...must have been those 6 years in Sac.
Imagine a Beowolf cluster of these!
Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
Remember that the increases on the Richter Scale are logarithmic. This means that a 6.0 is 10 times more powerful than a 5.0 (measured in amplitude). So this really is not that big of a deal, unless of course you were just putting the finishing touches on your "World's Longest domino chain", and the quake just happened to touch off the first domino.
Sorry people, I don't think that a local 'weather' report is worthy of a
I'm as about concerned about minor quakes in the US as I sure most
This is not
trellick
I couldn't agree more.
We had a 6.9 here on the 21st of August last year, and people barely felt a thing. A few months before that there was a bigger one (somewhere in the 7's) that's unfortunately rolled off the linked page. Again, not much was felt at all.
There wasn't any notable damage in either of them. This could partly be put down to the very strict local building codes that are there in anticipation of a big Earthquake being due, but that hardly made a difference in these cases.
5.2 doesn't mean anything. There could be a very destructive 5.2 earthquake, or all the other factors could combine to make it almost invisible.
Wrecked my Beowulf cluster, and knocked the blue led out of my VA Linux server.
Gonna fall behind on SETI....
your post would be a lot more credible if you omitted like every 25th word to simulate your bad english.
Actually I didn't even read it at all, isn't that awesome?
and we felt it during the game. We lost 2-1 on OT....damn avalanche :(
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
A substantial earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area on Monday, sending frightened customers running from area businesses and knocking out power and phone services. There were also reports of a water shortage. It is unclear what caused the water shortage, as no water pipes were broken. However, there is speculation that the lack of power has caused a sudden surge of readers of the popular "News for nerds" website, Slashdot, to participate in an activity known to normal people as "showering."
Jane was sitting on a beach in Florida, attempting to strike up a conversation with the stunningly attractive gentleman who was reading on the sunbed beside hers.
"Hello, sir," she said, "Do you like movies?"
"Yes, I do," he responded, and then returned to his book.
Jane persisted. "Do you like gardening?"
The man again looked up from his book. "Yes, I do," he said politely before returning to his reading.
Undaunted, Jane asked. "Do you like pussycats?" With that, the man dropped his book and pounced on Jane, pumping her as she'd never been pumped before.
As the cloud of sand began to settle, Jane dragged herself back to a sitting position and panted, "How did you know that was what I wanted?!!"
The man thought for a moment and replied, "How did you know my name was Katz?"
watching the Sharks. At first I thought it was another "we will rock you" chant starting up, but I knew it was something big when the concrete stands began to wobble. I looked up and watched the rafter lights sway for a few seconds while hoping the tremors didn't escalate. No damage or injuries. Regretfully the refs didn't get hurt...those blind jackasses costed the Sharks the game.
Felt several stronger ones while in Colombia. The earth moving beneath your feet is not the scariest thing in this world...
Piss off or you will become a similar casualty.
Is that some kind of a lounge chair?
Heh, sure. ;-)
There are currently five active flood warnings in Hawaii:
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/watchwarn.html
Nah, she doesn't work. She's a lazy lay-about houseslut, collecting more fat with every passing day.
Ha... the same exact thing happened to me back when I was in College in LA. I took a massive bong hit, then about 5 minutes later a (small) quake hit. "Was that an earthquake? Cool!"
The night of the Northridge quake I was up all night smoking out and watching movies (which is why I was up at 4:50 in the morning). Had no problem remembering the earthquake drills that were pounded into my brain from since I was a kid. From couch to under Pool Table in record time!
And come to think of it... I also had more than a few hits from the bong this morning!
The "Devil's Weed" Indeed!
umm... cuntpaste, do you even know what industry is "just south of san francisco"? 5.2 is a tiny quake but still a concern to datacenters and their caretakers.
I was in a CS game and suddenly stuff started shaking. It felt as if someone was shaking my chair. I was thinking to myself hmm maybe I should go outside but I didnt cause I was a CT and I was recuin the hostages :)
LA a couple years ago, about 4AM, a long roller, centered around Joshua Tree if I recall correctly.... I had just fallen asleep in the arms of a hottie I had met the night before.... The quake woke us up and kept going, and we wound up huddling naked under the doorway scared but aroused. When the shaking finally stopped, the phone rang.
It was my girlfriend, who called to see if I was OK.
I've never been so fucking busted.
Hooray for people who THINK they're fast enough for first post.
CONGRATURATION! A DUMBASS SI YUO!
Hi,
I was in Morgan Hill for the Quake. We live up in the hills, a few miles fron the san andreas fault, so it was pretty powerful. But in this case the quake was beneficial for me. I had broken a vase doing dishes earlier, but now I have an excuse for it.
