Tag: Seismology

I Did The Math. It’s Close.

quake map

There was a minor earthquake tonight. It was magnitude 3.8, between Villa Park, CA and Corona.

I did the math. That’s 9.6 miles away.

I didn’t feel a thing.

Zip.

Weak earthquake. Five miles deep. I’m not sure they felt it at the epicenter.

Stef has been here four years. She’s yet to feel her first as well.

I felt a minor earthquake in Riverside the summer I graduated high school. I was out west for the first time. Traveling alone for the first time.

That Riverside quake has me covered for a lifetime. I remember watching dishes on a shelf begin to shake and being petrified. My California friends acted as if nothing happened.

It too was a little quake.

I Follow Quakes

There was an earthquake just north of Puerto Rico twenty minutes ago. It’s likely any damage will be minimal with no tsunami. Just like weather and other sci/tech pursuits, I follow quakes.

EarthquakesOur government, the USGS specifically, does an excellent job analyzing the data and quickly posting the results. It’s mostly an automated process, so even on a Sunday evening there’s no wait.

On the left is their front page link to the Puerto Rico quake. There are two entries because the original report was revised.

Each quake gets its own series of webpages. The first page contains a map pinpointing where the quake happened, plus an academic description of local seismology. This one got, “Seismotectonics of the Caribbean Region and Vicinity.” Riveting prose.

More useful on an immediate basis are the DFYI and PAGER pages.

usc000m1w9_ciimDFYI (Did You Feel It) is an Internet derived ‘shake report.’ Regular folks try to quantify their experience. It’s very insightful when plotted on a map.

Most felt the shaking was light.

PAGER estimates the damage based on all the available data. Computer modeling at work. An educated guess. Tonight, it’s overdone. San Juan felt light shaking. PAGER says strong.

PAGER also predicts up to 10 deaths. Hopefully that’s overdone too.