So yes, we felt the 5.0 quake that hit about 3 miles away tonight at 8:40 pm with the aftershocks (about a 2.5 and a 3.1 ) about 6 minutes later. We're fine. One picture frame fell off a bookshelf but the glass didn't break. We shook for about 4 seconds. Steve was luckily in bed. I, on the other hand (surprise, surprise) had decided at that moment to stand up from the computer to get something. I couldn't even tell you at this point why I was standing up. Since I was going from a sitting to standing position just at the quake hit, I wobbled around. Thankfully, the wall "caught" me and I just leaned against it until it was over instead of trying to walk over to the doorway (I don't think I would have made it without falling). Four seconds is seriously an eternity with the ground is moving below you. At the same time, being a geologist, knowing the amount of energy that is expended in moving the earth for that time over that distance... wicked cool, the earth is just taking stretching before rolling over and getting back to sleep. After checking on Steve, I went outside to check on the neighbors. The second floor neighbors were a bit more concerned. The higher you are in a building the more you move. They lost a few picture frames but all are okay. Shaken up, literally and figuratively, but at the end of the day, OK!
Now I just have to remember to call the fam on the east coast in the morning, just in case it ends up on the news.
So Posedion and Neptune, point for you for scaring the crap out of me but point for us for making it through safely!
Don't forget: many little earthquakes are much much better than getting hit with the BIG ONE. Hope my fellow Californians fared as well as we did.
Good Night!
For more information: http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm
You should've been with us trying to calm down the girls who had just experienced their "first" earthquake and wanted to get out of California and bag Disney altogether! The damage: Phil's ego trying to explain no big deal in the scope of what he experienced as a little boy in Colombia, and a salt and pepper shaker shattered on the floor. We were in Dana Point by the way :)
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