Oh, either thing about dogs knowing when an earthquake is about to come isn't true, or my dog is lagged because it was a few seconds into it before she started barking.
As for being an island, Isn't that a bit passe? I mean even Trancers perhaps the worst zombie and time travel movie of all time, has a reference to the idea. Though perhaps it's what we need to start the fragmentation of America.
Gryftir
http://www.santacruzbynight.com/index.shtml Santa Cruz By Night Vampire Larp
California huh? Isn't that where they make all that software stuff? Wow, better go buy all my software before the prices shoot up. Don't understand why they concentrate all the programmers in such a tectonically unstable area...
Hypocenter is where it is
- in
the earth. Epicenter is where it is on the- surface
of the earth.Seems some water flow patterns at the Gilroy Hot Springs may have changed a bit.
This is a beautiful area that many people in the bay area take advantage of, and it is also a very historically significant site.
Following WWII when Japanese-American citizens were released from internment camps many of them spent a good deal of time at Gilroy-Yamato attempting to re-enter society, bit of a overview here
The land was recently sold to the Nature Conservancy (ie. about a month ago), but is still being ran by the seller until the conservancy is ready to take over...
From what i understand they have some serious problems right now tonight, yes no major structures have fallen, and no lives are lost, but this is practically a sacred site to many Japanese-Americans, and a beautifull one in any case to others... would be a shame to see it suffer any ill consequences as are being reported
You can take it as lightly as you wish, but do realize that nature has no concept of virgin. We were just lucky this time. I'm in emmeryville and felt nothing.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
I've been watching the Discovery Channel, and they had this bit about the La Palma island in the Canaries. They said that the western half of this island will eventually slide off into the ocean during a volcanic eruption and cause a huge wave that'll wipe about 20km of the USA's East Coast all squeaky clean.
those that live there, felt the shaking.
./
the rest of us don't care.
besides, 5.2 isn't THAT rare or anything
yawn, a new depth for
Exercise caution when modding this message up: the author acts like a jerk when his karma is excellent.
1 - Get freaked out by earthquake and spill bong water on self.
2 - Buy new pants that don't smell like bong water.
Color flashing, thunder crashing, dynamite machines.
Yup, a self-employed pissing loser with a family, 600 acres of deeded land, several automobiles and a four-story house. What do you have? 2,000 British pounds to your name, a playstation2, some computers and a husband that picks up the tab for everything? That's what I thought, you fucking olive-picking, highboot fecal smear of a bridge troll.
My buddies and I were watching the Giants game and the bldg shoook for a few secs. Then the anncr on TV said " the earth just shook". And then at the end of the game he mentioned we had had an earthquake. I was in downtown Santa Cruz during the 1989 quake that leveled most of Santa Cruz and I'll never forget it. This one wasn't anything as strong. more like a aftershock from the 89.
I may be bad with names, but I'll never forget your IP address
from your sig:
--- When I found out I was nothing more than a bunch of vibrating strings, I realized 'morality' no longer had meaning.
Brian Evenson is the shit. The Din of Celestial Birds wasn't quite as good as Altman's Tongue though. That is where your sig is from, right?
...and this lie crawls out of its mouth: 'I, the state, am the people.'
I am at Redwood City too ! My first earthquake too !
Same thoughts as you pal !
~D
5.2 is a bug fix of 5.1 Earthquake, where the pictures would not fall off the wall properly. I'm holding out for version 6.0 which has the new "knocking plaster off the ceiling" feature
Oh, ignore my other comment on your sig. Look into the writings of Mark Twain (his later "misanthropic" period) for some good exposition of this moral stance you present (or see the bawdlerized version in the Philip Jose Farmer River World series, from the "Samuel Clemens" character). A passage from the Evenson book I thought was being quoted:
"He did not believe that the brain was, as the Traditional view held, a soft, gray folded organ. Rather, it was a series of black and white cords stretched tightly from one side of the skull to the other, held in place by delicate hooks of bone"
...and this lie crawls out of its mouth: 'I, the state, am the people.'
No home page article for the 5.4 in New York a few weeks ago? An earthquake in California is an everyday occurence, but in New York! Now *that's* news!
I'd hazard a guess that just about every industry is "just south of san francisco"
I live in Anchorage, Alaska, which is known for having an earthquake from time to time. :)
My parents were attending university at the time (Alaska Methodist University, now Alaska Pacific University) when the Really Freaking Big 1964 earthquake hit.
It was the second largest earthquake recorded in the 20th Century at 9.2. The 1960 quake in Chile was 9.5.
