General Chat

Oh, all right, you west coasters have the earthquake tale market cornered. ;)

As far as I can tell nothing inside our houses was disturbed. I don't know whether having two-foot thick stone foundations makes a difference! You people out there have flimsy houses.

A west coast friend of mine came to visit a few years ago -- she'd actually spent a lot of her life in Cuba as a doctor but had grown up in the west and had never been east, I think. They wanted to see the fall colours -- apparently you fake Canadians out there don't get the fabullous fall display that is the hallmark of true Canadiana -- but what they were really enthralled with as we drove around town was all the houses made of brick!


Tania - close call! Imagine landing just as it hit ...

Hi Sylvia,
It's funny how we adjust everyday things just in case "The Big One" happens.

All of our beds are away from windows. Nothing hangs on the wall above the beds.

I'm going to remind my husband AGAIN in a moment, to get strapping to tie down the hot water tank.
Don't forget, if you can get back into your house after TBO, and after you have used all the water from your hot water tank, you can use the water in your toilet tank.
1 Gallon water is disinfected by 8-16 drops of regular household bleach (visually about 1/4 of a teaspoon) - double that for cloudy water. Shake and let stand 30 minutes. One teaspoon will disinfect 5 gallons. Immediately after treating, water must initially have a slight smell of chlorine. If it does not - repeat the process.
If water is relatively clear: but has a noticeable smell of chlorine: it is drinkable, disinfected, and harmless.

Deb

Hi Deb ~~~~~


as I told Janey on another thread ............. the pictures on my wall are crooked at least once a month due to small quakes.


I've been in 2 here, but not much damage if any done in either of them

Mind you ..................... all bookcases, cupboards, the grandfather clock etc are fastened to the wall.

We do not have any pictures directly over any of the beds

We have a bookcase near our bed, but have only light objects on the upper shelves. At least ....... there would be if I could stop OH from putting things on those shelves. But it is on HIS side of the bed :))))))


I did get as far as installing catches on all my upper kitchen cupboards back in the 90s ......... but now all but one of the catches has broken. Can't have been very good ones!!!


Our earthquake supply boxes are in the basement, close to a window for access from outside.


We have a basic plan for meeting up if we happen to be in different places when the "big" one strikes







sylvia

I flew home to NZ in Jan 1994 our plane was one of the first to land at LA airport after the big Northridge quake as we sat and waited for our ongoing flight the aftershocks were phenomenal so I would have hated to have felt the main event.
The funny thing was though as we landed the radio was playing the song The earth moved under your feet

http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/index-eng.php

Well Janey there are four that come to mind, although there have been more.

One when I was pregnant. I was having an afternoon nap and was dreaming I was on a waterbed. I wasn't on a waterbed I was experiencing an earthquake.

Another. I was in the kitchen when I heard our son running up the stairs (wooden) from the backyard. I was waiting for him to appear in the kitchen. He wasn't there. It was an earthquake.

One about 10 years ago. I was deep in concentration when a fellow worker asked me if I had felt the counter move. Nope. I didn't. The next thing the emergency bell sounded. We had to "duck and cover". After a few mins. we had to go outside (in the rain) and wait for the all clear.

Another. We had just moved into our new house, about 15 years ago.
It was a Friday night. We had asked the builder not to landscape the back yard as we wanted it a certain way. As it was a Friday night, the Friday night beverages were being downed :)
I was standing on a pile of branches doing my landscaper bit, when I started wobbling. Whoa! that must have been a strong drink thinks me.
I thought nothing of it until I went inside (no doubt for a refill) to have #1 child tell us that there must have been an earthquake as the picture on the wall was bouncing and OMG! his Nintendo console had moved!

We have regular earthquake drill at schools here in BC.

My earthquake kit is sitting in the foyer ready for action.

Deb

Rose -- that's an interesting collection of quakes! I'm skimming through and noticing a bit of concentration in the Cornwall/Devon area (maybe just that I'm recognizing/relating to the places). I wonder whether there were any I can place an ancestor at. ;)

Ah, 1809 Strathern. I had ancestors who married there not long before, but I don't think they lived there -- although the female ancestor's family would still have been there.

1812 Neath - yes, the Coke/McCocks were making it big there around then. 1816 Mansfield, not sure whether my people were there yet. 1837 Tavistock and area, my Hills might have felt that one. 1843 Channel Islands, a strong one -- I wonder whether my grx2 grmother was feeling the earth move?? Ernest's eldest sister was born there in 1843, and his eldest brother was born in Devon, well, a little more than 9 months later. ;)

12 August 1852 Callington! That's right exactly where old weird Ernest Hill/Monck was born in December of that same year. ;) His father was an engine man in a mine at the time:

12 August 1852 Callington
This earthquake was felt over most of E Cornwall and also on Dartmoor. It was felt most strongly in the Liskeard - Calstock area, where plaster fell, people outside had trouble standing, tiles fell and springs stopped at individual places. It was felt surprisingly strongly in the east of the felt area. Reportedly stones fell from a tor on Dartmoor and a wall is said to have fallen at Widecombe. The shock was also felt strongly by miners.

Another one in 1858 in Liskeard, but the Hills had moved to Plymouth by then. Quite the cluster of Cornwall quakes around the time.

Neat! If you have Scottish ancestors, they must have got used to quaking and shaking, from the looks of it.

Yep, that's the whole thing -- it's a fairly significant fault line, the Charlevoix-something. Oh, fine, I'll google it again. ;) ... Charlevoix Seismic Zone ... right, not finding the specific thing.

http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/zones/eastcan-eng.php

There it is, Charlevoix-Kamouraska. Well, on reading that, I think someone misspoke. Looks like this was the Western Quebec Seismic Zone. And 1965-2001 there were gazillions of 'em, from the map there, several around 5.0. In 1935, a 6.2 in Temiscaming! Check out the first map on that page -- tremblars up and down the St Lawrence and lower Great Lakes. (For AuntyS if she happens by: the lower Great Lakes aren't called that because they're farthest south on the map, it's because they're farthest downstream, hahaha.)

The only other time I recall there being one where I was, I was asleep, but I think it woke me up, I just missed it.

So then, tell us about the last earthquake you survived in the mighty West. ;)

You east coasters are just Woosies :)

I must say, I haven't heard of one back east, ever.
You aren't (unlike us) on any fault line are you?

Deb

anyone interested in history of earthquakes in UK

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/historical/historical_listing.htm

Hope she is right Janey. E-mailed my sis this morning. She hadn't heard about it. She googled. Said it was ONLY 5.5 and that's probably why it wasn't on the news. Would think the people experiencing it would not consider it ONLY.

I guess I was just all in a lather because it was so new to me! This is supposed to be the part of the world where there are no poisonous snakes, no giant spiders, no vicious animals, no murderous weather - and no earthquakes! At least I wasn't in the town in Ontario that got a tornado on the same day!!

The weather channel (No.1 is devoted to it) has a seismologist presenter, and she apparently assured everybody that the kinds of earthquakes we do get here here don't have aftershocks. And she seems to be right. ;)

Still the same this morning Janey. No-one killed - it's just not news. Did think exactly the same as you. So far as the Americans go if it happens outside the States it's really of little importance. Thought we were a better than that.

Hope it's still quiet. You'll have to tell us because it seems no-one here will.

so THATS what an Orgasm is like!!!

Bob

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.

Did the earth move for you too Janey? lol

Steve
:o))

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

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!

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.

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

Sue xx