QUAKE! 4.7 almost directly underneath me

[kestrel91316]

here in the San Fernando Valley of Socal.

Woke me from a sound sleep and I actually screamed. Biggest quake since the Northridge aftershocks died. And no surprise in a way because we have been having a lot of small quakes in the area in recent months after years of nothing. AND IT'S UNUSUALLY HOT, what we call "earthquake weather".

My cats are freaked out and I'm shaking so bad I can hardly type.

I need a shot of whisky.

[NightWatcher]

1. Wake Up, It's St Patrick's Day. Start drinkin'

Start your day shaking, end your day with the ground spinning

[steve2470]

5. ok that was funny, DUzy worthy ! nt

[Berlum]

15. And commence with the pejorative stereotyping!

[NightWatcher]

27. "pejorative stereotyping", I'm from Savannah, that was a greeting

Hi, how's the folks? Ready to start drinking?

[rdharma]

28. I'm thinking it was Leprechauns screwing around!

[In_The_Wind]

2. THAT is why I'm not there.

[cui bono]

7. Yeah, but we exported them to you!

I live in Los Angeles and went to work in NYC for a few months years ago, and in the first week there was a hurricane and an earthquake! The quake was that one in Virginia, near DC.

So weird.

[In_The_Wind]

8. Yeah. I actually felt the earth move in Ulster county.

[GliderGuider]

20. Heck, I felt the earth move here in Ottawa, Canada.

Wait, wrong thread...

[In_The_Wind]

26. ~

[Beaverhausen]

3. Felt it strong here in Burbank!

What a way to wake up. Oh now I hear sirens...

[LiberalEsto]

4. Yikes!

That sounds terrifying, but I'm glad you're okay.

[Hissyspit]

6. Beverly Hills!

@CBSNews: Officials say 4.4-magnitude L.A. quake was centered about 6 miles northwest of Beverly Hills - http://t.co/Rjl0VgfsxI

m.twitter.com/CBSNews

[cui bono]

9. They keep saying Westood and Beverly Hills but it's closer to the other side of the mountains

near Encino. ABC is saying Encino now.

I used to live probably about 1 mile NE of the epicenter, in the hills. That would have been really strong there. As it is I really felt it where I am now, near downtown.

[kestrel91316]

12. 4.7, 2 miles SE of Encino, right up in the Sepulveda Pass at

Sepulveda and Mulholland, where so much freeway construction is going on. Bet they have to stop things to check it all out for damage, maybe fix things too.

[cui bono]

14. They downgraded to 4.4

Yeah, I wondered about the freeway. I don't drive through there any more since I live near downtown now so I don't know what condition it's in.

[malaise]

10. Stay safe kestrel91316

[PasadenaTrudy]

11. I thought it was my dog

She sleeps next to me on the bed. I woke up and went back to sleep. I've been through the Sylmar, Whittier Narrows, and Northridge quakes, so this was just a bump for me. I'm sure you felt it much stronger though!

[kestrel91316]

13. You know what worries me most:

The recent uptick in small quakes in the area and now this. It reminds me of the lead-up to Northridge. We are overdue for very large quakes on both the San Andreas and the Newport-Inglewood faults.

A Big One on the N-I would be far worse than Northridge in terms of death, destruction, and economic damage.

And yes, this quake is also similar to Northridge in that it was in morning darkness, on a holiday Monday (St. Pat's vs MLK Day), and in unseasonably warm weather. Creeping me out.

[MoonRiver]

16. How does warm weather contribute to the likelihood of earthquakes happening?

[kestrel91316]

18. No idea. But our biggest ones invariably seem to happen during unseasonably warm weather.

I have a theory about hot weather and dry soils and water tables and cracks in rocks, but then I'm no geologist. Just ask any SoCal resident and they will all pretty much acknowledge "quake weather". It's an observable phenomenon.

[MoonRiver]

19. Interesting.

A couple of years ago I asked on DU if global warming could be increasing the number of earthquakes we experience. Most people adamantly said no, but maybe it's not so clear cut.

[kestrel91316]

22. I have been expecting a significant quake for weeks or months now, because we have seen

a noticeable increase in small quakes (2.5+) in this part of SoCal for a while. And there was one in Santa Monica or the Westside just a few days ago that set off a red flag for me. Plus the weather too warm for way too long.