The duration of the main quake was 4 minutes.
It hit March 27 at 5:36 P.M. AST. The epicenter was some 75 miles East of Anchorage with a depth at 14 miles.
It was felt as far north as the Yukon, as well as in Canada and Washington State.
131 People died as a result of the earthquake, 122 of which died in the tsunami generated by the quake. Of these deaths, 115 were in Alaska (106 tsunami related deaths, 9 deaths in the city), and others as far south as California.
The largest recorded height of the tsunami was 67 meters (!) in Shoup Bay, AK. The tsunami also destroyed some small boats and an oyster harvest in Japan. Tide gauges in Puerto Rico and Cuba (!) registered the event. Tsunami warnings were issued in the former Soviet Union. Tsunamis associated with the earthquake were estimated to travel at 447 MPH (!).
52 aftershocks followed the main quake, the largest at magnitude 6.7. 11 other aftershocks registered at 6.0 or above. These aftershocks continued for more than a year after the main quake.
What about the industry in Taiwan, when a massive earthquake rocked the place just over a month ago. Any mention of that on Slashdot?
i'm trapped in the lower deck of the SF highway, and i'm communicating to you through my wireless laptop. SF is burning right now - please send
"the slashdot cruiser" for help!
MOD UP. The funniest comment I've ever seen for a long time.
I TRIED to submit a more newsworthy story then this (3DLabs being BOUGHT by creative) and THIS makes the front page? This is BULLSHIT! Sorry it scared the pee out of ya.
Why the general topic "News"? This is apparently topic "United States".
My, Lord! This is a wake up call. LEAVE already. When the big one hits, it will make 9/11 look like a little bump in the road. It will affect the computer industry drastically and everyone will wail and whine like banshees.
I love southern CA.. it's warm and beautiful! but I would NEVER live there! People.. check this: there are at least FOUR MAJOR faults running through or near the SF bay area. They WILL give way.
Remember how upset everyone was when the bay bridge collapsed? Well.. DUH! You LIVE ON A FAULT!! and they built a major suspension bridge on a fault. Brilliant.
When beaches are infested or contaminated, they put up a sign and a big fence around the place and people DON'T GO THERE.
I just don't get why people aren't leaving in droves. They are living on the edge.. literally. My wife's aunt lives out there and I've asked this same thing and she admits it's foolish to stay, but can't give a rational answer for not leaving. It may cost her her life. Is it worth it?
Vortran out
Knowledge is like ignorance.. too much can be just as bad as not enough.
I can't imagine anything like that happening here. However, I can imagine every major news source being in some trailer park talking to some guy who "thought a freight train was coming" or thought "it sounded like a restart at Talladega." Atlanta is NOT part of Georgia.
That was a quake? I thought it was just my mobile on vibrate mode.
does anyone really give a shit?
It's funny that you should say that it's romantic for the sun to set over large bodies of water. Here on the east side of Cleveland, the coast takes a northeast bent along lake erie. Therefore, in the evening, the sun sets over the lake for us. What takes the romance out of the sun gently falling into the slow rolling waves of lake erie is the fact that the lake is so polluted with heavy metals. State health advisories are constantly posted asking that the very old, very young, and pregnant should not eat lake erie fish. Our fish have the proud distinction of being riddled with tumors. It's really sad. When you take a boat trip out to the lake erie islands, and look down into the deeper parts of the lake, it looks so clear and beautiful, it's a shame that if you dive in for a swim, it's going to do you more harm than good.
On a more ontopic note, Cleveland had two 5 point earthquakes in my lifetime (the last one happened three years ago I think?) I must admit, neither were much to get excited about. My computer monitor shook like hell, but I just thought it was because the washer was acting up.
Check out my podcast: DreamStation.cc Video Game Show
A do-nothing who-cares story posting? No injuries? Little damage, if any? What kind of posting is this? Chrisd is giving Katz a run for his money.
I live on the glorified sandbar, Florida.
"Learn to swim. See you down in Arizona bay."
Maynard James Keenan
Just to be a little more accurate with the terms:
The epicentre (or epicenter if you want) was not 4.7 miles beneath the surface - the focus was. The epicentre is always a point on the surface - usually directly above the focus.
Owl tried to think of something wise to say, but couldn't.
Yet the 5.0 we had in upstate NY last month went unposted on /. We shook for almost 30 seconds.
5.0 is a big deal around here, and anything much stronger will start doing serious damage to our non-quake-ready buildings.
"The epicenter was 4.7 miles below surface."
Impossible. The epicenter is the area above the earth's surface that represents the origin of the earthquake. The focus is the actual point underground where the earthquake originates.
