Hello, Mommy Nature

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Longest earthquake I've felt since moving here. FUN, especially on the second story! Shakey shakey shakey shakey shakey onnnn and on. Everything rattled and creaked, and I could see things moving, but nothing fell off shelves. My first guess was "that's a biggie," but not right on top of me because it wasn't harsh. It felt like the edges of the jolts were rounded, if that makes any sense. Slightly cushioned. Which usually means farther away, rather than sharp and hard right underneath me. But it wasn't far enough away to be a roller like the 7.2 ten years ago.

Oh, lookie, an aftershock! (11:51)

Fun turning on the TV and hearing "preliminary magnitude 5.9." Which means there's probably been minor damage but it's unlikely to have caused much injury, unless somebody was really in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled terra firma.

EDIT: Downgraded to a 5.4. Better, I suppose, as that means minimal damage. Sounds like a few water main breaks here and there.

Link to Google Map of epicenter; I'm in Irvine to the sw

Earthquake: "Did You Feel It?"

By the way, SoCal folks, help the geeks at USEC, by going to the "Did You Feel It?" Shakemap and filling out their survey. (Others may be interested to see the map, which shows what people actually felt, as opposed to what the seismographs see.)

It's interesting to see all the numbers start trickling in within a few moments of the event.

Also, thanks to Trekqueen for reminding me to take a screencap of the USGS Los Angeles Area Seismic Map (it's more dramatic within the first hour, when all the markers are still red):



Looks like UCI felt it more, or else that's just one floor up -- lots of books down in the library.

EDIT: Another wee after shock just now. (5:39 PM). Heh. My upstairs office window seems to be just loose enough to pick up every vibration; I couldn't feel that one but it certainly rattled!

I see on the USGS site that the aftershock I felt at 11:51 was a 3.8.

Surprise! I'm in INDIA.

Sorry to be so spammy tonight, but this is WEIRD.

I logged in tonight to catch me some baseball, got the #$@#! blackout message that means my IP address has been reset and it doesn't know where I am, and when I called tech support they said they couldn't help me because I had an IP address that's in India, where apparently people are not allowed to watch American baseball. (which is weird, but I'm sure few of them care.)

SO... no Dodgers/Giants tonight, because California fell into the ocean and wound up in India.

Really surprisingly little damage, considering.