Earthquake?
Probably not a big deal in California, but they are unusual in Phoenix. My office was just shaking around some.
Update: Yes, 5.9 in Northwest Mexico. Article is a bit funny, as observers on ground floors accuse observers in tall buildings of lying about feeling the earthquake.
Jim:
It must be global warming.
December 30, 2009, 12:02 pmScott:
Looks like a 5.9 in Baja California, near Calif/Ariz border
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/10/245_30.php
December 30, 2009, 12:23 pmEvil Red Scandi:
It just shook a few lamps and the Christmas tree out here. I felt it but my wife didn't. Some of our pets were suspicious.
December 30, 2009, 12:58 pmAllen:
I've been working more than half way up in a 40+ story building and sometimes you can feel the floor vibrating and shaking. While I'd imagine a good amount of the perception was placebo, I doubt high rise buildings would merely absorb all of that.
@Jim --> A 5.9 isn't extreme enough to be from Global Warming (or after 10-15 years is it now "global not warming not cooling"?). GW can only be seen in extreme events, like a 7.0 or higher. ;)
December 31, 2009, 6:31 amCraig:
No, Allen, the earthquake would have been a 4.5 without global warming.
December 31, 2009, 6:05 pmJim:
@ Allen and Craig -> There are conspiracy theories around quake magnitudes also. I've been in SoCal for 25 years and lived just a few miles from the epicenter of the 1994 Northridge quake. It was originally reported by CalTech and other sources to have been a 7.1, but within two days had been 'downgraded' (homogenized?) to a 6.8. The prevailing conspiracy at the time was by relabeling it a 6.8, the area lost the ability to gain access to millions of additional state emergency and FEMA dollars for reconstruction.
Is that what really happened, I don't know. Quakes are frequently 'adjusted' in the days following the occurance as more info comes in from multiple sources. I do know that one of my good friends (who lived two blocks from me at the time) had to have his house rebuilt following the quake, and it took four years for the work to be done because their FEMA funds kept being delayed. That only cost FEMA even more money as they covered the cost of the rental he lived in while work was done on the house.
On a side note, my family likes to refer to certain weather patterns as 'earthquake weather'. For quite a few years in the 90's, it seemed that there was a noticeable quake somewhere in SoCal whenever we had extended periods of above average temps. We eventually put two and two together to form our Grand Theory of Earthquake Weather. There was no scientific basis for this perceived phenomenon, but we liked to joke about it.
January 1, 2010, 2:10 pmJim:
@ Allen and Craig -> Believe it or not, there are conspiracy theories around quake magnitudes also. I've been in SoCal for 25 years and lived just a few miles from the epicenter of the 1994 Northridge quake. It was originally reported by CalTech and other sources to have been a 7.1, but within two days had been 'downgraded' (homogenized?) to a 6.8. The prevailing conspiracy at the time was by relabeling it a 6.8, the area lost the ability to gain access to millions of additional state emergency and FEMA dollars for reconstruction.
Is that what really happened, I don't know. Quakes are frequently 'adjusted' in the days following the occurance as more info comes in from multiple sources. I do know that one of my good friends (who lived two blocks from me at the time) had to have his house rebuilt following the quake, and it took four years for the work to be done because their FEMA funds kept being delayed. That only cost FEMA even more money as they covered the cost of the rental he lived in while work was done on the house.
On a side note, my family likes to refer to certain weather patterns as 'earthquake weather'. For quite a few years in the 90's, it seemed that there was a noticeable quake somewhere in SoCal whenever we had extended periods of above average temps. We eventually put two and two together to form our Grand Theory of Earthquake Weather. There was no scientific basis for this perceived phenomenon, but we liked to joke about it.
January 1, 2010, 2:13 pm