If "The epicenter was 4.7 miles below surface", then that would be the centre (or the center, since this is the US we're talking about). The epicenter is the point on the ground directly above the center.
Had to say it. I'm sorry. I'll go away now...
So, after a quake like this, are there changes in human behavior that you can notice?
"Provided by the management for your protection."
3 killed in Joplin over the weekend because of sevear thunderstorms and flash flooding, Washington DC has another tornado...
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I'm so tired of people using this word incorrectly. An epicenter is "the point of the earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.", not "4.7 miles below surface". Epicenters are, by definition, ON the surface. The center of the earthquake was 4.7 miles below the surface.
Sorry for the rant, but the word "epicenter" is being misused so frequently that it's beginning to morph into a different word.
Not Found
The requested URL
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Ah, it was ok, but there was one about 2 years ago in October, 5.3 in San Juan Bautista, felt in Watsonville like a slightly drunken stagger. Pretty neat the way the earth gently heaved around for about 20 seconds then quietly stopped. This one shook things a little, but nothing was knocked over (in Capitola, 2nd floor of a townhouse [It's mine! My apartment! Back! Go find your own!]) not even a stack of about 20 pennies on a counter.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I'm probably not the first person to say it, but...
"The epicenter was 4.7 miles below surface."
BUZZ! Wrong! The epicenter is by definition on the surface. The focus is what was 4.7 miles below the surface.
Now then, why is this particular earthquake generating news (just another Californian earthquake), but the one in New York state a few weeks ago didn't?
I submitted this story three weeks ago but it was rejected.
graspee
"The epicenter was 4.7 miles below surface."
:P
Hate to be a pedant, but the _focus_ was 4.7 miles below the surface, as the focus is the absolute place of origin of an earthquake. The epicenter is the point at the surface directly above the focus.
Sorry if someone else brought this up, I'm too lazy to wade through 400 messages
Robby
I heard it was so bad that Jon Katz nearly fell out of Rob Malda's ass.
It doesn't take much to knock down a shoddily constructed village like those you see in Afghanistan. It is a tribute to American preparedness that Loma Prieta (1989) and Northridge (1994) killed about 50 each, while similar size quakes in Japan, India and Turkey the past few years kill 5,000 - 10,000. Still we can do better.
For all of those who think they've never been in even a 0x3 quake, you're probably wrong. A lot of the really weak quakes go unreported as they are too numerous and undetectable except to the department of Geology in the local university... Just my 2 cents...
for earthquakes, not so good for hurricanes (or floods). Brick/stone is ok for hurricanes, rubbish for earthquakes. Reinforced concrete is good for both earthquakes and hurricanes, unless the construction company is illegally cutting corners.
...Joe Simpson and Skip Caray(the Atlanta Braves baseball announcers on TBS) mentioned they felt an earthquake during the SF Giants and Atlanta Braves game last night. Out of nowhere the two started talking about feeling the tremors and joking about the crew in the mobile prodction studio truck.
1811, Missouri. One minute, a peaceful plain of small towns and rolling farmland. The next minute, bingo, a hellish nightmare of death and devastation. Bodies twisted and broken beyond recognition.
Tomorrow, Section 6, of "Our Changing Planet"; Earthquakes & Cataclysms - Man's Dalliance with Death. Have a nice day...
Any cases of *Spontaneous Human Combustion reported yet?
*sorry, couldn't resist!
I live in Gilroy. The quake was so uneventful I went right back to bed afterwards.
To conquer death, you only have to die
I'm a little surprised this made it into a slashdot story, but since we're on the subject of moderate earthquakes here's a 5.1 that hit New York late last April. I didn't notice it in here the city, likely becasue I assume every ground tremor is a subway train passing underneath (Having grown up in California, it's still instinctual to dive under a table when I feel the ground shake).
I'd much rather be in California than New York City during an earthquake. Here there's far too much masonry on buildings to withstand even a moderate earthquake safely.
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
If the USGS really needs me to tell them that things were "a bit shaky" in San Jose, I want my tax dollars back.
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
Why even bother to report a 5.2 in California? I've slept through 5.2's. It's only people from Boston who worry about earthquakes that small. Now a 5.2 in Boston(where all the buildings would probably fall down), that would be news. But a 5.2 in California, yawn. It's not worth getting out of bed for anything beneath a 6.
i thought i noticed the essence of garlic in the air this morning...
--
Grid Computing News
I'm in South San Francisco. We had a nice smooth roller here. It built and faded very smoothly and had a nice rolling motion. Got the fish tank sloshing a bit.
