5.4 earthquake rocks Illinois; felt 350 miles away

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Associated Press

WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) - A 5.4 earthquake that appeared to rival the strongest recorded in the region rocked people awake up to 350 miles away early Friday, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a powerful Midwest temblor.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered 6 miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind. It was felt in such distant cities as Chicago, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, 350 miles north of the epicenter, but there were no early reports of injuries or significant damage.

"It shook our house where it woke me up," said David Behm of Philo, 10 miles south of Champaign. "Windows were rattling, and you could hear it. The house was shaking inches. For people in central Illinois, this is a big deal. It's not like California."

The quake shook skyscrapers in Chicago's Loop, 240 miles north of the epicenter, and in downtown Indianapolis, about 160 miles northeast of it. Residents of Cincinnati and St. Louis also reported feeling the earth shake.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080418/D9047TF00.html

[trumad]

1. 5.4 is a pretty nice shaker....

We et them all the time in San Fran and they do move you.

[Catch22Dem]

2. I remember my first quake

It was when I was living in Japan. For a brief moment, I thought it was rolling thunder, then my bed started moving. It was wild.

[grace0418]

21. Chicago doesn't have earthquake building codes as far as I know, so if a big one

hits us here, it's going to be pretty devastating with all these old brick buildings. I did feel it this morning but thought it was a big truck that woke me up. My cat was kinda freaked though.

[SaintLouisBlues]

3. May be some minor damage here in St. Louis

Debris came off an old overpass, closing down a major thoroughfare (Kingshighway).



The overpass has been re-opened, with the outer lanes still closed.

Other reports of broken windows and a possible gas leak.

[zanne]

4. I'm glad you're OK. nt

[roguevalley]

81. the big one in Alaska has been rated upwards as far as and it

lasted nearly six minutes. Imagine that. people were swallowed up that were never found.

[Jokerman]

5. We felt it in Indianapolis

Woke me up and freaked the cats out!

[krkaufman]

6. Wow, I've been up all night .... and felt it. The apartment was shaking ...

... for about 15-20 seconds, it seemed.

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. If it was felt in Chicago, I slept through it.

But I am not in a skyscraper.

[City Lights]

13. I'm north of you (Lake County) and we think we *may* have felt it here.

We have a double door on our bedroom, one of which is always closed. Both of us heard it jiggling sometime this morning. When I heard it, I assumed it was jiggling due to wind blowing from an open window, but when I got up, I realized I had closed the window last night. I can't pinpoint the time it happened, but it was definitely more toward morning than middle of the night. :shrug:

[Shoelace]

55. felt as far north as Ontario, Canada!

from this news report. Sheese, nearly 30,000 people emailed USGS to tell they that they felt it. That is a record number of responses I think.
I grew up in California, so I'm always interested in movers and shakers, lol.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=41fed608-b8b0-4f54-8230-e936ade2544e&k=66415

[kestrel91316]

62. See my post below. I think I just might have felt it also.

In Los Angeles.

Mind you, it was VERY faint. I was lying motionless in bed. If I had even been turning over or distracted by a noise, let alone up and moving around, I would never have noticed. It went on for at least ten seconds, which is far longer than any of our local teeny weeny quakes are. This was obviously very far away and pretty large.

We had lots of PAIRS of teeny weeny shimmy quakes in the year leading up to Northridge, BTW, so I got used to them. But they stopped after Northridge.

[Shoelace]

73. there was a micro quake in Pasadena

in the middle of the night. Here's the info on it:

A micro earthquake occurred at 4:21:44 AM (PDT) on Friday, April 18, 2008.
The magnitude 1.5 event occurred 1 km (1 miles) N of Pasadena, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 2 km ( 1 mile).

For a list of quakes in your area and general info, go here (you can click on your area to see lists):


http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/index.html

[kestrel91316]

74. I really think mine was earlier than that. And we get little micro-quakes

like that all over the place all the time. I wouldn't feel a 1.5 off in Pasadena - and it wouldn't last TEN SECONDS.

I would swear mine was maybe 1 AM, but I fell asleep shortly before midnight so I can't be sure.

The length was what was so remarkable - that is a hallmark of magnitude.

[izzybeans]

20. I slept through it as well.

[HereSince1628]

8. Just so you know....the earth never moves for me

[Divernan]

28. That's a damn shame!

[Svafa]

9. It knocked some pictures off of our mantle here

in the St. Louis burbs; I hope there was no damage elsewhere, especially closer to the epicenter.

[Serial Mom]

10. Reports felt in SE Wisconsin - 350 miles away from center

I didn't feel it

[alterfurz]

31. woke us up in Madison, WI!

pictures on walls rattled off center, whole apt. building shook!

