I felt an earthquake today!

For many, this is not interesting news, but for me in New England, right in the middle of a massive no-earthquake zone, it was awesome. I've slept through the only other two noticeable earthquakes we've had in my lifetime. I was babysitting a couple kids, when the house started shaking. I didn't totally believe it was a quake until 20 minutes later when I checked Facebook and everybody was talking about it. It was magnitude 4.6 and originated in Maine. As there was no actual damage, it was pretty cool. The little girl I was watching was really scared though. I felt bad cause I couldn't explain to her that there is no possible way that an earthquake will ever do any direct harm to New England. Worst thing that could happen is somebody's rock sculpture might fall over.

Earthquakes can happen in a lot of places that people don't expect them. As the US Geological Survey says, fault lines aren't always visible, particularly those east of the Rockies (i.e. in "not-earthquake-y" areas). I know, for instance, there's a fairly major semi-active fault running through the Midwest. Due to the more-solid bedrock, a weaker earthquake can also propagate a lot farther in "less-earthquake-y" areas.

Not to mention that a quake can originate in an earthquake-prone zone and if the circumstances are right, the waves can travel to an area where they're not common and it'll still be felt. For that matter, I currently live in Perth, Australia, and geologists are baffled by the fact that there is a fairly large fault line running down almost the entire state (or at least the bottom half of it) and yet there haven't been any earthquakes there - all quakes seem to happen further inland where there don't appear to be any (or at least many) fault lines. Go figure.

Having said that, I've lived most of my life on the Pacific Ring of Fire - New Zealand, Dunedin and Christchurch, to be specific, so I'm rather used to earthquakes. Mostly little ones, but I was in Christchurch last year when we had 4 quakes 5.0 or above within a 24 hour period (and that's not counting the numerous smaller aftershocks) - they were all very shallow and it was - a little terrifying actually. The largest of that set was 6.0 and it was the biggest quake I'd ever been in - and it did cause damage (liquifaction mainly).

Being originally from NH i wish i was there to experience it, never thought anything that big would happen. About 10 years ago NY got a small one but only rattled plates on walls.

Tiny earthquakes happen all the time out in the west. There was a 6.8 one that hit several years ago when I was in school.

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Originally Posted by An Enemy Spy

Tiny earthquakes happen all the time out in the west. There was a 6.8 one that hit several years ago when I was in school.

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Tell me you're not lumping the 6.8 in with the 'tiny' earthquakes... :smalleek: 6.8 is not exactly what I would call tiny...

6.8 is not tiny, but not big either. Remember that the Richter scale is exponential so a 7 is much more than a 6.

Well, the magnitude isn't everything. Depending on how far is the epicenter, how deep is the hypocenter, and on the geological quirks of the area, a 6.8 can cause anything, from a minor shake to complete devastation.

I'm in an active region, and we generally don't notice minor earthquakes. The biggest recorded one in these parts was a 7.8, and they've estimated a few in the distant past upwards of 8. In recent years, we expect some trouble from 6 to 7+, ignore smaller ones, and hope we never get a "big one".

The biggest scare I got out of an earthquake was a 6.7, when I was 4 years old. The epicenter was 90km away, but still we felt it pretty well - I remember panic and running (and me crying in my dad's arms :smallredface:). A lot of damage, about 20 casualties.

What counts as "the big one" in my hometown (years later, and I wasn't there at the time) was a mere 6. But the epicenter was very close, the hypocenter was extremely shallow, the fault was unknown, and it hit harder areas with factories and working class residences, where the buildings were quite old. So we ended up with 50,000 people homeless and ~150 casualties. Almost a third of these were workers in a single factory, which collapsed like a house of cards. (Safety regulations, you say? Never heard of them.) :smallannoyed:

But I gotta say, knowing how this earthquake freaked us out, I can't even imagine the effect of earthquakes with casualties in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands... :smalleek:

I FELT my first earthquake a few weeks ago. It was a 3.9 centred basically below my feet, and I'm on the 4th floor. My chair was vibrating and my dishes rattled.

I'd been in an earthquake around the same size before, but I was in the basement and didn't notice at all.

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Originally Posted by MikelaC1

6.8 is not tiny, but not big either. Remember that the Richter scale is exponential so a 7 is much more than a 6.

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But only about 58% more powerful than a 6.8, rather than ten times as powerful.

I thought I felt things shaking and took my temperature in case of fever. A bit later a friend came on Skype and said there was an earthquake in Maine. I did the maths and it would've hit here (Long Island) within a minute or so of when I thought things were shaking (I had a Skype timestamp on that). Is it possible a smallish earthquake would reach out to here, though? Or was it just a weird coincidence that I felt things shaking then? Or am I psychic?

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Originally Posted by Lady Moreta

Tell me you're not lumping the 6.8 in with the 'tiny' earthquakes... :smalleek: 6.8 is not exactly what I would call tiny...

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No. I meant we get things around one or two on the scale all the time(once caused by the Seahawks beating the Saints, true story), and the 6.8 was a particularly memorable one.

I grew up in the midwest. When I enlisted, I was stationed in California for a while. I remember my first earthquake. It was a 2.8 or something. I starting freaking out, and everyone around me was like "psshhh, chill out!"

2.8? That's adorable.

It's been a while since I felt the earth move. It's also been a fair while since I experienced an earthquake too.