Monday, February 17, 2014

All shook up on Valentine's - earthquakes in the Upstate

Because snow and sleet just aren’t enough, let’s throw an earthquake into the mix!
 
I wrote last Friday about the crazy weather we’ve had in the Upstate recently. The snow from winter storm Pax mostly melted over Valentine’s Day, but the boys enjoyed a day outside in their snow boots and long sleeved shirts during the 65˚ day. As of today, the snowmen in the front yard are still standing, but resemble large mounds of snow instead of actual forms as the weekend was gorgeous with sunny, warm weather. However on Valentine’s evening we had an interesting shake-up – my first earthquake!

Source: here
 
At 10:23pm Roberts and I were finishing up evening chores, and the boys were already asleep when a 4.1 quake hit 7 miles from Edgefield, SC. About 90 miles south of us, Edgefield is close to the GA border, so unsurprisingly the earthquake was felt all the way from Georgia to North Carolina. Said to have been a rather large quake for the area, no damage has been reported other than minor cracks and a few collapsed walls. The SC Emergency Management Division said that the state receives about 15-20 registered earthquakes per year and Friday night's was the 13th in the past year. The largest since a 4.4 earthquake in Charleston in 2002, it was nowhere close to as big as the 7.3 quake that struck Charleston in 1886.
 
Our earthquake felt like a large truck driving by, or an extended gale of wind; the windows rattled, the walls creaked and both Roberts and I were in slight disbelief that it had been an quake until we verified it on the USGS site a few minutes later. Thankful that it was just a minor one and no injuries have been reported, it was nonetheless an exciting evening for us here in the Upstate. I can only imagine what the next week has in store for us!

9 comments:

  1. Hi there, That earthquake had to have been scary to be a part of.. Several people in Tennessee also felt it.... Crazy!!!! Glad you (and everyone ) is okay... Yipes!

    That snowstorm last week was crazy. We were right on the edge and got about 5+ inches here --which was just a perfect little snow for us!!!! George and I had reservations to go to a little inn in Cashiers, NC at that time --and had to postpone it since they had 15 inches there --and we couldn't get there!

    Glad your kids enjoyed the snow though...
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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    1. Sorry to hear about your trip Betsy... I'm sure you'll be able to reschedule, and knowing you it will be just as romantic even though it won't be on Valentine's!

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  2. Nice to hear that you are safe from earthquake...

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  3. Isn't an earthquake a strange phenomenon? For those of us who grew up in the Midwest, we assume that dangerous things come from the sky - sleet, a foot of snow, a tornado. But actually feeling the earth move is incredibly strange. Amazingly, I've experienced two earthquakes in the DC area, and both were very disorienting.

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    1. How big were your quakes? I can't imagine anything larger than what we had, with things falling over and cracking... Most surprising was checking out the usgs.gov site, and seeing how many earthquakes occur daily! We had a smaller aftershock the following day - I didn't even feel it.

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    2. In 2011, a daytime one was centered near Richmond, VA and was a magnitude 5.8. It seemed to last a long time...apparently it was close to the surface. Here in DC both the Washington Monument and National Cathedral suffered considerable damage.

      In 2010, the quake was an early morning (5am) event. I was in a deep sleep, but woke up thinking "Why is there a truck going past the apartment and shaking everything?" It was only 3.6 magnitude, but centered very close to where I live!

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    3. A Latvian win over Canada might have also caused an earthquake...whoa, was that a great game! :)

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    4. I've read the earthquakes on the east coast tend to be shallower therefore more widely felt (vs the west coast, which has deep quakes along fault lines), but sounds like you were on top of both out there. We saw the Washington Monument long after, and it still had scaffolding from that particular quake. And yes, that was the definition of a great game. LV has not one, but two incredible goalies, not to mention the rest of the team - they played their hearts out!

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