We had one a couple of years ago that was a single hard jerk. The epicenter was up around Napa. What I really remember about that one is that I heard it coming a second or so before it hit. Ain't nature a marvelous thing?
Who, me?
when you not only refer to the geologists they interview on the news after earthquakes by their first names only, but you have your favorite.
cheers
Hmm... earthquake just out side of San Francisco. Is IBM finally going to update OS/2 Warp to version 5?
This sig no verb.
I don't see why one should soil one's underpants over a mere 5.2 quake. One might as well panic when it starts raining.
More people have died from heat waves in the East in the last 50 years than from Earthquakes in California. Same for Tornados. More Homes have been destroyed by tornados than Earthquakes too.
At the Brad Mehldau (an easterner) concert in Santa Cruz last night, he and his bandmates rode it out (it occured between numbers) and played on.
A tornado could have taken the place off the map. No one was ever shaken to death by an earthquake.
"everyone's different....I am the same"
You Slashdotters are the last folks I'd expect to go along with the common assumption that "epicenter" is just a highfalutin' word for "center".
Well, actually I guess these guys are.
Arizona and New Mexico were considered the safest places from any natural disasters in the United States.
That wasn't much of an earthquake. I used to live in a downstairs condo a few years ago and the woman upstairs walking would cause the walls to shake more than that earthquake.
The Loma Prieta earthqauke was a lot more fun!
There was an earthquake of about magnitude 5 in New York. I did a search and came up with this web site http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/LCSN/. Most interesting are the photos of damage.
I know some people in New Jersey who felt it. As for me, I slept through it. Then again, I'm sort of used to earthquakes since I went to school in the SF Bay Area.
Speaking of earthquake and sporting events- the Loma Prieta (spelling?) quake in 1989 occured DURING the World Series, between the SF Giants and Oakland Athletics no less. That's why media accounts mentioned the SF Giants game and the SJ Sharks game.
We get 5.2 quakes in CA several times a year. They're not even half as bumpy as a takeoff aboard an airliner. I felt it, and though it was rather lengthy, was not very noticable (and I'm near the epicenter).
I was practically on top of the epicenter of the Loma Prieta quake in 1989, a 7.2 quake. Now *that's* an earthquake. Anything less than that is barely worth mentioning, especially here.
I like your sister's web site. Only the sibling of a gook slut could troll as poorly as you do.
I want to see some more profanity, damnit. More links to torn-out assholes. More rips on the core Linux hackers. Boooyah!
Heh. I guess I'm just a jaded California. I'm in Santa Cruz, which is about 30 minutes from Gilroy. When it started shaking, my wife and just I got under the nearest doorway and hoped the monitor wouldn't fall off my desk. 10 seconds later we went back to normal life. My poor manager is from Canada and was apparently a bit more shaken up. =:)
Perfect 'California Moment'(tm): We're sitting there, with the earth shaking back and forth, when someone a few apartments down shouts "ROCK ON!!" and the whole complex busts out cheering and laughing.
I thought the epicenter was on the surface. The hypocenter was the point of origin, below the epicenter.
I wuz layin there an sure n begorra duh bed started shakin, thought I had gas!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
I really, really didn't mean to let it all out at once but I would have exploded if I didn't.
I was also an earthquake virgin. It was a pretty easy one. The desk I was sitting at started squeaking, so I got up and stood in the doorway.
:)
I live about 10 miles from the epicenter [Salinas], so the shaking was definite, but mostly an easy roll.
While I have no interest in being in a huge quake, with massive damage or loss of life, I must admit to being completely fascinated by earthquakes. I'd like to be outside for a smallish one to get a better view of the ground rolling.
of course, I'm also kind of fascinated by tornadoes, so maybe I'm just a nut
Ender
Nothing to see here
Earthquakes in CA? Geez, c'mon! Why is this even making headlines? We had a 5.3 quake up in NY two weeks ago. That's a bit more interesting, isn't it?
I was watching the Avs vs. Sharks game last night on CBC during the 3rd period when the camera started to shake slightly. The commentators (being Canadian) were going off all excited about how they had just sat through an earthquake and noted how completely indifferent the fans were as if they didn't even notice it.
Okay, so when an earthquake happens in California, which is a normal thing to happen, it's posted on the front page, but when an earthquake shakes the northeast (which hasn't happened since 1983) it's not news? What's up with that?
At the beginning, it felt like someone drove a semi into the side of the house. At first, I thought, "What the FSCK???", and then realized it was a quake. My pregnant wife and 2-year old daughter were on the couch with me, watching the end of Dinotopia. I grabbed the kid, stood up, and reached down to assist my wife, all the while things are falling and breaking around me. By the time I reached the archway in that room, the quake had ended, and we had LOTS of broken pictureframes and other things tossed out of cupboards.
