i was awakened at 5:36 this morning. i live in the upstairs apartment of a historic house that was built in 1850. for anyone who has never taken a science class, you might not get this reference, but my bed felt like a beaker would feel on a shaker - just swirling around and around. it seemed to last for about 15-20 seconds? maybe a little longer? nothing fell off the walls or anything, but apparently that first one was a 5.2 on the richter scale, and the epicenter was not very far from here (100 or so miles from here, i would guess? maybe less than that).
with the distance at which a 5.2 scale earthquake was felt in this part of the country (michigan? atlanta? FLORIDA?! really?!), it boggles my mind to think what would happen across the midwest if a big one hit.
also? it was LOUD. i heard a lot of rumbling - don't know if that was my house itself or the ground or just everyone's houses up and down the block shaking or what.
then at around 11:15, i felt another one from my office. that one was *just* a 4.5 in the same area. a 5.2 and a 4.5 earthquake? in illinois? huh? i always knew that there was a fault line in the middle of the country, but in my 18 years of life growing up in the midwest and the last five living in bloomington, i've never felt a thing.
(that red one is the one that happened at 11:15 am... the big blue one is the one that woke me up at 5:30 this morning). i'm in bloomington, for reference. not too far, eh?
on an even stranger note, on my last day of work in the bay area, i really wanted an earthquake to hit. i felt them often in arcata, but hadn't experienced one in the bay. well, lo and behold, i'm standing at the front desk, and suddenly the floor was shaking. today also happened to be my last day of work at the biology department. coincidence?
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