Earthquake

[krissel]

Well, it's been an interesting day.


On March 14th, I was in my kitchen when I hear a loud boom and my house shook. I thought a tree had fallen on the roof but when I went outside there was no evidence of anything out of the ordinary. No trees down, nothing on the roof but I was going crazy wondering what it was. Finally thought it had to be an earthquake but it wasn't until several hours later that I got a text from a local authority that indeed there had been a 2.2 magnitude quake centered a couple miles from me. OK, so I wasn't going nuts and others did mention it on the NextDoor forum though my sister who lives 6 miles away didn't feel it.


Today I happened to be again in the kitchen in the exact same spot and KABOOM! Once again the whole house shook and this time it sounded like a dozen trees landing on the house and I had to brace myself. Some soup cans fell off a shelf and a few other things tumbled as well. Pictures were all out of level on the walls. It took me a few minutes to stop shaking myself. This was the same series of noises and shaking as before but to a much more extreme degree and much longer. This was 4.8 magnitude. My sister texted me immediately that she had felt it, too. Turns out the epicenter was only a couple miles from my house, like before. Now i'm wondering if that earlier one was a prequel or if this one could be a warning of what it to come.


TV reports say this is the strongest quake in the area in over 50 years or more. Since the epicenter is very shallow it makes it felt many miles away, more than the ones on the West Coast. We just were coming out of a nasty storm that took down lots of trees and power outages for almost two days. I do have a generator but only now got back internet (DSL box  up the street requires power).


Anyway, all is well. Just a bit concerned that this may not be over. 

[krissel]

Just had a major aftershock. Guess we are not done with this yet. 

[Xairbusdriver]

Apparently quakes do tend to occur in groups. But it can be weeks/months/years between them. And, if they are small enough, only places with seismographs will "notice" them. For example, it took me ~5 days to notice your posts!

Sounds/feels(?) like things have calmed down -|- up there.

Guess I need to double-check my notifications settings...

[krissel]

Since the original quake we have had 47 aftershocks as of today. Most were minor but at least a few were loud and shook the house. Damage has been limited to things thrown around and my well water going brown for a few days from dirt being dislodged. However, I now tend to cringe when I hear a loud noise waiting for another shake. 


The biggest one was the strongest in the area since 1783 so this was a real surprise. I do get annoyed though when the news keeps referring to the location as Lebanon or Whitehouse Station. Both those places are south/southwest of the actual epicenter which is Oldwick in Tewksbury about 2 miles from my house. Some of the aftershocks have been even closer to me. However, most have been within perhaps 4/5 miles from Oldwick center.
In jpg below, orange are shocks today, yellow past few days, grey previous years, white quake three weeks ago and magenta my house.

[krissel]

Update:
As of today there have been 73 aftershocks, most minor though I did hear and feel several and a couple actually woke me up.


My well water has cleared. The Revolutionary Mill down the road which was being restored had its facade collapse and the quake undermined a local stone bridge a half mile away which had to be closed. We now have to detour a few extra miles to get to "civilization". From the looks of it, the bridge will need to be totally replaced so we expect many months before our normal access is returned. Only detriment is any emergency services will now take longer to get here.


Otherwise things are OK. But did twitch a little when the house next door had tree men fell a few large pines with a resounding thud. 

[Xairbusdriver]

As they say with lightening; "If you can hear it, it didn't hit you"!
Just watch where you step when outside! Make sure there is not a large crack there.
When inside, try to spend most of your time inside a doorway, that is a very sturdy place!

[Frances144]

Oh my. Stay safe. Do you have contingency plans for this occurrence?

[krissel]

Hi Frances,


Not really, some people are now considering earthquake insurance but unless we get another big shake we probably will just hold our breath and muddle on. The state has supposedly checked all major bridges and declared them safe, ignoring our local loss.    Will be interesting to see how long it takes for them to repair or replace the stone bridge. One benefit, our daily walks down that road are pretty traffic free. 


As of this date, we now have over 120 aftershocks. Again, most minor and barely felt unless really close to the source. Seems as though they have now discovered a "Tewksbury fault" hitherto unknown.    Not how I hoped our town would get recognized on the map.