[Roland99]

11. Woke me up in Lousiville.

[Bake]

33. Mayor-for-Life Abramson was on the teevee this morning

giving a presser about it. I saw photos of some building damage in my old home town. I miss the 'Ville!

Bake

[Roland99]

36. Those bricks made it to CNN, too!

Ramping up for Derby soon. Come on back! :D

[alfredo]

56. You just didn't drink enough. It woke my wife here in Lexington.

[JoDog]

12. I live about 70 miles from Chicago

and felt it. Friday morning is street cleaning day in my neighborhood, and occasionally you can feel the huge sweeper throught the floorboards. When my bed rattled, the first thought in my sleepy mind was, "What, are they driving the sweeper on the sidewalk now?"

[P0pEye]

14. I feel the earth move ...

actually I slept through it

[LibertyLover]

15. First time I felt an earthquake (tremor really) was in my dorm in Chicago

I was sitting on my bed watchng tv one evening in 1974 when I felt a distinct wavy motion and then a shaking. Somehow I just knew it was a tremor. Sure enough, a few minutes later on the news they reported it. It wasn't very strong, maybe a 2.5 or so, but I was impressed.

[hedgehog]

16. I think it's New MAD -rid, not New Muh -DRID

:scared:

[fed-up]

17. downgraded to 5.2

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2008qza6.php

Earthquake Details

Magnitude 5.2
Date-Time
Friday, April 18, 2008 at 09:37:00 UTC
Friday, April 18, 2008 at 04:37:00 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 38.450°N, 87.890°W
Depth 11.6 km (7.2 miles) set by location program
Region ILLINOIS
Distances
7 km (5 miles) NNE (13°) from Bellmont, IL
9 km (6 miles) E (88°) from Bone Gap, IL
11 km (7 miles) N (350°) from Keensburg, IL
41 km (26 miles) SW

[Javaman]

45. Still a very good shake...

I remember after the northridge we were getting several 5.0+ after shocks days after the main one. It was a very bizarre trip.

[davsand]

18. We all slept thru it.

Well, all of us except the cat, that is. Cat got freaked out and hid under the comforter with kevsand. I had to hear about it on the news this morning. We live maybe 20 miles from Philo and the guy they quote in that article makes it sound like we were rocking and rolling around here. Couldn't honestly say.

I will say that I do wonder about New Madrid Fault and what the heck we'll do if THAT bad boy ever lets go. You guys out there in California get quakes fairly often, but they usually are frequent enough to release part of that pressure. New Madrid just sits there building up pressure and when New Madrid finally does let go it can be a bad scene.

Last time New Madrid really cut loose the MidWest was not as densely populated. There were just not that many buildings to get shaken around. Now, however, that could be a huge number of people impacted, and a lot of them are living in places that were not built with any real sort of earthquake protection standards. Think Memphis and St Louis, and you start to see what I'm talking about--BIG old masonry buildings without enough structural support...

Something else that comes into play here is the highway and bridge structures that would be impacted with a large scale quake. FEMA is gonna have a bitch of a time even GETTING here let alone doing any kind of evac or setting up new emergency supply routes.

We watched a fascinating show one evening about the subject of New Madrid, and I have gotta tell you that scared the daylights outta me. Made me realize that tornadoes are not the only natural disaster that can mess with us folks here in Illinois.


Laura

[Donnachaidh]

57. I think I watched that same show you did.

And having been through quakes, here's some advice. If you don't have an emergency kit for your family now - start pulling together plans and working on it. Get your doctor to write prescriptions for any necessary drugs that are taken on a regular basis, and explain to him/her exactly what you are going to do with it (packing it in an emergency pack). Get extra pairs of needed prescription glasses for the emergency pack. Keep comfortable shoes (like old sneakers) for everyone in the family in the trunk of your car AND under your beds (in case you actually have time to get them on). Make copies of your important papers and keep them in a locked security box and keep that in a place that it can be grabbed on the way out. Birth certificates, bank account numbers, shot records if you have small children, drivers licenses, marriage certificates, passports -- make copies of them ALL. You cannot BELIEVE what sort of hoops FEMA makes you jump through in order to get help, and with all the new Homeland Security BS it's probably WORSE now.

WATER. If the quake is big enough drinking water won't be available. I had to stop a neighbor who was going to let her kids drink from the pool(!?!) - keep enough for at least a week. Toss a couple of old blankets in your trunk too. You can use those spacebag things to shrink down blankets and extra changes of clothing. Remember your pets too! Dogs will usually stay with you right through it, but cats will freak and find the weirdest hidey-holes in or around the house they can find.

