Magnitude 5.3
Well, Today was interesting. I started a training class today. It's in another building at work, on main campus. Interesting, I've never been over there early in the morning before. Learned whole new traffic patterns and where to park, even tho it's only about a mile from where my building is. Kinda cool to be on main campus, I liked it.
And then right during class, about 3:30, an earthquake hit. I used to live next to the Gap factory in Gallatin, Tennessee. I've been thru about 50 times as many earthquakes as most Californians have. Let me explain...see, this Gap factory was huge. Something like a mile square was the rumor. And they were constantly building onto it. And so almost every day for 6 months, at 8am and 5pm, they would blast. An alarm would go off that was so far away yet still pretty damn loud. And then the ground would shake for about a second. Pretty voilent too. Sometimes it would just shake plates and glasses and stuff, once or twice it made my bed thump gently against the wall, and once it actually knocked stuff off the top of my TV. The school I worked at was nearby, we had a seismometor in one of the buildings to measure the quakes...to make sure it wasn't cracking any foundations. I was so suprized to come to California and sleep thru nearly all the earthquakes we had. I felt one once about 2am a few years ago. I just thought they'd be stronger.
Well, this one was definatly stronger. I was on the 2nd floor of a building. I watched the ceiling move independant of the floor. Tiny bits of ceiling and stuff landed in my hair. And aftershocks too, about 30 seconds long. Damn, that was kinda scary and neat at the same time. I felt the quick panic that came as everybody ducked under the desks. That pic above was while the aftershocks were still happening. I guess being on the 2nd floor exaggerated it. I snatched a few images off the web that show neat things. California Quake Map, Seismic Hazard map of So Cal, Shake Map and a detailed area map. It's neat to watch the sites because they keep upgrading the size. At first they thought it was a 4.7 East of LA. Then they scratched that completely and put it at 5.1 out in the water. Then they have been moving closer to SD and are up to 5.3 now. heh.
Tracy missed it, she was in the air, coming back from Ohio. Never picked anybody up at terminal 2 before. Cool plane!