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Central U.S. Earthquake Info

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the rock-and-roll dept.

ronbo142 writes "The United States Geological Survey site has real time (or close to it) information on the now two significant events of the day. Check out their site to enter your experience and view other event specific information."

2 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Re:5.2 is not a big quake by Kelson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'll admit, my first thought as a lifelong Californian was, "What, only 5.2?"

    Of course, when we get half an inch of rain here, the TV starts blathering about STORMWATCH 2008. It's all about what's typical for the region.

  2. Re:5.2 is not a big quake by Thumper_SVX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Becuase although on the global scale it's pretty small, on the local scale of Southern Illinois it's a doozy. I live in St. Louis, and for many of my peers (being in my mid 30's) it's the first quake that's been felt in living memory. Sure there have been smaller magnitude 2 or 3 quakes, but the last 5.x quake in the area was in 1968... before I was even born. Granted, I'm not a St. Louis native, either.

    I have to admit though, the first one I probably would have slept through had it not been for my wife panicking and connecting her elbow with my face, but the second I felt as I was sitting at my desk at work and watched my monitors wobble back and forth. The second I could've easily mistaken for a large convoy of trucks going past the office if only our office was on a bridge over the highway. The first, once I was standing up (thanks to the expedient of body parts) was enough to shake the entire house and toppled a table lamp. Other than that at first my rather groggy brain started to wonder if it was just something freaky happening with my house until I opened the back door to let my dog out and heard what sounded like a rioting zoo in the woods behind my house. Then I knew it was a quake, and then it was just a matter of going to USGS website and seeing what the magnitude was.

    Really quite an odd experience. Although they talk a lot about the New Madrid fault and how an earthquake of 7+ magnitude is overdue, you don't really think about it much until a quake really hits. On the bright side, maybe this mornings tremors will make people think more about earthquakes and the effect they can have.

    5.2 is a big quake to those who've never felt one before. My personal high is a 6.8 but that wasn't in St. Louis, either :)