Fellow Los Angeleans, did you feel it?

[Mista J]

So at like 4 in the morning there was a 3.9 quake that lasted less than a minute, epicenter was in Baldwin Hills.

 

I had eaten hot wings earlier in the day so I thought I was sh*tting myself, until I heard my neighbor flipping her sh*t.

[paperbagdude]

I don't know what's worse:

 

sh*tting yourself with a bucket of KFC or a 3.9 earthquake.

 

However, for you and whoever lives in L.A., I hope nothing bad happened.

Edited May 3, 2015 by paperbagdude

[bread]

However, for you and whoever lives in L.A., I hope nothing bad happened.

Sure, because nothing bad ever happens in an earthquake.

[wiizardii]

Los Angeleans, what a catchy name..

 

 

 

 

 

All and all hope everything is fine in L.A.

[PhillBellic]

I thought you were Angelinos.

 

Anyway, I hope for the best.

[Niko Montana]

I hope everything is fine over there

[Zapp]

 

However, for you and whoever lives in L.A., I hope nothing bad happened.

Sure, because nothing bad ever happens in an earthquake.

3.9 now downgraded to 3.8 isn't really bad.

[Melech]

I hope everything is fine in Los Angeles. E3 comes soon!

[Mr. Scratch]

There was one in Michigan and Illinois yesterday. 4.7 magnitude.

[Reformed Squid]

It scares me how any second now, the whole Bay Area or Los Angeles area can be shaken by a devastating earthquake. It could be in five minutes, five seconds... Either way, you'll have pretty much no warning until we implement the smartphone earthquake alarms like Japan. But even then, It'll likely only help if you are a bit far away from the epicenter. I remember a few years back we had that Napa earthquake, I was a bit aways from the epicenter but it still caused the water in our pool to swish around and come out onto our patio. That was a 6.0 and it caused some significant damage in the Napa area. We're overdue for a bigger earthquake, a catastrophic one...

 

Anyways, hope all of you in LA and Michigan/Illinois are okay.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Cloudee

[Affalterbach]

Nope i didnt feel it.

[Pete4000uk]

It scares me how any second now, the whole Bay Area or Los Angeles area can be shaken by a devastating earthquake. It could be in five minutes, five seconds...

When that fault line up just off the coast of Washington state/southern Canada goes it will go BIG TIME.

 

I'll never forget waking up during the great tremmer of 2002 in the UK.

[Kampioen]

 

It scares me how any second now, the whole Bay Area or Los Angeles area can be shaken by a devastating earthquake. It could be in five minutes, five seconds...

When that fault line up just off the coast of Washington state/southern Canada goes it will go BIG TIME.

 

I'll never forget waking up during the great tremmer of 2002 in the UK.

 

 

I'm a survivor of the historic warmth wave in the Netherlands.

[Misanthrope Z]

 

However, for you and whoever lives in L.A., I hope nothing bad happened.

Sure, because nothing bad ever happens in an earthquake.

 

in all honesty, i'd say a 3.9 earthquake isn't much.

 

try living in two different houses, both which have had tornadoes bulldoze through their yards.

[Reformed Squid]

It's crazy, I literally just felt a pretty decent sized earthquake less than a minute ago here in the Bay Area. It was startling, but everything seems to be okay - here at least. It was a short but powerful jolt.

 

Edit, looks like it's rated as a 4.0 as of now.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Cloudee

[reiniat]

I live in Oaxaca and we had two 5+ earthquakes this month. Something is going on inside the Earth, probably Kaijus.

Edited May 3, 2015 by reiniat

[K^2]

So at like 4 in the morning there was a 3.9 quake that lasted less than a minute, epicenter was in Baldwin Hills.

 

I had eaten hot wings earlier in the day so I thought I was sh*tting myself, until I heard my neighbor flipping her sh*t.

3.9 is not an Earthquake. We got 3.9s back when I lived in Ohio, and it feels like someone slammed the door in your house extra hard. If you live on the West Coast, you shouldn't even be talking about anything less than a 6. Did you just move here, or something?

