Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on
Posted on April 18, 2008
Last night/this morning I felt my bed shaking. Since I was groggy, I wasn’t sure if I was still in a dream. I rolled over and saw it was about 5:30 am, and I more-or-less determined the bed really was shaking. I also had some wine last night with some classmates, so I thought that might be playing a part – sort of a delayed bed spinning. “The Exorcist” also came to mind. I sat up in bed and the shaking subsided. Still being tired, and not sure about much of anything, I made my to the lav and relieved myself. I thought about staying up but I was still drowsy, so back to bed it was. The alarm clock is set for 6:02 am, but I usually hit the snooze button two or three times before getting up. Got to work a few minutes early and checked CNN and found out it was an actual earthquake. A 5.2 hit someplace in Illinois and was felt as far north as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, as far south as Georgia, and as far east as Ohio (How often do you hear of Ohio being referred to as Far East?).
About 11:30, I was on the phone with someone at work and my desk started swaying. This is good sized desk that’s a bit top heavy because of some bookshelves, but it’s not prone to excitement, so when it starts moving it’s pretty noticeable. Turns out there was a 4.5 aftershock. Feeling an earthquake when you are asleep is one thing. It woke me up, but it was barely recognizable as an earthquake. Many people I talked to today didn’t even know there was a quake. Some people didn’t even feel the aftershock. I think people who were out walking probably wouldn’t have felt it, because it was pretty minor too. One lady at work mentioned a flower vase in her office moved a few inches during the aftershock.
It’s nothing compared to what they get in California, but it’s big new for the Midwest because we rarely get quakes big enough to be felt over a long distance. Apparently there was a 5.0 quake in 1968 in the area. The New Madrid fault line in Missouri has had an estimated 8.0 earthquake in the 1800s, before we knew much about seismography and such. Legend has it the quake was powerful enough to cause church bells to ring in Boston, although it knocked down a few houses in New Madrid itself. On the other hand, there were only a few homes there to be knocked down at the time.
For the Midwest, it was an eventful day.
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