There was an earthquake in Mass. today?

[arib]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14375072/detail.html

Admittedly, not near me at all.

Hey mactavish, how big is a 2.5 quake, anyway?

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It's about like a really big truck driving by your house.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's about right. I don't even notice the things until they hit about 3.0 - which is like a convoy of trucks driving past your house.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

On our fault, it would be more like someone tipping over the fridge onto cement right next to the foundation, except then you can tell which side of the house the fridge was on, where with an earthquake, you'd feel the little boom and try to find a locus.

That's because we live almost on the fault, the ground doesn't really have a chance to get to vibrating, for the small ones.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Tiny. Barely at the level of human perception. You have to get to 3.0 on the scale before there's any real shaking.

Shows you recent seismic activity in my neck of the woods. Two of those 2-range quakes were within a few miles of where I live, and until today I didn't know they had happened.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Remember how wigged I was when we were in the subway station in Boston when I visited? The level of shaking going on there is about equivalent to a 3.0 or 3.2, which is why I kept looking for a doorway. It felt, to me, like an ongoing small quake.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I have a picture of me standing in front of Peet's in Lexington, Mass., not half because it's, well, Peet's, but also because it is unreinforced masonry and there I am being all brave and stuff. I seem to be able to let go of the "every vibration means look for a safe place" and "bricks are deadly" mindset while in places that aren't quake prone. Oddly, I know of folks right around here who don't have that going on, either.

Our local fault -- the one where I can walk for 10 minutes and stand next to the scarp -- is considered one of the most dangerous in North America right now.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

2.5 is big enough that if the epicenter is within a mile of me, and the hypocenter is not more than a handful of miles underground, I can actually feel it. Once one actually rattled things on my shelf a little, but it was very shallow and within a couple of blocks of my house.