Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Earthquakes and other Non-Events

So we got this earthquake earlier today. A 4.9 (originally estimated at a 5.3, this is a significant reduction) outside of Yucaipa. Do I know where Yucaipa is? Uh, not really--but I know the general area, and I definitely wouldn't call it the "Greater Los Angeles Area" as the USGS site does. It's not even in Los Angeles County. It's not even in Orange County (which, for the non-Californians, is East and South of Los Angeles County).

But anyway, like Sunday's quake it really wasn't a big deal at all. Sunday's was in Anza, which is extremely close to the summer camp I used to work at. While Sunday's quake was larger, a 5.2, we didn't feel it as much as this afternoon's quake. Of course, Sunday's quake was further away (they didn't even bother to claim the "Greater Los Angeles Area" for that one), it also was a much smoother rolling motion than today's. Today's was also noticeably shorter. I suppose I could have ducked under my desk (the appropriate thing to do in a quake) but by the time the thought processed and it would have taken me to get out of my chair and get down there, the quake was over. And I was sitting at my desk, so that should give you an idea of how short it was.

As for the Tsunami warning--well as I reported below, we were at Disneyland the entire evening and missed the festivities entirely. We're also nowhere near the coast so I wouldn't have worried there. We also don't watch TV and rarely listen to the radio in the house so chances are good we only would have seen it on the internet and would have missed the frenzy anyway.

So that's your earthquake update. Back to you, Tom.