My office took the brunt of the quake in our home, with all my DVDs, books, and software flying off the shelves and piling itself in the middle of the room. (A strange earthquake phenonmeon - it looks like a ghost ran through the room and piled all your belongings in a huge heap.) Luckily, my computer rack remained standing, and my Linux box and Sun Ultra 5 were still humming along, with no damage. I wound up sleeping with my amateur radio and a flashlight next to the bed, just in case... And we had several aftershocks throughout the night, the most notable being about a 3.4.
We were lucky, we didn't have any structual damage (that I can see, anyhow, I plan on having a home inspector out within the week). A neighbor down the street had his chimney collapse, the gas station across town had a column on their roof get damaged, and the Wal-Mart's sprinklers went off, dumping a quarter-inch of water on the floor there and damaging lots of merchandise.
Anyone who makes light of earthquakes hasn't been in one that's 5.x or higher. A large quake is a true natural disaster, and something to be feared and prepared for.
chrisd, I'd be interested to find out where your sister's father-in-law lives - there's no way you could have barely noticed this sucker if you were in my house.
What's really condemning of Oregonian toughness (there ain't none) is that they won't let you pump your own gas at the filling station. Not sure if it's a liability issue or full-employment measure for the "well-trained" workforce (*ahem*). Almost as dumb as a Californian ban on smoking in bars...(don't get me wrong: I enjoy not being around cigarettes at restaurants but I can't imagine a bar without putrid smoke -- and how are mother's to know their sons/daughters are bar hopping without the olfactory evidence on the morning wash?)
BTW, why does a non-event like a tiny earthrumble in SF get a frontpage story when the South Orange County fire, a mile from my house, gets no mention? Do you realize the wealth concentrated in the 5 miles surrounding this fire? There are a few areas within CA that are home to the wealth-generators making California one of the world's great economies...South Orange County has to be considered one of these areas. Yes, parts of SF area are also in this category. Perhaps SF/LA/OC news events should receive greater attention on /., considering the impact such events can have on the world of technology...and pr0n, of course. Am I rambling? There is a little bird at my window... "Hi, little bird. Join me for breakfast? I'm having an omelette. Oops."
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
A measely 5.2 is all you got today? Hurry up and fall in the ocean dammit!
I took my wife (California native) to see my family in Wisconsin. She was in Santa Cruz for Loma Prieta, and saw cars bouncing in the air, wires snapping, the whole earthquake horror show. She says it was no big deal.
Driving from Milwaukee we had some impressive lightning with a little bit of rain, but not much by Midwest standards. This freaked her out, the way the bolts lit up the sky and looked like they were hitting the Earth. I wonder what she would do if hit by a real Midwest storm, 80 MPH winds, buckets of rain and thunder that you can feel in your bones.
Every place has its disasters, and the locals are generally non chalant about them. I still expect now that all my relatives back East joke about earthquakes all the time that we'll get another New Madrid quake.
I prefer The Onion's headline for the 1906 SF earthquake:
Earth-Quake Marks Least Gay Day In San Francisco History
Interesting things that happen during a quake:
- Power tranformers short out. Makes really neat blue-green flashes off in the distance
- Car alarms go off all at once.
- The quake itself is very loud, like a freight train rumbling right by
- All the lights go out (except emergency lighting). Gets very dark all the sudden at 4AM
- The air is very dusty. Think of a quake as like shaking a rug. In the San Fernando Valley, they actually had folks with respiratory infections after the 1994 quake, due to fungus spores that were scattered about by the action.
My version of the Richter scale:
- 4.0 : Cable TV out
- 5.0 : Telephone out
- 6.0 : Electricity out
Never felt anything more than that. I don't think the Nortridge quake quite made a 7.0
Sorry, wrong coast. The Pacific Ocean is on your left.
The last earthquake in the Bay Area that did any noticable damage was in 1989, 13 years ago. How long ago did the last major hurricane trash the Eastern Seaboard? How long since the last tornado tore up houses/trailer parks in the midwest? Less than a year in both cases, I'll betcha.
Actually, earthquakes are nothing -- the real killer in California is floods. Every year, several houses get major flood damage, and it's an unusual year when at least one house isn't destroyed by floods. Earthquakes are just a little harmless fun, normally.
Hey, waitaminute...'termchimp' nick, 'my spoon is too big' sig...you wouldn't happen to be an HP engineer, would you?
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
To disrupt the Avs, some fans will do anything to win.