[MyName'sJeff]

Right, I guess you don't wanna feel one as powerful as the one in Nepal. Or Japan. 3.9 is absolutely nothing.

[K^2]

We'd actually be in pretty good shape after a 6.7 like in Nepal. Cali has building codes that make things pretty quake-resistant. The last time a 6.7 hit LA area was in '94, and that caused 57 fatalities. All of them in older buildings that have not been retrofitted. Now if we get hit by a 9 like in Japan, I don't think we'd fare as well as Japan did. And, of course, there's always a chance for The Big One.

[Reformed Squid]

 

So at like 4 in the morning there was a 3.9 quake that lasted less than a minute, epicenter was in Baldwin Hills.

 

I had eaten hot wings earlier in the day so I thought I was sh*tting myself, until I heard my neighbor flipping her sh*t.

3.9 is not an Earthquake. We got 3.9s back when I lived in Ohio, and it feels like someone slammed the door in your house extra hard. If you live on the West Coast, you shouldn't even be talking about anything less than a 6. Did you just move here, or something?

 

Richter Scale isn't everything. There's been 0.7 magnitude earthquakes that were felt by many 100 miles away from the epicenter, while one earthquake in Agentina was a 4.5 magnitude earthquake yet was nearly impossible to feel. That's not to say the earthquake in LA isn't minor, but from the looks of it, it has been rated as a VI on the Mercalli Scale, which means lots of people felt it strongly and there may have been some minor damage. That's higher than most earthquakes of its size. Despite the earthquake that happened when I lived being ranked about the same on the Richter scale, it's ranked lower on the Mercalli Scale.

Edited May 4, 2015 by Cloudee

[AboveAndBeyoncé]

So at like 4 in the morning there was a 3.9 quake that lasted less than a minute, epicenter was in Baldwin Hills.

 

I had eaten hot wings earlier in the day so I thought I was sh*tting myself, until I heard my neighbor flipping her sh*t.

Ha Baldwin Hills wasn't there a show on BET about high schoolers in that area?

[K^2]

Richter Scale isn't everything. There's been 0.7 magnitude earthquakes that were felt by many 100 miles away from the epicenter, while one earthquake in Agentina was a 4.5 magnitude earthquake yet was nearly impossible to feel. That's not to say the earthquake in LA isn't minor, but from the looks of it, it has been rated as a VI on the Mercalli Scale, which means lots of people felt it strongly and there may have been some minor damage. That's higher than most earthquakes of its size. Despite the earthquake that happened when I lived being ranked about the same on the Richter scale, it's ranked lower on the Mercalli Scale.

For starters, it's not really Richter, but Moment Magnitude Scale. Richter hasn't really been used in a long time. Though, MMS is frequently reported in press as Richter, so I can see why you'd be confused.

 

That said, MMS tells you about the actual energy in the event. That is the actual destructive potential of the Earthquake. Mercalli just tells you how many dogs there were in the area to bark at it, and how many people should have hired better crews to plaster their walls. It's a totally useless number.

[Reformed Squid]

I see. But isn't the actual effect on an area still also determined by the earthquake depth, among other factors, or does the MMS take these factors into account as well?

[K^2]

Sure, the depth matters. But that's like saying that it matters how far you are from epicenter. In fact, in many cases, what you really care about is the distance from source. And that's given by epicenter distance and depth.

 

Depending on material and distance, some energy of the quake is likely to be lost. So a deep 4, you probably won't feel. But a 4 can still only be so powerful, determined by total energy released, and it's not that much.

 

On the other hand, with a more powerful earthquake, losses just don't add up to that much. So the biggest difference between a shallow 7 and a deep 7 is going to be whether most of that energy is released in one place, or over the large area. These are very different earthquakes, of course, but each one is going to be pretty devastating in its own way.

 

So MMS is still a very good indicator of what to expect. And since it's an objective measure, we have ways of making predictions about it, and making preparations.

[GN 92]

Probably MUTOs and Godzilla.