[MoonRiver]

23. Well, I hope you have an earthquake plan in place!

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. USGS considers quake weather a coincidence

And yes I had all kinds of disaster apps chirp, which woke up the parrots, which woke me up.

But at this point, if it is not on CNN... and it is the Southland.



I do hope you enjoyed that whiskey though.

FYI, we had a 3+ yesterday on the St Elsinore which is a branch of the St Andreas, and the other day the fine folks at Pendleton were playing with their toys. So yes, houses shook fifty miles around, but no USGS report.

[kestrel91316]

24. I know USGS pooh-poohs it, but we keep observing it again and again and again.

It could just be that EVERY day anymore is warmer than normal, so OF COURSE quakes are happening when it's warmer than normal.

(headdesk)

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. It is exactly what you are saying

it is unusually warm, but as a PhD on the subject matter put it, for weather to influence plates, it would be so hot it would not be consistent with human life. It is possible, but you are talking of Venus surface temps, at the very least.

[TeamPooka]

36. yup

[jeff47]

29. You have to remember where the quake is actually happening.

The quakes are actually happening far below the Earth's surface. The temperature down there is not affected by surface weather. There's way too much dirt and rock acting as insulation.

You'd need incinerate-everything-on-the-surface weather to make it hotter down in the fault. Colder would require cooling off the Earth's core.

[MoonRiver]

34. I understand the reasoning, which makes perfect sense.

But how do you explain the experiences of those, such as kestrel91316, who experience earthquakes on a regular basis?

[jeff47]

38. By having lived there during those quakes.

Not all of them happened during "earthquake weather". And there's plenty of "earthquake weather" when there are no earthquakes...well, no earthquakes we can feel. There's always earthquakes in the LA area.

As an example, here's the weather for Los Angeles in 1994. The Northridge earthquake was on January 17th of that year. You'll find plenty of similar days where there is no earthquake.

Additionally, there is no settled "earthquake weather". Some people define it as hot and dry, others hot and humid, others as unseasonably cold, others as rapid temperature change.

All of them call it "earthquake weather" but they're talking about different weather. It's not hard to find some quakes that fit your particular weather bias, and everyone else will assume your "earthquake weather" is the same as theirs.

[Dirty Socialist]

17. Please Send Ohio The Hot Weather

But keep your earthquakes. Glad it wasn't a bigger one.

BTW, I've driven on Mulholland Drive. Very nice.

[ucrdem]

30. Dang.

Northridge quake utterly wrecked my mom's place. Broke everything, ducts fell out of the ceiling, everything on the floor, broken pipes, the works. Eventually they razed the place. Hope this one doesn't turn out as bad . . .

[kestrel91316]

32. Northridge was literally 100X stronger. Maybe 200X.

[ucrdem]

37. Oh thanx kestrel.

Sent out a few emails to sibs in the area but hesitating to call in case it's bad ... glad to hear it wasn't destructive. Wouldn't want to go through that again.

[kestrel91316]

40. Actually, Northridge's 6.7 was 900X stronger than this 4.4. Which is terrifying to think about.

[Trajan]

31. I lived in Southern California for 34 years

I didn't even feel them if they were less than 5.0 ...

"Did a bus just drive by?" ... yeah, like that ...

[kestrel91316]

35. Well I've lived here for 32 years and I used to be blase about them, and then Northridge hit.

I was almost on top of that epicenter, too. And it shook something loose in me. My body reacts very strongly now to all quakes with a major epinephrine release. I'm only now not shaking, and it's been 3.5 hours.

Probably PTSD.

[TeamPooka]

33. I'm in the SFV too and it was quite a shaker. Bothered my dog too.

She is still upset.

[yuiyoshida]

39. My friend lives in West Hills, which is the San Fernando Valley

I bet it woke her up as well... Seems Southern Cal gets far more larger quakes than Northern Cal but there was a big one up in Eureka last week.... so I guess maybe the Bay Area is due... meh.. I hope I don't have to feel a big one for a long, long time!!

[Cali_Democrat]

41. I didn't feel a thing

Was too busy sleeping!

[pinboy3niner]

42. It's only been 3 days. Give it time to get to you.