In my hometown of Lennoxville/Huntingville. Why wasn't that on Slashdot? Why is this on Slashdot?
sigh
- If This Peace Is Fictious, I Shall Destroy It
I just got back from a "vacation" in hawaii and it was in fact raining like hell. I did not feel the earthquake (I might not anyway - 5.2 isn't that big) here in the bay area.
So, yes, lets report on rain in Hawaii. Its very important
I was sitting in the theater last night watching Spider Man for the first time with my girlfriend. It was a quiet scene, nothing going on but dialog when all the sudden the theater started shaking. (AMC 20 by Great America in San Jose).
:P
At first I was like damn, NICE BASS!!! Then I was like wait a minute, nothing is happening in the movie.
My next instinct was thinking "oooh shit a tornado is outside!" I am from Michigan, so thats why that makes sense. Then I thought wait a minute, I am in a concrete building reinforced with steel and it was not raining outside 30 minutes ago.
Then I realized what was going on and everyone in the theater was freaking out. A few people left.
The guy next to me nervously said "hey man.... was that an earthquake?". I wanted to say something smart assed like no, I just ripped a big one... but nothing came to me fast enough
Modesty is one of life's greatest attributes
where's the news? the fire didn't get to any of the houses and nobody died. except for the huge amount of smoke there was nothing to see. the enormous fire (bigger than this OC fire) in the angles national forest north of LA is far bigger news.
There are a few areas within CA that are home to the wealth-generators making California one of the world's great economies.
and i have to take issue with your assertion that these people who have so much money (and almost lost a little due to natural disaster) deserve news coverage. I am working in the office (in foot hill ranch) of one of those 'wealth-generators' please do not mistake personal gain for wealth generation -- they are making millions by selling made-in-sweatshop-crap that people don't really need at prices 10 times what they paid for it. the wealth generators are those who made the product and get fucked up the ass every time they get paid (way less than minimum wage for an american and barely living wage in thier own country).
fear is the mind killer
If only id software/Activision would make Quake 5...
Given the timing, I think I must have been in the shower, or on my way to it. It was either that, or sitting on the couch watching the Sharks game. I'm in Cupertino, and didn't feel anything. The strange thing is, my girlfriend lives less than a mile from me, and she felt it.
;-)
I know this is going to sound kooky, but I feel disappointed that I didn't experience it.
Oh, and I'm originally from the midwest, and tornadoes frighten and intrigue me about the same as I figure earthquakes would, if I could ever feel one! I know, that's the wrong thing to go wishing for, so I won't.
I'm sorry sandwich! --Brak
You are the Editor in Chief?
You are the worst English speaker. How the hell did you get editor title? Letting a gay man rape your man-like hairy ass and he was also the boss or something?
You are a dog. You are a cunt and a bitch. I hate you, Loli slut.
I had to read up on you. You are a poser, a loser and a liar, a doppelganger, a fucking ridiculous person full of conjecture.
You are also a fat pig, and are of low intelligence. I laugh at you.
You pretend to be useful, smart attractive and interesting. You are none of these. Fucking die, please?
That says it right there, stupid. I haven't got a single dime for any of my work on OSNews.
You are an idiot, Loli. No one would actually pay you for your work because you are worth nothing.
Baxter Meowmix.
I was about to get undressed for bed, and all of a sudden it felt like some heavy person was running around (I'm on the third floor of a crappy apartment complex). We (my wife and I) soon realized it was something else, an earthquake. It felt like a very stiff vertical shaking.
I have a co-worker who lives in Gilroy, he was less than a few miles from the epicenter. He and his wife felt it big time. They also got no sleep because of the after shocks.
Those in the Bay area who didn't feel it either smoke crack or, like my friend, were driving down the highway (one that's got enough dips in it that your car bounces around anyway) at some ungodly speed. To be felt so strongly 50 miles away, you had to feel it much closer.
Also, I read that there was a game in San Jose, which continued uninterrupted. You gotta wonder, sports are more important than your own life, and living in California with so many quakes that you don't get concerned unless your home/building falls down. My co-worker had pictures flying off the wall, shelves flapping around like crazy..
It's insane, and quite scary. You can't imagine what it's like until you've experienced one. And then you can't anticipate either, because they're not exactly the same each time, some are rollers some are shakers and I'm sure some just go psycho.
... I was to damn busy watching the Sharks games! (Which they lost.. At that point i wished it was a 7.0 earthquake so they would have stop the game)
I am Pakistani And No! I do not own a 7/11! And my NAME is not Apu! --Zuhaib
yes!
2 08 &mode=thread
4 24 3&mode=thread
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/09/20/219
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/10/18/231
The quake was 4.7 miles below the surface. The epicenter was in Gilroy. The prefix epi means above, thus the epicenter is the point on the earths surface that is above the quake.
