Shake, rattle and roll

[Don P]

Did anyone else feel the earthquake around 8-8:30 this morning?
I had just gone in to pay at the gas station when it happened, for a second I thought someone had hit the building, but then they backed up and hit it several more times  :D. Apparently a 5.1 located about 20 miles south of us around Sparta NC. Pretty rare here, they said there were several tremors overnight and to expect several more. It did some damage to the civil war era chimney on the farm where we are working.

[Walnut Beast]

Wow. They just said on the news the last one like that was around the nineteen hundreds. Could be felt in Atlanta, Nashville and others

[Tom King]

I heard it, but didn't feel it.  It lasted longer than the one about a decade ago though.  We have some ocean racing boats, with multiple big block motors, that practice on the lake here.  I thought it strange that there was no doppler effect as it passed.

A friend was in bed, with his head against the headboard, about ten miles away.  He said he felt it.

The last one-don't remember the year, but about 10 years ago-I was looking out over the lake.  The water was glass smooth that day. I saw smooth waves going away from the bulkhead only, which was very strange, before hearing, or feeling anything.  Usually, waves come in, and the only ones that go out are a result of them bouncing off the bulkhead.

That one sounded like a Chinook helicopter was landing right on top of us. I wasn't worried about it crashing on us, because it sounded like it was running fine.  I was looking for the shadows of the blades on the ground, when the house started shaking.  That one was a lot closer to here.

We have solid granite not too far underground, so they get transmitted pretty good.

[Walnut Beast]

Very interesting Tom

[Tom King]

That last one I was talking about was farther East than today's.  It was a little South of Richmond, if I'm remembering that correctly.

[btulloh]

That last one I was talking about was farther East than today's.  It was a little South of Richmond, if I'm remembering that correctly.

A little northwest actually - Mineral, VA.  I didn't feel a thing from this one today, but the one in Mineral got my attention (much closer).  Later figured out that it had stressed the oil lines going to my underground oil tank and the pickup was only reaching the top half of the tank.  
Had more than a few earthquake experiences when I was living in LA.  Just part of life there, but unusual around here for sure.  Let's keep it that way.

[Don P]

I think that one was 2011 or 12. I think there is an ancient permian basin between us btulloh, not sure if that matters or not. We had built a house outside of downtown Mineral  :D some years prior so it raised some concern but no problems. We were building a house just over the mountain here when that one happened. Michelle was on a stepladder on top of 2 bucks of scaffold,(the scaffold would fit under the timber trusses allowing us to slide from one to the next and the ladder got her up to the top of the truss), when it hit. Woulda thunk on top of that she would have had quite a ride. We never knew it happened. A retired friend just below us was awakened by it and came up the hill to check. We couldn't figure out why we hadn't felt it until we thought about it for a minute. We were building on a precast foundation on a 3' deep gravel trench where he was on conventional concrete strip footings, it had isolated us.

Talked to one of our homeowners a little bit ago, their well water is dirty, apparently many are right now, they kind of got fracked. Probably will clear up but he said they are on bottled and will get a test to make sure it didn't cross contaminate. Ours is fine here at the house, basically on the same chunk of gneiss as Sparta. My partner was en route to the job, his truck is basically a rolling earthquake so he was oblivious till Michelle texted him.

We had a job in WA state some years ago. When I pulled up on the job I had to do a double take. The basement walls looked like an hourglass. I asked what had happened. As soon as the concrete trucks were pulling out they had a similar magnitude tremor and the forms had held in the corners but bowed in between.

[btulloh]

Glad it wasn't a major thing. I reckon the wells will clear up. Possible that one or two might go dry. 

It's hard to appreciate what it does to you when the ground starts moving under in ways you never experienced. I'm glad I learned on minor quakes. Don't know what it's like to experience a major one.  Don't want to.

I moved to LA shortly after the Northridge quake. Some people were pretty jumpy for a long time after that. Seems reasonable. 

[Ljohnsaw]

I was a kid (11) in the Feb '71 quake (Sylmar?) down in L.A. area.  6.1 mag and lasted 2 minutes.  Quite a wild ride at 6am.  We got to stay home from school and counted dozens of aftershocks that day laying on the floor so we could feel them better.

More recent was the '89 quake in the Bay Area during the World Series (October) that we felt in Sacramento.  We feel an occasional shake from quakes up in the Sierras near Reno.

[barbender]

I've never experienced one, and don't care to. One of my aunts was telling me how, when they were living in Lodgegrass, Montana back in the 50's, I don't remember the exact year but there was a large quake just to the west of Yellowstone. This was the quake that caused a huge landslide that created a new lake, some poor souls got buried under a mountain that caved down on them as they camped. It also damaged the large log lodge at Yellowstone. Anyhow, Lodgegrass is on the east face of the Bighorns, probably 200-250 miles east of the epicenter. But aunty remembered it stirred the chickens in the middle of the night, causing my grandad to run out in the dark in his underwear with a shotgun because he thought there was a varmint in the chickens😊 

[Ianab]

Haven't had the misfortune to be close to a major quake, but certainly felt the Christchuch and Kaikoura (mag 7.8 ) earthquakes, even from 200-300 miles away. They were weak enough here that there was no damage, but they were strong enough to make things rattle and sway a bit. 

You can pick the big distant ones as they will be more rolling and last longer, 30 second or more, even this far away. 

We visited Kaikoura as part of a road trip a couple of months after the quake. They were still working on the roads then, and it took nearly 12 months to get the road North opened again. The power of a quake like that is amazing. The whole coast / township was raised about 6 ft.

This is a picture of one of the less damaged roads. (the one that was open)

Where the roads intersected one of the bigger faults, the displacement was more like 12 feet sideways AND 6 feet vertically. 

[Cedarman]

Ianab, looks like you had a real lane shift.

[scsmith42]

I was out riding the Harley when it struck and never felt it. Some neighbors indicated that they did. We are a couple of hours away From Sparta so it probably wasn't very strong here.

[LogPup]

Felt it in Greenville.  Thought the wife was getting up from bed and walking across the floor(they creak).  Nope. Door closed and nobody there.  House haunted? Just a little earthquake.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Just talked to my daughter in Charlotte and she said she was teaching an on-line English class to a little girl in China and using a toy dinosaur as a teaching aid when it hit. it fell over and the little girl in China asked "What happened to Dino?"