I've been busy with the newest member of my first family and having only time for breif visits here with my second one.I want to know if Noreen felt this one and is all OK ?

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8371354?source=rss

Yes, I did feel it although I didn't realise what it was at the time. I have an electric adjustable bed and because I've got a cold and was coughing at night, I'd raised the head position to a semi-sitting position. I woke in the early hours of this morning when something fell in the flat above me, almost at the same time my bed shook slightly and I assumed (only half-awake) at the time that I'd not adjusted it properly. I realised what it actually was when I heard the radio news this morning. I assume that the metal brackets of the bed made the movement more obvious. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7266136.stm

Just my luck ! The earth didn't move for me !
:) :)

This was posted in the early hours in a UK forum to which I belong...........

Quote:

****, has anybody else just had an earth tremor?, I have never been so frightened in my life.

It started like a distant train, then got louder, the whole building shook, the power dimmed.

All over in about 10/20 seconds.

I am physically shaking.

The poster lives about 30 miles from the epicentre.

Same poster this morning.

Quote:

Well, the only damage that I have found so far, is a crack in the hall ceiling, and a few tins of paint fallen from a shelf in the garage.

I am honestly amazed there doesn't seem to be more damage.

For those of you that slept through it, you are very lucky, I don't ever want to experience anything like that again.

The best way that I can describe it is, it was like a distant train that as it approaches, gets louder, kind of like thunder, together with the whole building shaking violently, lights dimming, then all over in about 10/15 seconds. I honestly thought that the building was going to collapse.

Scary, very scary.

Hope she doesn't ever go to California !! }(

I live 50mi from the epicentre and slept right through it !!!

First I knew was the morning news on the radio.

There is something about earthquakes that affects humans, and other animals for that matter, on a very primitive level.

we have been conditioned by millennia of experience to expect the Sun and Moon to rise and set, the ocean tides to rise and fall, but the Earth to be firm beneath our feet. When the ground moves like an amorphous mass of Jello, it creates the ingrained terror in us that our ancient ancestors would have felt.

I re-posted your reply to the UK forum, they agree with you. :-)

Here's some London reactions from a local website that covers my area. BTW "Ken" is Ken Livingstone who is the Mayor of London. http://www.london-se1.co.uk/forum/read/1/84445

I'm glad there was no serious damage or injuries.The kind that sound like a train approaching are bad but the one I really do not like are the ones that hit like a truck slammed into your house and then continue to shake it with a rolling motion.It's hard to move when that is occuring and everything loose is moving.Scarey as can be !When it stops you check for gas leaks and water leaks in that order. You then check for other damage and your neighbors !
I still would rather sweat them than Tornadoes and Hurricanes.At least the earthquake is over in a hurry.I got caught in a landing craft,in amphibious training , when a hurricane hit Florida and we were lucky to blow unto "Dog Island "before it really blew(Scared hell out of me,and that was when I was young and stupid enough to think I was immortal)
When I moved here in 1956 the forcast was for the mother of all quakes to hit within the next 30 years.We had some bad ones but not the "mother"They are still predicting it to come"in the next 30 years"
If they keep moving the prediction they might be right eventuallyThey are probably from the Al Gore school of science! :lol: :+

There is no known way to accurately predict an immanent earthquake more than a few days in advance at best. What is being predicted is that California is overdue for a major disastrous quake because the geological record shows that there has been one at fairly regular intervals over the last several thousand years. Since the last catastrophic quake was the San Francisco quake in 1906 at an estimated Richter magnitude of 7.8 (possibly as high as 8.3).

Quakes of this magnitude occur at roughly 200 year intervals, but lessor quakes that can cause major damage happen more frequently. the possibility of a quake in that region in the range of Richter 6.3 is predicted by the USGS with a probability of 70% +/-10% by 2030. This is based upon the stresses built up in two of the many fault lines running through the bay area, mainly the San Andreas, which requires a north/south slippage of about 20 feet to build up enough strain for a major quake. It's not nice to laugh at mother nature, nor is it wise to sneer at the USGS predictions.

The Richter scale measures the strength of an earthquake. It is a logarithmic value. An increase of one unit of magnitude such as from 3.8 to 4.8, represents a 10-fold increase in wave amplitude on a seismograph (about a 30-fold increase in the energy released). A magnitude 5.8 earthquake releases over 900 times the energy of a 3.8 earthquake. Of course how much damage results depends on how much a the location of a quake is built up and populated.

I am aware of what you wrote ,Shelly and have taken all possible actions to be prepared for the BIG ONE.There are a lot of quacks with predictions based on animal behaviour and moon position using the pull that affects the tides etc but no viable one yet. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to take a little nick at MR Global Warming. :evilgrin: :+

What a pity,

Obviously you weren't making love ...

In the words of Roy Orbison
"Only the Lonely." :blusher: :blusher: