A 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit the Midwest at 4:37 a.m. CDT yesterday morning. The quake was centered near West Salem, IL near the Illinois/Indiana border. I was in Indianapolis - about 160 miles from the epicenter - but I didn't feel it.
My friend, Charlie Sampson, who lives in Carmel, IN just north of Indy, felt it. My sister, Nancy, who lives in Louisville, felt it. And my wife, sound asleep in our bed in the Quad Cities, felt it.
Cindy told me when I called to tell her "Good Morning" yesterday that she had an "out of body experience this morning". I asked her what she was talking about. She said, "Well, it felt like someone was shaking the bed. Then all the sudden the brass handles on your dresser started to rattle. I wondered what the hell was going on."
My sister called while I was talking to Cindy and she said pretty much the same thing. She said, "It felt like someone was at the end of the bed shaking it." She immediately turned on the TV and the news people in Louisville were a little shook, as well.
She was telling me that a building in downtown Louisville lost some bricks from atop a facade. According to news reports, that seems to be the only substantial damage in the region from the quake. Here's a picture of the damage courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Charlie told me that it was the first time he felt an Indiana earthquake. Many people on radio shows in Indianapolis later in the day said pretty much the same thing.
For years, scientists have been warning about "the big one" emanating from the New Madrid Seismic Zone, also known as "The New Madrid Fault". However, officials from the United States Geological Survey gave the reason for the earthquake as a plate movement in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone. The Central United States Earthquake Consortium says that recent studies have found that "the big one" could also come at any time from the Wabash Valley fault in southeastern Illinois and southwestern Indiana.
A 5.0 quake centered near Evansville, IN hit in June of 2008. That, too, was found to be from the Wabash Valley Fault. It was felt over 250 miles away in a number of states. That was the largest quake recorded in the Wabash Valley zone until the one yesterday.
I don't know if I can feel earthquakes. I certainly slept through it yesterday morning. And I was in Los Angeles a few days after the Northridge earthquake in 1994 and I had colleagues who felt a 4.4 aftershock. But I sure didn't. Some people are like that. Others are more sensitive to the movement. All I know is that if it takes a big one to finally get me to feel an earthquake, I don't want to think of how big it would have to be.
Comments