Central U.S. Earthquake Info

ronbo142 writes "The United States Geological Survey site has real time (or close to it) information on the now two significant events of the day. Check out their site to enter your experience and view other event specific information."

Click-through

[saveth]

With the supplied link, you need to click through to the Illinois data set.

Or, just click this one: http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/cus/ [usgs.gov]

It woke me up

[XxtraLarGe]

I woke up at about 5:40 to the bed vibrating a little bit. I live in south central Michigan near the Ohio/Indiana boarders. At first I thought the cat jumped up on the bed, but he didn't then I thought maybe my wife was shaking, but she was still. It sort of felt like the massaging neck pillow I have, but all over the bed. I got up and took a shower. My wife came down a little later and I said "I think we had an Earthquake." She told me I was crazy, then she saw it in the news a little later in the day, and sent me a link for the USGS. I filled out my info earlier this morning.

Only one moderate quake and an aftershock

[Somegeek]

The summary makes it seem like there have been two different big quakes. In actuality there was a moderate 5.2 followed by what is apparently a 4.6 aftershock.

"two significant events"

[Anonymous Coward]

The submitter is talking about two earthquakes [nytimes.com] today in the US.

I Survived the Great Quake of 2008

[dunezone]

I actually live 30 minutes outside of Chicago in the Joliet area. It was definitely one of those "WTF" moments, you didn't think earthquake because most of them out here go unnoticed and it was such a gentle rocking back and forth. There have been several aftershocks since the first one early in the morning. My roommate said around 11pm central time there was nice aftershock.

PS, I honestly thought there was a monster under my bed last night during the initial shake.

One of the largest in recent history.

[suso]

Apparently this is the largest one in the Midwest since the magnitude 5.4 one in 1968 that was also in Southern Illinois.

Webicorders?

[jd]

In the Pacific Northwest, there are webicorders [washington.edu] - online seismographs for the volcanos and other potentially unstable regions. The major earthquake that caused the devastating 26 Dec (Boxing Day) tsunami a few years back showed up extremely clearly on these. The shockwaves were not just large enough to register, but large enough to show up as a massive feature. If those graphs are still online, they would make for good material in a basic course on geology.

What I don't know is whether there is anything comparable in the areas affected by these central US tremors. A description of experiences is useful, but plenty of reports will have those. Those are easy to come by. Much rarer is actual raw data, actual hard information on the nature of the quake. A quantitative experience, rather than a qualitative one. There will be much more to the story than what could be felt or described through experience, and that "more" bit is the bit that seperates understanding from simply witnessing. The latter facilitates understanding but is not a substitute for it.

Re:Webicorders?

[Anonymous Coward]

What I don't know is whether there is anything comparable in the areas affected by these central US tremors. A description of experiences is useful, but plenty of reports will have those. Those are easy to come by. Much rarer is actual raw data, actual hard information on the nature of the quake. A quantitative experience, rather than a qualitative one. There will be much more to the story than what could be felt or described through experience, and that "more" bit is the bit that seperates understanding from simply witnessing. The latter facilitates understanding but is not a substitute for it.

You say that as if there isn't a huge seismograph network covering the US. That's part of what the US Geological Survey does, and believe me, there is a whole lot of raw data readily available to those who know where to find it.

In SPringfield, I slept through the 5.2, but ..

[the_rajah]

my wife was awake for the 5.2 and was at her computer working on a writing assignment. She immediately went to the USGS site to check out what had happened and then filed an online report there of where she was and what she experienced.

I was awake and in my office for the 4.6 aftershock. It rattled some things, but nothing fell off shelves, etc. No panic, although I did have some thoughts about the 100+ year old brick wall of the adjoining building that forms one side of my office.

Re:The tinfoil on my head says....

[cromar]

In 1811 there was a major earthquake of 7-8 on the richter scale (estimated). It actually caused the Mississippi to run backwards [showme.net]. Hopefully the New Madrid is not going to have another such earthquake for a long time, but who knows!

Re:Not a big deal

[AbsoluteXyro]

While other threats like severe weather are much more imminent, I wouldn't write off the possibility of a major quake in the mid-US. Anywhere there are active faults, it isn't matter of if, but when. You should all at least have a basic understanding of what to do to protect yourself during a quake, and this little shake-up should serve as a reminder.

New Madrid fault line

[jonfr]

The main earthquake and the aftershock are on an fault line known as the New Madrid fault line. This fault line is known for making earthquakes up to 8 on the ricther scale. Last time that did happen was in the 19th century.

I am fairly sure that this event now is part of normal movement of the fault line, due to happen every 20 to 50 years.

People in the area should expect aftershocks in the next one or two weeks, maybe longer. Btu the aftershock pattern depends on many factors that I don't know all.

For those interested the waveform of the earthquake was recorded by people interested in recording earthquakes in nearby states. The plots can be seen here, http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/othersten.htm [simnet.is]

But I have collected them into one nice web page. The data is near real time and is updated every 5 min, at least that is the case for most of the plots

Re:Foreshocks, or is that it?

[node 3]

Foreshocks only become foreshocks once the main quake happens.

Or, put differently, to know these are foreshocks before the main quake happens requires a level of earthquake prediction we do not yet have.

Re:New Madrid fault line

[Anonymous Coward]

It was actually the Wabash Valley seismic zone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_Valley_Fault_System