5.0 Wave Rider

I’ve been in Southern California, collectively, for over ten years now and have felt less than a dozen earthquakes in that time. We’ve had more, but generally I sleep through them. This evening we had a 5.0 4.7 (officially) hit and I certainly felt that one, even though it was approximately 60 miles northwest of where I live. It was different from the others I’ve felt in that it was more of a rolling sensation, rather like riding a wave. It rattled my cupboards and jostled my chair a bit. For a moment, my heart raced and I felt a nanosecond of panic that made me a bit queasy. I said aloud, “That, girls, was an earthquake,” but my oldest daughter blamed my elephant-footed, 110 pound upstairs neighbour.

The earthquake is now all over the news.

Maybe this explains the random earache I started having today.

In case you’re into this sort of thing, here is a snapshot of the event. You can link directly to it by following the “California Earthquakes” link on my sidebar to the right.

Let’s hope this isn’t the start of a bigger event.

== PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==

Southern California Seismic Network: a cooperative project of
U.S. Geological Survey, Pasadena California
Caltech Seismological Laboratory, Pasadena, California

Version #C: This report supersedes any earlier reports of this event. This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:39:36 PM (PDT) on Sunday, May 17, 2009.
The magnitude 5.0 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) NNE (24 degrees) of Hawthorne, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 14 km ( 8 miles).

Magnitude		5.0 – local magnitude (Ml)
Time		Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 8:39:36 PM (PDT) Monday, May 18, 2009 at 3:39:36 (UTC)
Distance from		Hawthorne, CA – 3 km (2 miles) NNE (24 degrees) Inglewood, CA – 3 km (2 miles) SSW (209 degrees) El Segundo, CA – 6 km (4 miles) ENE (64 degrees) Los Angeles Civic Center, CA – 15 km (10 miles) SSW (213 degrees)
Coordinates		33 deg. 56.4 min. N (33.940N), 118 deg. 20.3 min. W (118.338W)
Depth		13.5 km (8.4 miles)
Quality		Good
Location Quality Parameters		Nst=139, Nph=139, Dmin=7 km, Rmss=0.42 sec, Erho=0.4 km, Erzz=0.9 km, Gp=39.6 degrees
Event ID#		ci10410337

~ by caffempath on 17 May, 2009.