Citizen science, moderate temblor version

[ritaxis]

So we're all sitting around the house, doing what we do (after a delicious meal of sauteed mixed forest mushrooms -- grisette, chanterelle, and calyptrata -- and brown rice pilaf with dried craterellus. It rained yesterday!). The house begins to shake. Earthquake. Nobody moves. The house keeps shaking, harder and harder. And it goes on. So we all simultaneously, swiftly but without rushing, go to the nearest doorways and stand in them for what seems like a very very long time till the house stops shaking. As soon as we're sure it's over Emma and I both dive back to our computers to report it to the USGS recent earthquake site. Our earthquake isn't even on the map when we start filling out the forms!

The USGS computer automagically produces an earthquake report from the reports us citizens file and I think a few sensors here and there. Refreshing it a few minutes later gets an updated report which has been reviewed by a seismologist.

What we got: a moderate (5.6) quake centered 15 km northeast of San Jose City Hall, at 9 km deep, occuring at 8:04:59 pm PDT. Probability of strong aftershock in the next week: 30%. Of a quake stronger than the first one: 5-10%. Expecting 15 or so weak aftershocks. If you click around the site, you'll find shake maps, topo maps of the region, etc. The shake map is not up for this one yet, alas.

I love this stuff. I do have to admit I got kind of concerned when the earthquake kept going on and on.

Comments

[kathryn-ironic.livejournal.com]

I was in San Jose at the family home when it hit. What I noticed about it was the unambiguity- it started with such a bang and a shaking that it was obviously at *least* a moderate quake.

I was surprised it wasn't larger than 5.6. It felt like a stronger quake that stopped quickly- i.e. if it had gone on for a few more seconds, it would have been difficult to walk, and more would have fallen down than just one jar.

An ambiguous quake is one that takes several seconds to figure out what's happening. At first it just seems like you've got slight dizziness, or that a very large truck is going by, or that someone is walking on the roof. If it's a mild quake, that's all that happens. The previous moderate quakes I've been in start ambiguously, and then keep getting a bit worse until your body just naturally carries you to the outside.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Was it short where you were? You were closer to the epicenter than us, but it was a long, long quake for us. There was nothing ambiguous about it, for sure -- it was a quake from the get go. It actually was a bit hard to get to the doorway, but not hard enough to indicate magnitude, so on the survey I said no to that question. Not hard. But I had to think about those two steps.

My body naturally takes me to a doorway, not to the outside. We have been trained, my body and I.

I thought for a few seconds it might be another "pretty big one," located someplace rather far away, but the TV just went on and on with normal programming, so I figured probably not.

[kathryn-ironic.livejournal.com]

Your training, and mine, is out-of-date.

What I'm seeing is that the latest and best advice is "Drop, Cover and Hold On" during a quake. See, for example:
http://www.earthquakecountry.info/dropcoverholdon/

They say that flying objects and falls from attempts to move are a big cause of injury.

They also say (as do many other reputable sites) to ignore anything by that "triangle of life" guy, because his theories are neither tested nor applicable to earthquake-code buildings, nor is there any evidence he himself is the expert he says he is.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I had never heard of the triangle of life guy until you mentioned him and I googled him. He's a transparent crank. It's simply untrue that people under sturdy objects such as desks, doorways, and cars are "crushed to death every time." In the Pretty Big One, there were very few deaths. One was a man trapped in a car for several days, who ultimately died of kidney failure days after he was got out of the car. The car did not crush him (though he was a bit crunched): it saved him, and if the rubble around him had been a bit shallower and he'd gotten to the hospital earlier he'd have lived.

The other deaths were in older buildings that had not been retrofitted yet, or most tragically, in a building next door to a building which had not been retrofitted, which fell to the side: and somebody who ran into a spooked horse on the highway.

In our case, the doorways were the closest objects to get under for the nice fellow and Emma. I could have gone under the desk I was at, except for my training! and my old stiff joints.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Ha! I just read your similar reply on ML and realized who you were!

[kathryn-ironic.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sometime soon I'm going to switch over to my LJ and not the email address being the K from Sunnydale link.