Friday, April 18, 2008

What's Shakin'?

Well, that's a loaded question...

I am a light sleeper and tend to wake up for anything out of the ordinary. Early this morning it was several seconds of vibration in the bed.

I immediately thought "the dog needs her flea drops", but I quickly ruled that out as I didn't hear the jangle of the dog tags. Besides, the dog is not allowed on the bed....

How about cats? No cats on or beside the bed.

How about earthquake? Did the New Madrid Fault finally do its thing? By this time the vibration had ended and I decided to go back to sleep.

Upon waking at 6:00am, I did my usual morning things and ended up at my laptop where I checked the news.

It really was an earthquake, 5.4 magnitude, with an epicenter about 130 miles west east of St. Louis and felt up to 450 miles away. The time was 4:36AM. [oops -- 130 miles west of St. Louis would have been just about in our backyard!]

See "Illinois Earthquake Felt in Boone County" for additional information.

[Update] The US Geological Survey revised the earthquake's magnitude downward to 5.2.

All-in-all an interesting way to start off the day.

3 comments:

MB said...

You would never think that s quake would be in Illinois, more likely a tornado. I remember feeling something near my place a few years back in KS where it rattled the windows, etc. Out here we are used to our usual tornados (not really!). At least with tornados you get warnings, but with quakes they just hit without any warning. That would be just as scary as a tornado, in my opinion. It just seems so unusual that the epicenter was in Illinois. But I guess there are faults out there as well as California and the NW. Thanks for the link! :)

Unknown said...

Thanks for dropping by again, MB.

I finally spent enough time on your blog to figure out who you were. It's really nice to run into people from the past, and Blogspot has been instrumental in several such "reunions".

Susan and I looked you up in the 1978 SC yearbook and I was astonished at how young we all looked. My son was particularly amused at my photo showing me with a bushy dark brown beard with no trace of gray.

Anyway, you're welcome on this blog anytime. Nice to hear from you.

MB said...

Yes, you were my Botany Prof, teacher back in '78. :) Susan was living up in the parlor (same floor/dorm as I was). You probably figured it out when I blogged about my lab partner...LOL!! Can't believe that has been about 30 years ago!! Good to touch bases with you and Susan! :) I enjoy reading your blog too!