...and the Earth Shook!

Wow! Here I am sitting in front of the computer about to post something as the earth started to shake right under me! I can't say I "hate" earthquakes, but I certainly don't love them either. It would've been quite unsettling had I not grown up in Los Angeles. My wife, being from Connecticut, is still a bit shaken (pun intended) from the experience. The speakers in my studio (see photo on May 23rd post) were swaying from left to right as if we were on a boat, but they didn't fall off. Whew! The blinds were swaying as well. The water in the pool looked like someone had been swimming and just got out. No water splashed out of the pool though. Now, if I had only had a martini in a shaker... hindsight really is 20/20.

Update: The news is saying it's a 5.6 quake in Anza, California (about 130 miles southeast from me). They're usually a bit off in their first estimate of scale and epicenter, i.e. the "Northridge" quake ended up being bigger than first reported, and the epicenter was actually in Reseda, California, not Northridge. Some info regarding the size of earthquakes: The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale. So using this scale, a magnitude 5 earthquake would result in 10 times the level of ground shaking as a magnitude 4 earthquake (and 32 times as much energy would be released). Yikes!!

Never been in an earthquake? Here's what they feel like according to the Geological Survey of Canada:
M=1 to 3: Recorded on local seismographs, but generally not felt
M=3 to 4: Often felt, no damage
M=5: Felt widely, slight damage near epicentre
M=6: Damage to poorly constructed buildings and other structures within 10's km
M=7: "Major" earthquake, causes serious damage up to ~100 km (recent Taiwan, Turkey, Kobe, Japan, and California earthquakes).
M=8: "Great" earthquake, great destruction, loss of life over several 100 km (1906 San Francisco, 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands) .
M=9: Rare great earthquake, major damage over a large region over 1000 km (Chile 1960, Alaska 1964, and west coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 1700.)