There are other sites that list what you should have in terms of food, etc. But the above stuff is what we had when we went through the last one. And even though we moved to the East Coast, I still keep the stuff ready. We went through 6 weeks of hell waiting on FEMA, for a smaller quake. I really hope the New Madrid doesn't pop soon. :scared:

[DemReadingDU]

19. I felt it in SW Ohio, n/t

[MidwestTransplant]

22. Felt it in suburban Detroit where I am right now. Seemed like it went on for a while.

[Hobarticus]

24. Woke me up in NE Iowa...

Rattled the pictures on the wall, and I didn't have a good explanation for my wife so I just went back to sleep.

But I've been on a hair-trigger at night lately, anyway.

[Occulus]

23. Did anyone in MI feel this quake?

I live in SW MI and slept right through it, if we in fact felt anything at all way up here.

[coriolis]

25. Illinois laid out by drunken surveyors? West Salem is 50 miles EAST of Salem

I never even heard of West Salem until today...my mom was born & raised in Salem...
:eyes:

[xchrom]

26. i spent half my life in peoria --

i know where salem and west salem is.

and it's TOTALLY weird that west salem is east of salem.

[Divernan]

29. My dad used to sing a song: "I wish I was in Peoria!"

[xchrom]

32. A-a-a-c-k!!! -- dear lord god --

i guess as a young child it was ok -- i hated it there -- so glad to be gone.

i have tons of family in iowa -- and friends in peoria -- but i break out in a rash whenever i find myself visiting there.

[coriolis]

34. I always liked the Kingston Trio's version of that little tune!

:D

[lovuian]

27. friend in St Louis felt it

Dog was under the bed at 4:15 and she was wondering why then it happened later

[Wcross]

30. I felt it here south of Nashville.

I had just let one of the cats in & five of the dogs outside were going knutz. I had just laid down and the bed started shaking but I thought it was the dog laying on the bed having some sort of shaking fit. It's good to know there is nothing wrong with Moe, just an earthquake.

[davsand]

35. Had a couple little aftershocks a few minutes ago (about 10:15 or so)

I'm sitting in a chair in my basement family room. It moved. Hubby was walking around in the house and did not feel it. Checked the local online boards and others felt it too-not just me...

Just a little shake, and pretty quick ones at that...


Laura

[Zero Division]

39. Felt that here in Davenport, Iowa.

I just went online to see if anyone else felt an aftershock and sure enough...That's the first earthquake activity I've felt since I was a young child living in Pennsylvania in the early 80s. I always suspect an explosion before an earthquake, because I've never lived in a very earthquake-prone area before.

[davsand]

40. US Geologic Survey says there's been some very real activity in the last 24 hours:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/38.40.-89.-87_eqs.php


We don't get too much shaking here in the Midwest, but when we DO get it we seem to notice it.

:hi:


Laura

[alfredo]

37. We felt it here in Lexington Ky. I didn't feel it but it woke my wife

I'm good at sleeping through earthquakes.

I lived on top an old volcano near the Great Rift Valley. We had earthquakes from time to time. One morning my room mate said that during a late night quake I sat up and said, "Oh, another fucking earthquake." I laid back down, never waking.

[Terran]

38. Felt in Jefferson City MO, 150 miles west of St. Louis

I'm not surprised a small earthquake is being felt over such a wide area. I've done some reading about the big New Madrid (Missouri) quake that happened in the early 19th century. It's said that the geology of this whole region is ideal for transmitting seismic waves over a very large distance, so when the New Madrid fault lets loose again with a Big One, every town from Chicago to Memphis will be hit hard.

[muryan]

41. Felt it just outside of Dayton, OH

Was sleep deprived and battling insomnia so I just assumed I was going crazy. When I first heard about the quake this morning at work I was extremely relieved.

Side note, this is the first quake I've ever felt and since no one got hurt it's pretty neat.

[AngryOldDem]

43. Southwest Ohio had two back in the 1980s.

There is a moderately active fault near Anna, in northwest Ohio. One of those quakes -- I believe it was 1981 or 1982 -- did cause some minor damage (facades knocked off buildings) north of Dayton.

I was half-awake this morning when the bed started shaking and stuff on my bookcase started rattling. Even in my groggy state I figured out pretty quickly what it was. I am NO fan of 'em.

[kineneb]

42. welcome to da' club, folks! (from San Andreas land)

Gaia had an itch there, I guess.

[Javaman]

44. is that part of the madrid fault line? nt

[FlaGranny]

50. I think so. We don't want THAT fault waking

back up.

