Earthquake in LA!

Originally posted by haaat
Felt this over in Anaheim. Think I've been reading too many 'big one' articles/threads over the years because the first thing to always pop into my head is '..this is it'.

For those who have never felt an earthquake, they really have no idea how that 1st second or 2 feels. It has to be the most helpless feeling there is just waiting to see how big it will be.

I was pretty close to the Northridge quake in 94 and I honestly thought it was all over. Not a good feeling at all.

The synchronicity of a 4.4 hitting at 4:04 AM is a bit strange indeed.

All the early morning national news shows seeming to hype it up with big headlines and pictures is a little embarrassing. This was no Chile, and one would certainly not post an F1 tornado as an F5.

Usually most quakes like this one are missed because one is involved with the movement of daily activities and don't "feel" or hear anything. But, yes, it's possible to feel or hear a quake of this magnitude, at 4 in the morning in bed.

I was 176 miles away from the Northridge quake, thought my spouse was making the bed shake by getting out of it until I realized he was still next to me asleep. OTOH I was 8 miles from the epicenter of a 3plus magnitude one night in the desert, and there was an extremely loud bang and rattling of the bedroom window, greatly more so than from a sonic boom.

I remember when I did start to feel an earthquake, I would think, ok, is this just the start of a large one or is this all of it. Plus there's the duration, and a few seconds can seem a lot longer when you're shaking.

I remember as a kid wanting to sleep through a 6.1, but my mother rousted us out of bed to stand in a doorway. And I kept thinking, as the shaking went on and bright flashes lit the windows (from lines and transformers hitting), hey, maybe this is the end of the world.

C88, make sure you have hard sole shoes in your emergency bundle, for walking over glass shards. My sister kept a pair in the car, too.

reply to post by conspiracy88


Not only did he not state the magnitude, some of the other references are to sites that have not got a clue about earthquakes - making predictions on the basis of 'cosmic' fortune telling rather than any scientific fact, and the USGS data thus:

Table 1. Probabilities of one or more M>=6.7 earthquakes in the SFBR, 2003-2032. Source Fault Probability 95% Confidence Bounds
SFBR region 0.62 [0.37 to 0.87]

San Andreas 0.21 [0.02 to 0.45]
Hayward/Rodgers Crk 0.27 [0.10 to 0.58]
Calaveras 0.11 [0.03 to 0.27]
Concord/Green Valley 0.04 [0.00 to 0.12]
San Gregorio 0.10 [0.02 to 0.29]
Greenville 0.03 [0.00 to 0.08]
Mt. Diablo thrust 0.03 [0.00 to 0.08]
Background 0.14 [0.07 to 0.37]

does not exactly tell you much other than there possibly will be a 6.7 or greater between now and 2032.

At the end of the day a 4.4 is small fry. This is not a slight on your feelings about the earthquake, merely a comment upon it as an event.

As far as stating that there will be an earthquake in California on any given day there were for example 46 yesterday the largest of which was 3.0, so yes I can tell you with absolute certainly that there will be an earthquake in California tomorrow as well.

This quake has been well noted in QuakeWatch 2010 which is the place for quakes that are less than 6.0 magnitude.

[edit on 16/3/2010 by PuterMan]

I live in Orange county and woke up from the shaking. Definitely felt bigger. My husband however didn't wake up, and by the time I had considered just taking the cat, which I had scooped up on auto pilot and running, it was over.

yeah I noticed the synchronicity of 4:04 and a 4.4 magnitude. I had posted on a different post that I dreamed of one hitting on 3/15....so close, yet so far away.

Originally posted by conspiracy88

So this earthquake just shook for only like 5 seconds but I swear I thought it was the big one! It shook really hard and my initial thoughts definitely were not a 4.4. It was nuts! This felt a lot worse than the last 4.0 we had. Last 4.0 was more of a fun ride, this was no joke, one of the scariest moments of my life. Maybe it was just because it woke me up in the middle of the night which I'm glad it did because I've always wondered if an earthquake in the middle of the night can wake me quickly enough. I was out of bed and ready to run outside with my pack of smokes in like half a second hahahaha! This is it people, pray for your sins!!!!! (just playing, I don't want to fear monger)

www.data.scec.org
(visit the link for the full news article)
[edit on 16-3-2010 by conspiracy88]

My thoughts exactly. I've never felt that b4. Woke me right up! 4.4??? Wow I DO NOT WANT TO FEEL ANY BIGGER THAN THIS.

[edit on 16-3-2010 by jboogienoj]

If you search the internet there are many references numerology meanings to 4444. I don't think it was an accident that the quake was a 4.4 at 4:04 AM. Apparently, a lot of people are seeing this same number come up in their lives over and over and over.

reply to post by haaat

On a lighter note I found it humorous that the earthquake was a 4.4 at 4:04am.

I dunno why but that's more unsettling than the quake lol!

Freaky...

:O

I live in Aliso Viejo (OC) about 35 miles from the epicenter. This quake woke me out of a dead sleep! Not sure if it was the shaking of my bed, a noise, or what, but I jumped up just as it hit. It was short but it scared the crap out of me. Maybe it doesn't help that I have a three story town home and my master is on the top floor, but this was a weird quake. I have felt other mid 4 quakes before, but this was a sharp jolt. When it stopped, I just waited for it to start all over again, bigger and stronger. But it didn't. I know many are saying this was a tiny quake, but this hit in a highly populated area. And no matter how many quakes I feel, they all terrify me.

I have heard a lot of Californians say this felt bigger than a 4.4..... I am also a native Californian, and so have been through a LOT of small quakes in the past... I tend to trust you folks in your assessment of this.

It was a shallow quake, which might account for some of the feeling of it being bigger. I know I am jumpier than usual with all the earthquake activity of late... and having been in SF in 1989, I do know what a truly big quake feels like, and what it can do.....

im in so cal didnt feel anything, but i was near epicenter of the northridge EQ nothing like a big tv falling on ya with books but besides that hope everyone stays safe

much love