Quake activity along the San Andreas fault is picking up

I've been in two 6+ quakes. Cars were bobbing up and down like on a carosel in he parking lot. A banyan tree in front of my building shook violently from the ground waves and the hallway floor did a snake dance.

Times like this you know nature is in charge.

I've been in two 6+ quakes. Cars were bobbing up and down like on a carosel in the parking lot. A banyan tree in front of my building shook violently from the ground waves and the hallway floor did a snake dance.

Times like this you know nature is in charge.

My xbusiness partner lives near St. Joseph's. I'm not calling her at this hour..

Eureka has been through all this before. I figure her house and my old one could handle it. Not all so confident about the gallery. Well, I'll update when I know.

(hoping, hoping)

oy vey, at least it hasn't been arts alive night.

SoCal is getting into the act...

Magnitude 4.1 - BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
2010 January 10 06:35:53 UTC

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 4.1
Date-Time

* Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 06:35:53 UTC
* Saturday, January 09, 2010 at 10:35:53 PM at epicenter
* Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 32.404°N, 115.157°W
Depth 32.7 km (20.3 miles)
Region BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
Distances

* 13 km (8 miles) NNW (341°) from Guadalupe Victoria, Baja California, Mexico
* 36 km (23 miles) W (260°) from San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico
* 38 km (24 miles) WSW (254°) from San Luis, AZ
* 175 km (109 miles) E (94°) from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/09/MNLS1BG3RV.DTL

Ack, I know Shafer's hardware well, not so far from my old house, which was well built.. (cringing)

but I'm almost yawning as well - we are pretty inured to this stuff (depending on the outcome).

Here are the technical details of the Eureka quake:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc71338066.php#summary

Tectonic Summary

This earthquake occurred approximately 35 km WNW of Ferndale, CA in a deformation zone of the southernmost Juan de Fuca plate that is commonly referred to as the Gorda plate. The earthquake’s epicenter is northwest of the Mendocino Triple Junction, which is formed by the intersection of the Mendocino fracture zone, the San Andreas fault and the Cascadia subduction zone. The Gorda plate is subducting beneath the North America plate at about 2.5-3 cm/year in the direction N50E. The Gorda plate is also subjected to intense compressive stresses by oblique-convergence of the northwestward migrating Pacific Plate as well as localized eastward spreading at the Gorda Ridge. The resulting internal deformation of the Gorda plate is manifested primarily by intraplate strike-slip events on vertical NE-oriented faults.

Preliminary analysis of the earthquake indicates that it results from slip on a near vertical, left-lateral fault oriented about N47E. Large strike-slip earthquakes like this one are common in the interior of the Gorda plate. There are no reports of this earthquake causing a tsunami. Strike-slip earthquakes are less likely to produce large tsunamis because they cause relatively little vertical ground displacement. Shaking was strongest near the coast line between Petrolia and Eureka, CA, although felt reports for this event extend from as far south and north as Capitola, CA and Eugene, OR, respectively, and as far east as Reno, NV. The maximum recorded shaking was observed in Eureka (33%g), which is sufficient to cause moderate damage.

This is the largest quake to occur in this region since the April 04, 1992 M7.2 Petrolia and the June 15, 2005 M7.2 Gorda plate earthquakes.

The probability of a strong and possibly damaging aftershock (M>5) in the 7 days following the earthquake is approximately 78%. Most likely, the mainshock will be the largest in the sequence. However, there is a small chance (~5-10%) of an earthquake equal to or larger than this mainshock in the next 7 days. In addition, numerous M3-5 aftershocks are expected to occur in the same 7-day period, but most are unlikely to be felt due to the distance from land.
Earthquake Maps

* Earthquake Location
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Location Maps
* Did You Feel It?
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* ShakeMap
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* PAGER Population Exposure
PAGER Population Exposure
* Historical Seismicity
Historical Seismicity
* Seismic Hazard Map
Seismic Hazard Map
* Google Map
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* Google Earth KML
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Scientific & Technical Information

* moment tensor symbolNCSS Moment Tensor Solution
* Historic Moment Tensor Solutions
* Theoretical P-Wave Travel Times
* Waveforms for ShakeMap
* Waveforms
* NCSS First Motion Mechanism 1

Additional Information, News Reports

* Aftershock Warning
* Tsunami Information Statement from the WC/ATWC
* Tsunami Information for Hawaii from the PTWC

The compound movement in yesterdays quakes are giving us a unique opportunity to actually see the patterns of slip/transcurrent. and dip faults and how they match up aside each other. The seismic returns on these batches have, by tying together a whole number of seismic stations, allowed a clear picture of the "mosaic" of the cracks in the subsurface.
Im sure taht someone will be publishing these as a 3_D section as soon as the datas all worked up.

That would be neat to see.

We did not feel the Baja California quake, but it's worrisome now to have
2 quakes north and south of us where we're stuck in the middle and could be
next.
The Northridge quake in L.A. was probably the worst I ever felt and it was
around 5:00 am where everyone was still asleep. It was scary to say the least.

Hoping all goes well for everyone living along or near activity lines.

