ohmygod, EARTHQUAKE!
until last september, i had lived my whole life on the eastern seaboard. i can deal with hurricanes, tornados, massive thunderstorms, and other assorted natural disasters, but when the ground starts moving, man that is just freaky.
pertinent details: it happened 29 seconds after 10:00, magnitude 5.2, epicenter about 4.7 miles deep and 3 miles southwest of gilroy; gilroy is about 45 miles southeast of stanford. it was felt all the way up the peninsula, and even on the other side of the golden gate bridge. here in my room, i felt it for…maybe 5 seconds? long enough for me to realize that it was an earthquake and wonder whether i should move, but short enough that i didn’t even get up from my chair.
from the maps, it appears that there was sort of an increase in ground acceleration around palo alto, so maybe we felt it more strongly than most. my friend aaron fell down in his room. either way. at the sharks game in san jose, it lasted for about 10 seconds and made the area lights shake for a while. closer to the epicenter, it broke some windows and set off some alarms. disrupted some phone service in san jose.
freaky, man.
here are some links, for those of you who are interested:
- earthquake map
- seismograph charts
- possibility of aftershocks
- intensity map
- sf chronicle online article
- ground acceleration
- did you feel it?
wow. i have never felt an earthquake before. california. what a strange place i’m living in. 🙂 always something exciting. all year i’ve been saying i thought it’d be cool to feel an earthquake…not a big one, just strong enough to feel, not to cause any damage. i guess i got my “wish.” so that’s nice, i suppose. only now i don’t want to feel any more!
