Topic: I slept through an earthquake.

[Cobra951]

It was a state away, but apparently it was strong enough to wake up a lot of people around 5:35 AM.  I got an email from my brother asking if everything was OK here.  First I had heard of it.  So I went to the website of a local TV station, and sure enough.  5.4, centered in Illinois, matching the strongest ever there from 1968.  Midwestern earthquakes.  What next?

[idolminds]

I slept through it, too. My mom was sleeping in the tent and said she felt it, though.

[scottws]

There was an earthquake?  Weird, in the Midwest.  That never happens.

It's kind of funny, because I told Lucas (Jennie's son) that he didn't have to worry about earthquakes here.

[poomcgoo]

I don't think I've ever experienced an earthquake, at least not a noticeable one.

[Ghandi]

Was anyone hurt by it?

I didn't even know that there were fault lines running through Cinci.

[Cobra951]

To my knowledge, there aren't.  No, I don't think a 5.4 can hurt anyone, except through a freak accident.  A 7, which is destructive, is 100 times as strong as a 5.  (They are measured in orders of magnitude.)

[Ghandi]

Clearly I know a lot about earthquakes.   

[Cobra951]

You know a lot more now, though.   

[Ghandi]

I know all that I need to know about them: When God gets pissed at some sinners, he shakes the earth in holy wrath.

[Quemaqua]

We get that shit here like... all the time.  In less than two years in this apartment, I've felt the thing shake from earthquakes probably 3 times, which doesn't even count the couple I've felt at work.

[sirean_syan]

A 5ish quake can hurt people, but you need to be pretty close to the epicenter for that to happen. When I was little, there was a 5.4 in the city just next to us and it brought down a lot of chimneys and did a fair amount of damage in the immediate area. Since it happened in Southern California, though, the damage was fairly limited as most things have been built with earthquakes in mind.

[gpw11]

My mom was sleeping in the tent

....

A 7, which is destructive, is 100 times as strong as a 5

Interesting.  I thought a 7 would be 100 times as strong as a 6, but I guess I don't remember my geology that well.

A 5ish quake can hurt people, but you need to be pretty close to the epicenter for that to happen. When I was little, there was a 5.4 in the city just next to us and it brought down a lot of chimneys and did a fair amount of damage in the immediate area. Since it happened in Southern California, though, the damage was fairly limited as most things have been built with earthquakes in mind.

That's why news agencies and the like should probably start focusing on using the Modified Mercalli Scale instead of or along with the Richter Scale.  The energy released doesn't mean all that much in the grand scheme of things unless you're a geologist. 

[Ghandi]

....

Your mom slept in the house growing up? Weird....

[idolminds]

When it gets warm she likes sleeping outside. Whatever.

[Cobra951]

....

Interesting.  I thought a 7 would be 100 times as strong as a 6, but I guess I don't remember my geology that well.

The scale is log(10) based.  What it measures is amplitude.  Interestingly, that means a factor of 1000 in energy released every 2 units on the scale.  (So 100 times the amplitude adds up to 1000 times the energy.)  What would we do without the internets.

[gpw11]

Ah, ok. 

[Antares]

What he's trying to say is that you suck at math, not geology.

[Ghandi]

haha 

[Cobra951]

 

Actually, I didn't know too much beyond the 10-based scale until I read the Wikipedia article I linked to.

[scottws]

Ugh.  logs.  I hated those in high school.  I'm glad in real life you pretty much can ignore that they exist.

Edit:  You know what's interesting?  I got a 1280 on the SAT (old one) and a 29 on the ACT.  If I took them today, I would do absolutely horrible.  I don't remember any of the complicated math anymore.

[Ghandi]

Nobody does. I took calculus here 2 years ago here and got an A but I don't remember a damn thing about it.

[WindAndConfusion]

It was a state away, but apparently it was strong enough to wake up a lot of people around 5:35 AM.  [...]  5.4.

Having been through more than one 5.5-ish earthquake, I'm surprised many people noticed.

Speaking of earthquakes, I was about twenty-five miles from the 2003 San Simeon quake, which was a 6.6 that killed (I think) two people, and caused minimal damage. Just a few days later another earthquake struck Bam, Iran. It was also a 6.6, but it leveled whole cities and killed about 30,000 people.

Building codes: Fuck yes.