Shake, rattle and roll...

[cairistiona]

I didn't realize it until I saw on FB and read dreamflower02 's post this morning that there was an earthquake big enough in Oklahoma to rattle things here.

I was on the way out the front door to let Domino do his business when I thought I heard thunder or a big truck going by (sometimes dumptrucks will be loud enough to rattle the windows as they hit the jake brake coming down the hill). It was loud enough that I actually got my weather radar app out to see where the storm was, because no storms were forecast. Also didn't hear any trucks disappearing into the distance, nor the actual rattling noise of the jake brake (those things are loud). I was totally mystified until I saw the local news on FB and looked back at the time it happened and connected the dots.

Hubby was still in bed and he felt it, too. He said it shook the bed just a little and made the window sort of pop and creak. It was the first one he'd ever felt, so he was pretty hyped up. I grew up in St. Louis and have felt a lot of earthquakes, most of them minor. I do remember, though, back when I was about 3 or 4, standing at the window with my older sister and watching trees shake and sway, and seems like I actually remember the ground rolling, though I wonder if that's a detail my imagination has since added. I remember our mom yelling, "Earthquake! Get away from the window!" and being really disappointed that I couldn't keep watching! Considering that I'm still likely to run outside to look at approaching storms, it seems part of my DNA to want to watch instead of hide! I looked that quake up and according to wikipedia, that earthquake was in 1968 (so I was about 3 3/4 years old) and a 5.4, epicenter in southern Illionois a little closer to the St. Louis than this Oklahoma quake was from my house here. It was 16 miles deep, whereas today's was a little under 4 miles (6.6 km) deep, according the USGS site. My mom once told me that right before that earthquake hit, she heard a deep "bong" noise that seemed like it came from deep within the earth (our house was in a valley, so close to bedrock). I think it's interesting how you can hear earthquakes, even though most of the time people don't because the shaking of buildings and belongings drown it out. I'm pretty sure this morning, given that I was heading outside the house, I actually heard the earth itself moving. Kinda cool.

I didn't notice the animals reacting to it, but they're pretty calm, on the whole. They probably figured Dink was just jumping around again (I swear, I could nickname her Quake... when she's dancing around, it shakes the entire house).

Interesting start to the weekend!

Comments

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

wow, now that's some excitement! That's interesting that the animals didn't react much!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I thought it was interesting, too, but they were completely unfazed. They're all remarkably calm, though. The only thing that riles Domino is when hubby fires up his air compressor, and that was from when we remodeled the kitchen and there was sooooo much air hammering going on. Other than that, it takes massive hail before the animals get concerned.

In other words, they're failures at being early warning systems. LOL

[shirebound]

Glad you're all right! Whether earthquakes are felt or just 'heard', they're unnerving. Hope your ground stops shaking now!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Earthquakes really are unnerving! You just don't expect the ground to ever shake... it looks so solid and steady!

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

Now there's a bit of excitement...

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

It was indeed.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

The shaking is scary. We get them here sometimes.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Do you! I never hear about earthquakes in England.

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Huh, good that it wasn't too strong.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[bluegerl.livejournal.com]

Is there NOTHING you don't have???!!!! Earthquakes in Oklahoma? Mind you we even have them here, but so minor... but you can hear them coming if you're in the right place (like in my bed, head on pillow, bed on floor, floor in house on bedrock. Quake very deep miles away, but the noise was so 'particular' I knew what it was straight away!) The others I've survived have been a lot more obvious! Like emptying swimming pools while I drank Champagne and giggled! etc.

They're fun if they don't damage... but Italy ones are disastrous and dreadful.

Is your part of the world on a fault line???

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Well, from what I've gathered from the news, most geologist/scientists/seismologist types think the Oklahoma quakes are due to an oil-drilling process called "fracking", where I think the shale layer is removed and that causes ground collapse. Or something like that--I'm no expert on oil production. But there's a connection with increased quake activity (and now apparently intensity) and fracking sites. So this quake isn't from a fault line.

BUT... the Midwest is riddled with fault lines, the biggest of which is the New Madrid fault and the New Madrid seismic zone in the southeast corner of Missouri/northwest Arkansas, western KY, southern Illinois and on up into the Ohio River Valley. It doesn't get the press that California's San Andreas fault does (because yeah, we're just "flyover country" and no I'm not bitter why do you ask), but it produced a series of four (count 'em, FOUR) 7.5-8.0 quakes in December 1811-Jan 1812 that were felt over 3 million square kilometers, rang church bells on the east coast, and rerouted the Mississippi River, created a new lake in Tennessee, destroyed towns... all the things. (By comparison, the Great San Francisco quake was felt over only 16,000 sq kilometers). Fun news: They're expecting another such devastating quake(s) basically at any time, so yeah... add earthquakes to the super volcano that is Yellowstone, tornadoes, ice storms, hail, blizzards, sinkholes and floods that could basically wipe out the entirety of the central United States at at any moment. IS IT ANY WONDER WE ALL GO TO CHURCH!! XD

People make fun of Midwesterners as 'boring' and 'stick in the muds' but y'all have no idea how much we live on the edge here. We're hiding our terror under a facade of calm. *g* (Only it's not really a facade... people here are resilient. We have to be.)

[bluegerl.livejournal.com]

Oooer - just read up about the Madrid Fault Lines... but the last paras seemed to be a little more reassuring. Jolly interesting tho.. and sand volcanoes and oh all sorts. But I prefer lots of little wobblies to a big one. Your 'possibility' is nasty... but if your underneath is only moving at 3mm a year and the San Andreas at 37 mm.. i think I'd rather stay with you that parts of California. (That county does worry me, drought, disasters likely... oh lor.)

I would have thought that fracking would have been a bit frowned upon if you're in a seismic zone? Here there are such ROWS about it... from making earthquakes to polluting water, to too many lorries and mucking about with green fields.. houses falling down etc. I think a few more windmills would be better, even everything solar panelled.... The UK isn't that short of sun - cos they work reasonably in just daylight. I think Cameron's govt would have let fracking go ahead regardless.. but I think this woman May is a little more thoughtful about what she does and allows. GOOD!

Oooh your life is never dull. MY LOVE to Dinks and Dom !!!!! and you and the Bot! teehee.

[mikononyte.livejournal.com]

Your reaction cracked me up.

I grew up in "Shakey Town" aka San Francisco. I grew up being drilled on what to do in quake.

In 1983 I was down south in Coalinga California during their summer-long shaking. I remember one day a quake rattling the hell out of us and seeing my 2 scale workers diving out of their kiosk offices while I stood by, all calm and cool, kinda laughing at them before I remembered 1. I don't know what's over my head and 2. GET THE F!!! OUT OF THE SCALE HOUSE! .... yeah. A little egotistically slow there girl!

Far as I know I don't have family in Pawnee but dunno. OK city I do. Have no way to contact them but I suppose I hear if the crap hit the fan. Much like when the OK city bombing happened, every cousin and whatnot was spreading the word: "We're ok. No one was there." *grins*

I just spent some minutes reading up on the reasons behind these quakes and it's something that rings very true: after all they blame the Coalinga '83 quake on the fault, but it was more based on the ground water and oil being removed by the thousands and thousand of gallons -- subsidence!