General Chat

My first! A genuine earthquake, just over half an hour ago.

I was sittiing at the computer in my office on the second floor my office house (that's the floor above the ground floor) and the first I knew was what I thought was someone poking my back - it must have been my chair back jostled against me.

I turned around in fright, and that was when it started to sound like all the walls and ceilings on the ground floor were collapsing. I ran down the stairs and out on the street to find my neighbours next door already out there, looking at the big truck in the intersection at the corner -- a truck collision? Then the other neighbours started coming out, and the truck moved on, and we all looked at each other and said "Earthquake??"

The early news is that it was a 5.5 and was felt all across Ontario and Quebec and down into the northeastern/central US.

No.1 was on the phone with his mother five hours away when it hit. Gotta go, he said, I think we're having an earthquake. Apparently she got it (on the 24th floor of a highrise) a few minutes later.

Where we are, the house basements are all sitting directly on bedrock, really hard stuff, so we felt it pretty directly.

How weird and exciting! And fingers crossed for no aftershocks.

For anybody curious:

http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/06/earthquake_shakes_toronto/

The Toronto Star is reporting that

"The Natural Resources Canada Earthquake information page appears to be being flooded with traffic and isn't responding (not good from an emergency info source!)."

Indeed!

Weve had quite a few over here in England,,,,,last one was last year abt 1am ish time,,,my wardrobes did a tango across the floor and oraments were jumping off the shelves,,,very scary really as it felt like a jumbo had crash landed close by.

It is the weirdest feeling isn't it Janey.I worked in Athens years ago as a Nanny and we had one in the middle of the night.I couldn't understand what was happening as all the things on the shelf were falling off and it felt as though someone was shaking my bed.
We have had a few small tremors here .One a few years ago which I think the centre of it was somewhere in the South East and we felt it here in the East Midlands.

You go quiet Janey???

Hahahahahahaha


You would still be talking through the shield even if it did swallow you up..

Whatever that might be..

Was it really scary??

What was scary was I thought my house was falling in!

In the winter, my energy conservation efforts (I was just heating my office room and keeping the ground floor at bare minimum) resulted in frozen and burst pipes. Haven't got them fixed -- I just go next door to home, to pee.

So I figured the damage to the ceiling had resulted in it falling in with some kind of cascade effect. I was afraid it was going to take the floor I was standing on with it!

No time to wonder -- just ran down the stairs and outside. The good news was when I saw the neighbours, actually two doors from my office house, who couldn't have been reacting to my ceiling falling in. ;)

Somebody else on a second floor -- of a less solid house, this one has two-foot-thick stone basement walls -- said she felt it swaying. I just felt enormous rumbling and shaking.

One report says it was 5.7, most say 5.5. Still pretty big, I think!

Isn't it funny how one's first thought isn't "earthquake"?

I thought house falling in, others on the street and elsewhere, per news reports, thought huge truck going by, Kay thought jumbo jet crash.

Maybe once you've felt one, you recognize it next time!

Very scary I would have thought. I'll keep fingers, legs and eyes crossed for no aftershocks Janey

Jeanie
xx

Janey, glad things were no worse.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/earthquake-shakes-ontario-us-states/article1614941/

"This particular earthquake was quite deep," said Dr. Alexander Cruden, a professor of geology at U of T. He said a quake at that depth can be felt as far away as 500 kilometres.

Dr. Cruden said there have been two recorded earthquakes with a maginitude over 6.0 on the Richter scale in the Western Quebec seismic zone, one in 1935 and one in 1732.



Now, how did they measure earthquakes in 1732? ;)



On Parliament Hill, where the Commons has adjourned for the summer but the Senate was still in session, Senators felt the Red Chamber shake. Glass windows made a crunching noise, and ornate chandeliers swung.

"I was walking into the chamber, and there was all this crunching noise, and all of a sudden everyone started running," said Senator Marjory LeBreton.

The Senate's black-robed officers poured onto the Parliament lawn, with deputy usher of the black rod carrying the ceremonial staff.

"We're having some contentious debates, so we were wondering if it was a message from the gods," Sen. LeBreton joked.

A PMO spokeswoman said the Ottawa headquarters of the National Research Council, which is responsible for monitoring earthquakes in Canada, has been evacuated and officials are taking phone calls from an emergency room.



The earthquake monitoring people are housed right in the worst earthquake zone in the country so they evacuate!

Thanks for the well wishes. ;) Now I have to find out how long afterward there may be aftershocks!

OH and I were in Naples (well, outside of Naples) during the 1980 quake. We were watching a movie at a US base and thought the kids behind us were kicking our chairs. Turned around to give them a good glare and realised they were as confused as we were.
Then the screams of "terremoto" started.
It's a strange sensation-almost like being seasick.

