Shake, rattle, and roll

Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
Yep, some shake, and they shake a lot. Then there are the ones that rattle. But the best are the ones that roll. We be talking about...

EARTHQUAKE

This morning at 4:49 PDT we had a 4.6 earthquake about 60 miles northeast of us. This one was none of the above. It was more like someone slammed the door. Or even better, as if a 2000 lb bomb was dropped. Just a audible "bang" and at the same time, my chair shifted to the left then to the right. Done. There was some minor rattling of some objects but nothing to write on SBO about.

I think I have felt two of the worst earthquakes I have ever had the pleasure to be in. One was the Northridge quake in '94. The other was the Big Bear quake in '92. Both of those had all the shake, rattle, and roll. Northridge was around 4 a.m. and the whole bed and house were rolling and shaking. Lasted what seemed like forever. Big Bear quake was also in the early morning. I was in an RV and it too started rolling, shaking, and we had a radio tower next to us that was swaying.

Tell us about your experience with earthquakes!
 
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Nov 1, 2017
635
Catalina 25 Sea Star Base Galveston, TX
I live in Texas, so thankfully, no earthquakes down here! We do have flooding and hurricanes though :( those are always pretty bad, especially here in Houston.
 
Nov 30, 2015
1,336
Hunter 1978 H30 Cherubini, Treman Marina, Ithaca, NY
"On August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit Mineral, Virginia, about 90 miles southwest of Washington D.C. The temblor was the strongest east of the Mississippi since 1944, and was felt by more people than any other quake in U.S. history, reaching 12 states and several Canadian provinces."

We felt it up here in Binghamton, NY.

My lab chair moved, it was very interesting, but also nothing to write home about.

I'm just happy I don't have to out run lava flows.
 
Sep 25, 2008
7,075
Alden 50 Sarasota, Florida
Can't remember the date. Was in LA at a business meeting with a sore back from sitting all day so decided to sit in a hot bath. Felt great until an earthquake sloshed all the water out of the tub. I felt pretty silly thinking I was going to die laying in an empty tub
 

pateco

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Aug 12, 2014
2,207
Hunter 31 (1983) Pompano Beach FL
We don't have Earthquakes, but we do have sinkholes.

Paynes Prairie (previously Alachua Lake)
Today, the former lake bed is covered with grasses and flowers, ringed by the hardwood forest that once stood on the lakeshore. Wild horses, scrub cows and bison roam the grassy bowl, known today as Paynes Prairie.

Now a state preserve, Paynes Prairie is traversed daily by thousands of motorists, as Interstate Highway 75 and U.S. Highway 441 cut across it just south of Gainesville.

Actually, the 18,000-acre prairie has been a lake several times in history, and could easily become one again if the Alachua Sink, the depression`s natural drain into the Florida aquifer, gets plugged up with logs and debris, Ranger Charlie Brown said.

That`s what happened in 1871. Paynes Prairie filled with water, eventually creating Alachua Lake, which steamboats regularly crossed for 15 years.

But in 1891, for reasons not known, the sink unblocked, and nature pulled the plug. In a few days, the lake waters drained out completely into the porous limestone below, leaving behind thousands of fish flopping in the mud and a steamer, the Chakala, stranded high and dry.An account from the Sept. 14, 1891, issue of the Providence Journal describes what happened:

``About four weeks ago (the waters) commenced going down with surprising rapidity, the lake falling about eight feet in 10 days, until now nothing is left of Alachua Lake but the memory of it.``
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
We had a rare one Sunday (5/6/18). The center was out in the Gulf, couple hundred miles from Baton Rouge; 4.6 I think was the number.. Some folks on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain reported feeling it but we here in BR did not..
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us1000dzed#executive
The only other one here that I remember was the big Alaska quake in 1964.. It shook south Louisiana like the bowl of Jell-O it is built on.. That one rolled enough to cause some bayous to drain for a few minutes before the water came back..
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
1989 Loma Prieta. Tore up the Bay Area. Stopped the world series. Splashed 2 feet of the water out of my back yard pool. My daughter was on the soccer field at practice. She reported waves coming across the soccer field. he called it land surfing. My wife was in a hardware store. All the things hanging from the ceiling and high shelves. She announced she was heading outside for the parking lot. Being a Teacher with an authoritative voice, all the male and female shoppers followed her like the Pied Piper.
Me, I was in Philadelphia on a business trip. Just sat down to dinner and to watch the game. pent the next hour on the phone making sure everyone was safe. Then the phone lines died from overload for 2 days.

After that it was the cleanup. Took a couple of years. Odd to see the Bay Bridge closed.
 
Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
I never felt a quake while I was stationed in California. I've seen the aftermath of big ones in CA and WA on trips there. It wasn't until recent years here in Kansas that I have experienced them. The popular theory is water injection into oil wells is causing them.
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
@Justin_NSA Not what I heard... California is scrunching east...:confused: Brown thinks in 100 years they can be nearly to Denver. :yikes:

Lots of quakes coming for the Mid West and plain states.:hook2:

Of Course that could all be theoretical balderdash...:laugh:
 

pateco

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Aug 12, 2014
2,207
Hunter 31 (1983) Pompano Beach FL
I never felt a quake while I was stationed in California. I've seen the aftermath of big ones in CA and WA on trips there. It wasn't until recent years here in Kansas that I have experienced them. The popular theory is water injection into oil wells is causing them.
Fracking does just that.