[Javaman]

54. my thoughts as well.

:scared:

[kestrel91316]

63. It will. Some day. One thing I know -

I'll NEVER live in Memphis. My mom didn't raise no fool.

I went through Northridge. I have a VERY healthy respect for earthquakes.

[paparush]

46. I felt it in Western NC at 5:40 am. Woke me up. (I'm a very light sleeper)

[Algorem]

47. west salem?isn't that where the witches moved from salem,mass.?

this is a devil quake i tell you.much evil ahead.

[alfredo]

48. Free earthquake monitor for your desktop

http://www.seis.sc.edu/gee/

I'm using it now. Runs on OSX, Windows, and Linux.

[puerco-bellies]

64. Cool thanks for the link

I used to have the caltech quake site bookmarked. I have lived in the Los Angeles area most of my life and have come to be a fan of non-fatal quakes and fault geology. Interesting stuff.

[alfredo]

66. I've caught several aftershocks so far today. I love GEE.

[alfredo]

49. Picked up an aftershock on GEE.

http://www.seis.sc.edu/gee/

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rayofreason]

70. LOL!!!! eom

[bvar22]

52. "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On"

In the winter of 1811-12, the central Mississippi Valley was struck by three of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. Even today, this region has more earthquakes than any other part of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Government agencies, universities, and private organizations are working to increase awareness of the earthquake threat and to reduce loss of life and property in future shocks.

The 400 terrified residents in the town of New Madrid (Missouri) were abruptly awakened by violent shaking and a tremendous roar. It was December 16, 1811, and a powerful earthquake had just struck. This was the first of three magnitude-8 earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks to rock the region that winter.

Survivors reported that the earthquakes caused cracks to open in the earth's surface, the ground to roll in visible waves, and large areas of land to sink or rise. The crew of the New Orleans (the first steamboat on the Mississippi, which was on her maiden voyage) reported mooring to an island only to awake in the morning and find that the island had disappeared below the waters of the Mississippi River. Damage was reported as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C.

<snip>

Earthquakes in the central or eastern United States affect much larger areas than earthquakes of similar magnitude in the western United States. For example, the San Francisco, California, earthquake of 1906 (magnitude 7.8) was felt 350 miles away in the middle of Nevada, whereas the New Madrid earthquake of December 1811 (magnitude 8.0) rang church bells in Boston, Massachusetts, 1,000 miles away. Differences in geology east and west of the Rocky Mountains cause this strong contrast.



<snip>

In 1811, the central Mississippi Valley was sparsely populated. Today, the region is home to millions of people, including those in the cities of St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee. Adding to the danger, most structures in the region were not built to withstand earthquake shaking, as they have been in California and Japan. Moreover, earthquake preparations also have lagged far behind.



http://quake.usgs.gov/prepare/factsheets/NewMadrid/

[slackmaster]

53. Out here we call that a "dish rattler"

But I am glad so many people could get a taste of what we put up with on the Ring o' Fire.

[slor]

60. Let us hope it stays at "dish rattler" status...

the destructive potential of earthquakes in that region, particularly along the New Madrid fault line would dwarf anything the West Coast has seen. I felt the tremors in 1982, as a teen in Cincinnati. I was even yelled at by my mom, she thought the shaking was caused by my friends and I, who were playing in the basement. I now live in Sebastopol, CA, but I have only felt one tremor, while working in Petaluma.

[KillCapitalism]

58. I live near St. Louis & didn't feel a thing.

Of course I'm such a heavy sleeper that we could have an 8.0 and it wouldn't wake me. In that case, I'd probably awaken on the floor hours later covered in debris & wondering what the hell happened.:rofl:

[kestrel91316]

59. Get THIS:

I am in Los Angeles. In the middle of the night last night I came barely awake and felt a very slight tremor that, very weirdly, went on for at least ten seconds. It was clearly an earthquake, and in my experience duration correlates consistently with magnitude.

So I thought to myself: Somebody pretty far away is getting nailed by a sizeable quake. I immediately fell asleep again, and did NOT note the time.

It's not inconceivable that it registered here.

[KillCapitalism]

61. I slept through this earthquake too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northridge_earthquake

Don't ask me how since it was such a big one, but I did. I was in Anaheim at the time too.

[Donnachaidh]

67. we were 2 blocks from the epicenter

needless to say, we were slammed awake. Every window in our apartment blew out EXCEPT the bedroom.

That quake zigzagged all over the place. It was a weird one. And our last one. Less than 2 months later I stood in line at the Georgia DMV, comparing notes with the other Californians who had had enough. Seven families in total. :rofl:

[Shoelace]

76. whoa, that is a bummer!

considering all the rain your areas have been getting. Sure glad no injuries there so far as I've heard??

