Earthquake 4.5 hits Illinois - Dekalb

a couple hours ago I was sitting here reading posts on ATS when I heard a loud POW and my house shook for a few seconds.

My son comes up asking what's happened.

I thought of a hugh tree or something falling.

Turned on the news and it was a 4.5 earthquake.

Natually my husband and dog slept through the whole thing.

A little un-nerving.

And, a 4.5 is a "tiny" one.

Cannot imagine what the Haitians have gone through.

Hope there are no aftershocks.

Blizzards, earthquake - hope thats it for a while.


[edit on 10-2-2010 by ofhumandescent]

Hi,
It's a bit unsettling when you experience your first quake isn't it?

Mine was in 1977 in Perth, Western Australia as a shock from a large quake in Indonesia set off a smaller event in the region. I was sitting at a table and noticed the swaying around me, which I took to be strong wind on the 3 story building I was in. Silly me.

Many years later I moved to New Zealand and experienced numerous quakes there on an almost daily basis, although not too many did anything more than rock the vehicles I was working on.

In the third month of living there we moved to a small apartment above the restaurant my wife worked at. Late one night as I lay in bed talking I noticed our cat spring from the bed and run into the family room where he stood, tail and ears up, waiting. I wonderd what he was doing, then heard deep thunder coming from below us and far off towards the sea.

Wihin seconds we heard what sounded like an elephant bounce across the roof.. then the whole world began to violently move around. My bed on wheels rolled away from the wall and back again over and over.. the bricks at the top of ourbuilding slapped against the building next door. I stumbled over to the large windows and looked outside to see the power poles shaking back and forth like somene waving a small flag in their hand!

Amazing and quite scarey too at the time. Later we learned we were living right on a major fault line that had devastated the cityin the late 1890's. We moved then.

Glad to hear you are okay, and sorry for the length of my reply.

Looks as if it may have been down graded to a 3.8

You should report what you felt anyway.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

Yep, my sister in laws mother lives there, and I first heard about it on facebook from here this morning. What a strange place for an earthquake.

Strange that there was a quake there in a spot that normally does not have them.

If I was a conspiring type individual and wondering if there was anything happening underground near by that could have possibly accidentally produced this temblor.

I would look here.Fermilab

It is less than 20 miles away from the quake location

Did you all think there was only a collider in Switzerland?

[edit on 10-2-2010 by Oneolddude]

reply to post by PuterMan


The oddest thing was the noise, KAPOW - then a second or two later the jiggling.

The noise was more unsettling to me than the movement.

I thought earthquakes were silent, as I lived though a tremor in the early 60's in Missouri, no noise at all, just a ground trembling for about a full minute in silence.

This was faster, a POW and than my house shoke like jello for just 2-3 times sideways.

And, that was a little one.

Does anyone know why the KAPOW noise? Plates (rock) hitting together? I don't always hear very well and this was a sharp, loud noise.

reply to post by Tayesin


Really good description Tayesin. Yes I would have thought a thundering sound not a loud one second KAPOW. That's what confused me. Now I know so if it happens again I'm prepared.

Almost daily? Where they all the same, did they vary in nosie and jiggle?

The chair I was on didn't roll, it just jiggled side ways 2-3 times than stopped.

Back in the 60's I was babysitting and all of a sudden the entire house started trembling. No noise and the trembling lasted a full minute. I grabbed the three kids and ran out onto the uncovered driveway away from the house. That was unsettling, but watching the sugar and salt containers on the kitchen table clunk around I could at least figure out what was going on. The "tremor" was in Missioui, the next state over from Illinois. To me that was worse because it would stop for what seemed a long time.

This was almost like a POP.

Anyone else out there experience earthquakes, please tell us what you experienced.

I already gave some money to the Haitian Tradegy, but think I'm going to give more - boy what those poor souls went through.

reply to post by Oneolddude
One, really good post. Hmmmmmmmm

Interesting statement. Between the collider and HAARP who knows. Than again it was probably just a "natural event".

But, interesting and insightful premise you brought up.

I experienced a 5.5m earthquake in Sydney, Australia back in 1973 and I still remember it vividly. It occurred about 5.00am in the morning. I was wrenched from sleep as the bed started jolting and bumping across the floor. It was accompanied by an extremely loud and deep rumbling, kind of like thunder but with a different intensity and feel to it somehow. It just permeated the whole atmosphere. As the rumbling grew in intensity, a roaring, Hurricane-like wind noise seemed to rush towards us, engulf the house, then pass on (really weird and eerie). It lasted about 30 seconds all up and was very unnerving. The epicentre was in Picton, 80 kilometres from Sydney.

There was a nasty earthquake in Newcastle, NSW just north of Sydney back in December, 1989 which killed 13 people. I didn't feel that one but many people in Sydney did. Was quite a shock that something so devastating could happen here but it did happen. It was a 5.6m.

[edit on 11-2-2010 by Xlynyr]

If you have lived through a quake or tremor please enlighten us with your own personal experience.

I am now very interested in this.

What if anything did you hear?

What if anything did you feel?

Please advise.

Thank you.