Pennsylvania confirms first fracking-related earthquakes

Earthquakes in Pennsylvania are relatively uncommon, though oil and gas-related earthquakes have been observed in Ohio and Oklahoma. In those cases, fracking waste disposal — not the fracking process itself — is usually the cause. In Ohio, a study found that 77 small earthquakes were linked to natural gas drilling around Poland Township in 2014, just over the state line from Lawrence County.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
"In Ohio, a study found that 77 small earthquakes were linked to natural gas drilling"
So the drilling for gas puts a tap into the gas balloon beneath the surface. As you deflate the balloon would there be settling? Are these settling shocks?
Quite different from tectonic plate adjustments along the San Andreas fault.
And why would they find natural gas and oil in Pennsylvania or Ohio?
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Woof! some of the earliest wells were there.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_petroleum_industry_in_the_United_States
The Pennsylvania oil was of such high quality that it was used as a premium standard in the motor oil industry for many years.. Premium oils (in cans) back in the day had the words "Pennsylvania Grade Oil" on them..
http://archives.datapages.com/data/phi/v14_2013/Abstracts/abs-bemko.htm
New synthetics and better processing of natural (dyno" in some circles) oils have surpassed the old standard..
Yup I worked for the big multinational, one of my jobs was being responsible for motor oil manufacture.. Fun Stuff.
 

pateco

.
Aug 12, 2014
2,207
Hunter 31 (1983) Pompano Beach FL
And why would they find natural gas and oil in Pennsylvania or Ohio?
Pennsylvania oil rush
The Pennsylvania oil rush was a boom in petroleum production which occurred in northwestern Pennsylvania from 1859 to the early 1870s. It was the first oil boom in the United States.

The oil rush began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in the Oil Creek Valley when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck "rock oil" there. Titusville and other towns on the shores of Oil Creek expanded rapidly as oil wells and refineries shot up across the region. Oil quickly became one of the most valuable commodities in the United States and railroads expanded into Western Pennsylvania to ship petroleum to the rest of the country.

By the mid-1870s, the oil industry was well established, and the "rush" to drill wells and control production was over. Pennsylvania oil production peaked in 1891, and was later surpassed by western states such as Texas and California, but some oil industry remains in Pennsylvania.
 
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Dave Groshong

SBO Staff
Staff member
Jan 25, 2007
1,864
Catalina 22 Seattle
I was in a big rig tractor in the NorthRidge quake, parked under an overpass trying to get some sleep, it felt like 2 huge guys pushing on either side of the tractor, I got out with a tire iron in my hand and couldn't even stand up, aluminum light poles were flapping like palm trees, it was surreal.
 
Jan 1, 2006
7,039
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
I was in an earthquake in of all places Columbus Ohio in probably 1980. I was laying on the couch where I lived Sunday morning and thought "Wow, this is some hangover." In a few seconds I thought "No the whole house is shaking." Being from LI I had no experience with earthquakes. But I knew something was going on that was outside my experience. It was the creaking of the framing of the building that got me off the couch and outside the building. "Holy crapski!" Trees were swaying. Later I found out the epicenter was near Cincinnati. It was a low 5 quake but very widespread in its range.
 
Jun 8, 2004
2,841
Catalina 320 Dana Point
I drove the lead engine in a strike team going from downtown LA to Santa Clarita, we had to take the old road, drove under the bridge with a semi dangling over our heads. Traffic came to a stop on the 2 lane road so I went into the opposing lane, most people will get out of the way for 7 fire engines. As we went by all the Police, Edison, Gas company, Water companies, phone, red cross etc. etc. stuck in traffic jumped in behind us. must have been a hundred by the time we got there.
 
Feb 14, 2014
7,399
Hunter 430 Waveland, MS
I have some Good News and Bad News about earthquakes.
First the Bad News...

For ALL of you Gulf Coast "no quakes and only hurricanes" folks...
The entire Gulf Area including Florida is one of most Geologically Active Areas in the USA.:yikes::yikes:

Now for the Good News...
We normally have about 20 Earthquakes each day! :confused:;):)

Therefore, we don't normally have the BIG ONE, since the geological pressures are almost continually Relived.

Guess when the number of Gulf Coast Earthquakes have HUGE increase?
Answer will be forthcoming after a few guesses.
______
Adding a bit more info to @kloudie1 post #6 above, check where that Gulf Earthquake occurred.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us1000dzed#map

Note the location on the Gulf Bottom.
Jim...

PS: I had an opportunity to learn about Gulf Coast Quakes, with the leading authority on them and their continued seismic studies.

PSS: Ever wonder what caused the end of the Dinosaurs?
 

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Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
I was dating my wife my senior year in high school 1982, Northern New Hampshire. Sleeping on the floor of her living room (weren't allowed to "get a room" together) when an earthquake woke us up at 1 am. The shelf of collectible China plates rattled a little. We lay together wondering what that was for a minute, then spent the next hour happy to have woken up in the dark, alone, with everyone else asleep ;).

- Will (Dragonfly)