[Donnachaidh]

79. nope, we've had little problems with the rains

For some reason we've not been in the paths of any of the twister-like weirdness that's been going on. But the possibility of the New Madrid going POP has my nerves going a bit. I was diagnosed with PTSD three days after Northridge, and quakes just seem to get to me more than anything else.

[alfredo]

65. Another after shock. around 1430 EST

[Indydem]

68. One of the guys I work with felt it, but I was sound asleep :) n/t

[hedgehog]

69. I guess it was the New Madrid's buddy rolling over:

EARTHQUAKES IN THE WABASH VALLEY SEISMIC ZONE
These earthquakes occurred in the Wabash Valley Seismic zone. The earthquakes in this zone are scattered over a large area of southeastern Illinois and southwest Indiana. The zone had at least eight prehistoric earthquakes over the past 20,000 years with estimated magnitudes ranging from about 6.5 to 7.5, based on geologic evidence. Earthquakes of the size of the recent quake (Mw 5.2) can produce smaller aftershocks over the following days. A few might be large enough to be felt. Typically, earthquakes of this size (Mw 5.2) can cause light damage within a few tens of miles from the epicenter. Central and eastern US earthquakes generally shake areas about 10 times as large as those that occur in California. It is not surprising that this earthquake was felt as far south as Florida.

The Wabash Valley Seismic zone is adjacent to the more seismically active New Madrid seismic zone on the seismic zone's north and west.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2008qza6.php#summary

[Myrina]

71. Indianapolis

... my dogs started growling a few minutes before it actually hit ... then my windows rattled and the motion-sensor lights out in the yard went on ... i thought someone was trying to break in ... or maybe it was another 'meteor' (we had 2 just north of here earlier this week) ... odd.

[PittPoliSci]

72. any damage reported in evansville?

[4_TN_TITANS]

75. Woke me up here in Mid TN

rattling the window and dresser drawer handles. I've felt two earthquakes here in the last 4 years, weird for this part of the country.

[Throd]

77. Amateurs

[alfredo]

78. Not really. We have rumblers from time to time. The geology of this

region makes earthquakes more destructive. The New Madrid has the potential to flatten much of the midwest. The last big one rung church bells in New England.

BTW, this one caused damage here in Lexington Ky. The last 5.4 was felt in 15 states and caused millions in damage.
I live between the kentucky river fault system and the Kentucky River fault system. If you are driving south on I 75 and cross the Ky River, you are driving over a fault line. Notice too they have added more supports to the bridge.

[JeanGrey]

80. I read some guy who said "I was making love to my wife during

it and I thought the room was shaking due to my efforts, imagine my disappointment to find it was not"

(I about peed my pants laughing)

[stlsaxman]

82. it woke me up this morning. funny that i was dreaming i was on the "tremor machine" at

the science center where i was recently hired. i turn t on and test it every day i work, and end up looking like this-

:scared:

but i shot out of bed and went to a doorway as soon as i realized what was happening.

we NEVER get them here.

[WheelWalker]

83. This was predicted seven days ago, at the following link....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3265261&mesg_id=3265327

A DUZY of a prediction!

[AbbeyRoad]

84. My shaking bed and barking dog woke me up this morning

I'm down here in Southern Illinois, and I know if the New Madrid really wakes up it's gonna be ugly. Back in 1990, a Dr Iben Browning predicted that there was a 50/50 chance that there would be a big earthquake like occurred back in 1811-12 within 48 hours of December 3, so they let us have a day off of school. When nothing happened, I think most of the adults realized it had all been rather silly. We're aware that it can happen, but it seems we're not going to know when.

[UrbScotty]

85. I didn't feel it in Michigan

but a high school not far away was featured on the news for having a seismograph.

[Name removed]

86. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[alfredo]

87. Here's why Midwest quakes are such a big thing compared to the West coast.

It's all about the bedrock. The rock under the midwest is old, hard and intact. It transmits the shock waves much better than the softer, newer and crumbled rock of the west.

Here's an article that points out the difference.

http://www.kentucky.com/513/story/380059.html

[febreze]

88. I'm more worried about California

I read a report predicting that in the next 30 years or so the odds of a devastating earthquake in Cali are very high. God forbit it happens.

[poppysgal]

89. A simple question

I am just wondering if this could be related to the "swarm" of tremors that have been occurring in Oregon for the past ten days or so?

[Venceremos]

90. Been wondering that, too

I don't know the answer and searched a couple times for info....haven't found anything yet