Just be glad you weren't in the shower or something,Janey.

Maureen

The first one I ever felt was not so much scary but weired,,,,,it was afternoon must be 14 years ago? I have habit of watching tele laying on the floor as I was this day,,,and all I felt was a rumble in my tum but the house just for a few seconds was shaking......such a weired sensation,,,,,,,,

next time it happens sit on the floor and feel it rumble past you,,,,,}}}}}}}}}}

I missed our big one a couple of years ago. I was at home, but in a utility room extension and wondered what all the fuss was about when other family members started calling me from upstairs. I was used to a quiet cuppa by myself on a Saturday morning.OH maintains he saw the wave move across the room as things gradually got caught up by the movement.
The earthquake did quite a bit of damage in Folkestone, which looked like 'scaffold city' for many months afterwards.

When it first happened, word went round that it was an explosion in the Channel Tunnel. Thank goodness that was not the case.
We had another, but less powerful earthquake exactly a year later.

Keep safe Janey. I hope there are no further shocks.

Gwyn

It's been downgraded to a 5.0. :( Not nearly as exciting, I guess!

Very little damage reported here. Some windows in a big shopping centre in downtown Ottawa (the capital city is about 50 miles from the epicentre) apparently broke. The ones in the Senate chamber just "crunched".

Here's me thinking I could impress all the Englanders with wild and wooly earth movings, but no, you've all been there, done that. ;)

Some of us are persuaded that it was the earth objecting to the G8/G20 meetings just about to get underway here.

Our charming (vile right-wing) PM has spent well over A BILLION dollars (read: half a billion pounds) on this nonsense. They actually built an artificial lake in a convention centre so delegates could enjoy the feeling of relaxing in a Muskoka chair by a northern Ontario lake - minus the blackflies.

One wag commenting at a news site wondered whether the tsunami warning for the artificial lake had been cancelled.

Sure it was an earthquake and not you slapping No 1 with that piece of 4x2?

Sue xx

Here you go..

# Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 17:41:41 UTC
# Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 01:41:41 PM at epicenter

45.904°N, 75.497°W
Depth 16.4 km (10.2 miles) set by location program
Region ONTARIO-QUEBEC BORDER REGION, CANADA
Distances

* 43 km (27 miles) N (352°) from Cumberland, Ontario, Canada
* 48 km (30 miles) NNE (15°) from Gatineau, Qu�bec, Canada
* 54 km (34 miles) NNE (21°) from Hull, Qu�bec, Canada
* 56 km (35 miles) NNE (16°) from OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010xwa7.php

(I've got 'Earthquakes' in my 'Bookmarks'. How sad is that? lol)

Glad to hear that no one has been injured, or at least, only minor injuries know so far.

Aha. I did see a link to a US Geological Survey site where they collect people's eyewitness reports, so I sent mine in. ;) They ask about the effects and sensations, which they apparently use to help predict the effects of future earthquakes.

Heh, basically the same place:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/
events/us/2010xwa7/us/index.html

The map doesn't agree with me -- I guess I'm just a baby, but I called it strong! I suppose if it had been strong, my house actually would have collapsed. Hard to describe when you don't have a point of comparison, but I think I'm happy not knowing what "very strong" is supposed to feel like!

I'm just off to bed now Janey. Saw BBC news earlier. Top story - England through in the World Cup. No word on the earthquake. Good job we've got you to keep us informed.

Everything still firmly crossed for no aftershocks.

All the best
Jeanie

Did the earth move for you too Janey? lol

Steve
:o))

Well now C****** can be jealous -- she said she was *not* going to say that on the boards, and I was not to quote her!

SueMaid -- if it had been "strong" it might have dismantled those aging decks for me, and then I would have had all the free-floating cedar 2x4s I need. Oh well.

At the moment (approaching 7 pm here) the &%$#@*&$%#@ jackhammer at that hideous townhouse infill project "yes in my back yard" that we failed to stop a few years ago is still going strong, directly back from my office window about 100 feet. When you're talking jackhammer, 100 feet is like being in bed with.

Apparently they built the slope on the property wrong and they're having to correct the drainage. Knowing what I do about the developer (he is a part owner of a gold mine in Colombia, for pity's sake), I'm surprised those things are still standing after the quake. People actually paid nearly half a million dollars per house (each of which is attached to another) to live in my back yard. Amazing.

So nothing on the BBC news. You people are worse than the yanks. I guess you can't help being insular when you live on an island. ;) We made it to CNN, but of course that's because it extended south of the border. Oh, and I suppose Obama's in Toronto.