I was next to the ESPN camera at the Sharks game. The camera guy was looking at his rig like something funny was going on. Having a lens zoomed in on the play really exacerbates the real movement of the quake. They had just dropped the puck in the CO end when it hit. No one on the ice seemed to notice. Good thing it wasn't a big one or it might have taken a light fixture falling on the ice for them to notice!
Maybe the coolest thing was the cop behind me getting the magnitude over his radio in less than a minute. Guess the cops out here are tied pretty closely with USGS. The worst part of the evening (besides the SHarks losing) was that the nearest beer cart to my seat was selling only labatt's.
_damnit_
It's my job to freeze you. -- Logan's Run
Why would you work for such a sleaze? I blame you for enabling the scum.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
It was my McCauley http://www.mccauley.com
Their speakers Rock, I was listening to Linkin Park, and I accidently turned the volume up to 11.
Sorry it won't happen again.. 8')
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
i like to think about it this way, since i grew up with tornadoes (and this was also my first really noticeable quake): you can get away from a tornado, you've got plenty of warning most of the time, and you can see them coming. good luck doing that with an earthquake.
The strange thing is, my girlfriend lives less than a mile from me, and she felt it.
The Richter scale is a measure of the energy released by the earthquake. It's a single number (when sufficiently refined) for any given earthquake. The Modified Mercalli Scale, OTOH, measures the intensity as recorded at various places. For any location, (related to a given quake) it will vary by distance from epicenter, topography, substrate (bedrock, fill, alluvial fill, San Francisco bay mud, etc.), refraction effects and many other factors. Usually it's some time after a quake before enough local reports are gathered to begin mapping according to the scale. In the end, it looks like a quilt with the intensity zones (numbered I to VII, IIRC) being continuous in places and isolated in other places. Kind of like the way the intensity of thunder varies depending on whether you're line of sight (OK, hearing), other side of the hill, in a valley, etc.
What I really remember about that one is that I heard it coming a second or so before it hit.
Did you start meowing and running in circles?
I guess she meant it when she said she was going to shake up the town!
Name: Eugenia Loli-Queru
Title: Editor-in-Chief
Email: eugenia@osnews.com
Personal website: http://www.eugenia.co.uk/
Birthday: 24th May, 1973
Current residence: Foster City (San Francisco Bay Area), CA, USA
Short biography: I worked for 2 years at BeNews, serving the BeOS and its community, and before that I was contributing as a news editor for a well known Gaming news site for about 8 months and I also co-held a fan site (LandOfEden) in the early development days of Lionhead's Black'n'White. For more information about me, you can always check my homepage.
I am Greek and english is not my native language. We do OSNews for fun (however, OSNews takes most of my time every day), so if you have a problem with my spelling and grammar either a) do not come back (spare us and save your time too) b) send me a proofread version of the article in question.
Whining about something I can't radically improve overnight, is not an option.
You are fat. You are stupid. You smell like a Greek pig. Your english is admittedly crappy. You are a stupid foul person. BeOS is dead. You picked a loser OS, figures as much. Fuck you for that.
OSNews being done for fun doesn't make it suck less. Linux is for Fun, and its good. Don't do shit, fun or not, if its going to SUCK, you fucker.
You told me not to come back to OSNews, I sure as fuck wont. IT sucks. You suck. Your writing sucks. Go abck to greasy greece. Dog.
Speech is spelled wrong in your sig.
Incredible, you're a limitless source to your own discredit! Speaking of rambling, check out your final sentence. It's completely botched, unintelligable and of no apparent relevance to your previous sentences. I find it highly amusing that you bothered to use italics while not bothering to proofread it! pls fix, thx, moron!
Since a quake just hit Taiwan, about 24 hours later, measuring 6.2? Go figure, two slashdot articles tied together...
(kind of late reply)
i rarely do work for them anymore -- nothing more than the occasional db backup. no development. the company i work for develops software for clients, they are a client and we happen to work in the same building. when i started extending thier inventory software i didn't know what the business model was -- just that they had lots of inventory and needed to know where it was. I think you will find that this is not an uncommon business model.
anyways, i am trying to find another job but i'm not having luck -- after this i don't want to work for any company whose business i disagree with. that eliminates most prospective employers. my debts will be paid off soon and then i'll jettison this job for almost anything. as long as i agree with the business practices.
fear is the mind killer
What do you do? Drop me an email.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
It wasn't too much to get excited about. I'm in Berkeley, and my monitor jiggled side-to-side a bit, but that was it.