3.0 Ml - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Preliminary Earthquake Report Magnitude 3.0 Ml
Date-Time

* 10 Jan 2010 15:36:27 UTC
* 10 Jan 2010 07:36:27 near epicenter
* 10 Jan 2010 07:36:27 standard time in your timezone

Location 38.800N 122.810W
Depth 3 km
Distances

* 0 km (0 miles) WNW (295 degrees) of The Geysers, CA
* 9 km (5 miles) WSW (242 degrees) of Cobb, CA
* 11 km (7 miles) WNW (285 degrees) of Anderson Springs, CA
* 40 km (25 miles) NNW (347 degrees) of Santa Rosa, CA
* 119 km (74 miles) NNW (343 degrees) of San Francisco City Hall, CA

Put that worry into action and make sure your emergency preparedness kits are fresh, or initiated if you haven't already made them. Make a tour around your property inside and out to look for potential hazards that may have been added since the last time you did the tour. Make sure those new bookcases and file cabinets are secured to the wall and those glass knickknacks have some museum clay under them to keep them from toppling. Relocate those heavy glass mirrors and picture frames that may have found their way back over your beds. Return the tools and supplies back to the emergency kits that were borrowed from them and never returned.

I have great news.. certainly from my point of view, but also for my old town.
I just got off the phone with my x business partner, as I found out that electricity was on again in Eureka. I had seen a photo, one of the ones that has been circulating on the net, of a book store with tremendous broken glass. My book store. Not that I owned it, but it's my favorite book store ever, which is saying something since I love book stores in general. So, I was worried about the gallery, which is in a 1884 (or so) tall building that was already cattywampus, having a near rhomboidal shape from years of lean and slope and whatnot rot. I just knew the whole glass frontage would be out.. exposing paintings to weather, thieves, whathaveyou. Of course I know no one steals paintings (a joke we used to have, although we know they do).

So, it turns out the gallery building is fine. There's evidence of sway in that it has a lot of bead board and the paint alongsome of the beads is cracked. Man, that building has been through a lot. I think I've told before on a2k about a fire in an adjacent building (deemed to be arson, again if I remember, because there was some iffyness about that) which caught the top of our building at something like one in the morning. Firemen got that out, we had slight water and some smoke damage, that fixable with ozone treatment. All our rubber bands broke from the ozone, ah, memories.

And business partner did not lose electrical power; did lose some ceramics. We have in common that we like ceramics. She said it was scary, rolling, lasting a while. She's from LA like I am, and knows earthquakes.

Oddly, I forgot to ask about my old house. I'm not worried about it, really, and I loved that house. It's about a hundred years old. I had a structural engineer look at it before I purchased, back in the day. And I figure she drove by to check. That area has had many offshore earthquakes of high numbers within the lifespan of my old house.

She told me a bit about the mall damage, and other glass damage. But, all in all, the area made it though again.

So, good. Carry on, Eureka.

I can't remember what I had just looked at on that post - I think my intent was on how the hospital itself made it through. There were injured people who were seen at St. Joseph's.

A lot of stuff in the news, the grocery stores that had products flying from shelving, were my grocery stores (Wilco, for example). The Pet Center that is mentioned in some articles was where Pacco got his nails clipped.

(Hi, sumac)

They were lucky that the epicenter was offshore. Here's a slide show of damage in the area (about 20 photos):

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14159765?source=most_viewed


One of the Ferndale columnists predicted this in a way. He wrote a few days ago about having the feeling something was pending and urged everyone to get prepared. Here's the story about it.

http://www.mercurynews.com/california-earthquakes/ci_14161517?nclick_check=1


That's pretty much why I started this topic a year ago, because of the increased activity and the feeling that a big one was hanging over our heads. We still haven't experienced it yet.

It's been interesting to track. Seems like we are more connected than the scientists let on. When something happens on the other side of the Pacific Rim, we sometimes have a reaction of that occur somewhere on this side within a few months. Cause/effect or coincidence?

But the epicenter has been routinely offshore, she says, blithely. Not that I've looked through all the history.

Will look re the ferndale columnist. I don't know the people at that paper but I like ferndale a lot, partially for and partially despite its pleasant tourist street - they haven't become a synthetic place, at least to my eye, and I like my friends who live there.

Willa Briggs, for example, and her wonderful cow paintings.

I suppose that now that I have a scanner I could put up some ferndale photos. Not just yet, I'm still dealing with the very idea of unloading my california snaps.

Of course I recognize all that, including the house on California. The fifth photo is "my" bookstore.

I figure there are geomorphic connections (I made that word up) and ramifications thereof, including possibly bigger stuff to come. I've no interest at all in people doing earthquake hunch fear based on feelings. And, yes, preparedness makes sense.

Good postings, osso, and hi back at you.

Here's an interior photo of "my" bookstore and folks putting it back together..


Gabriella Aragon (left) and Aber Miller lift shelves at the Booklegger in Eureka, which lost four big windows.
Photo: Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle

I think I'll start wearing my Booklegger tee shirt in support from far away. (No photo of that)