Omg there was just an earthquake!

[ShortyInCanada]

A few years ago we had a couple of minor quakes up this way...
At my house it was like the guy a few doors down was idling his dumptruck again. The low end rumble and vibrations not anything different than a lot of mornings.
While it was happening I was on the phone to a friend about 20 minutes drive away and he thought there was a big MVA at the nearby intersection as he had more of a series of loud bangs. (And accidents at that intersection are surprisingly common)
My friends Dad called him a few minutes later (call waiting, put me on hold for a minute) to tell him that an hour away and towards the mountains his trailer home bounced up and down for a minute or so with several items falling and some breakage.
That's when we knew it was an earthquake !
I was living in an area built up over years of ancient peat bogs.
My friend was living over standard topsoil/clay/rock and his Dad's trailer was on hardpack in the focal point of the valley between the growing slopes of the mountains.
Three very different effects from the same earthquake energy.
Quite educational.

 

[rpaloalto]

Living in California and reading all the excitement over this earthquake, reminds me of a old Steve Martin clip

 

[Ears and Eggs]

What you "feel" and how much damage is caused is VERY dependent on what the ground under you is made of.

Someone close to the epicenter, but with a solid granite sub-stata, will only feel a hard, quick "jolt"
This will cause little damage

Someone farther away, but with a sandy or compacted talus sub-strata, may rock and roll on wave after wave of shock.
The amplitude of these waves will also be larger.
These types of movements are MUCH more destructive

Peace,
dave

Reminds me of the earthquake we had here last year. Our neighborhood is built on shallow bedrock and suffered much less damage than areas much further away that were build on reclaimed bog. Guess that's also why the intensity map above has pockets of strong shaking in the middle of areas of moderate and light.