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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.
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.
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!
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.
It was a big one. It was just very deep in the earth, didn't cause much damage. If it was near the surface we would have had probably one of worst earthquakes in history. Glad we didn't.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.