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imloulou
09-12-2006, 04:19 PM
Wow...who would have thunk it?

Did anyone feel it?

I live just miles from the water...we didn't feel it...but we would have never known...we had just finished feeding breakfast to 8 Nine year old girls who spent the night disco-ing in our living room all night :eek: ...Earthquake...what earthquake :D

This is from our local newspaper:

Quake shakes the Gulf
Minor effects felt throughout region


Amy Sowder
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake ripped through the sea floor under the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday morning, while Pensacola residents relaxed in their usual weekend ways.

The earthquake's epicenter was about 250 miles south-southwest of Apalachicola. People from Louisiana to North Carolina felt the tremors, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes worldwide.

Even though the earthquake was not strong enough to cause a tsunami, the center received 3,630 reports about it by 5 p.m. Sunday. Eleven reports came from Pensacola.

Emergency officials in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties received no reports of earthquake-related injuries or damage.

"We didn't feel anything unusual," said Dave Greenwood, Pensacola Beach water safety supervisor. "I found out about it from the (Escambia County) Sheriff's Office, and I thought the guy was pulling my leg."

Navarre Beach Executive Director Roger Blaylock was astonished as well.

"Earthquakes can happen anywhere, in any ocean, I know," he said. "But I've never heard of one here in the Gulf of Mexico."

Sunday's earthquake was the largest of more than a dozen shocks recorded from the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the past 30 years, according to the earthquake center. The most recent significant earthquake in the region was on Feb. 10 and had a magnitude of 5.2.

Sunday's temblor was rare because it was far from plate boundary faults.

These "midplate" earthquakes likely occur when forces on the plate boundaries cause long-term stress that is released in the center, according to the Geological Survey Web site.

"I was surprised," said John Cullen, meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Mobile. "It's not very often that this happens, especially midplate."

The Geological Survey Web site stated earthquakes range in magnitude from 2 to 8 and higher, or from very minor to great. Annually, 1.3 million very minor earthquakes occur globally, and great earthquakes occur about once.

The Indian Ocean earthquake that devastated 11 South Asian countries and killed 225,000 people with a tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, was at least a magnitude-9.0 earthquake.

Perdido Key resident Kelly Robertson didn't feel any tremors, and he is a retired geophysicist.

"No kidding?" Robertson said when he found out. "That's about the last part of the Earth I'd expect."

Florida and North Dakota have the fewest earthquakes nationwide, according to the Geological Survey.

Robertson continued: "You know, you can feel the tremors when a full garbage truck goes down the road, but I didn't feel a thing today."

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060911/NEWS01/609110318/1006

wallycat
09-12-2006, 04:25 PM
Yowza!
I thought I read that somewhere so thank you for posting this.

And here, I'm scared that DH wants to move into the "ring of fire" in the pacific northwest :D :eek: :eek:

ClaraB
09-12-2006, 04:29 PM
That's funny, DS used this story today for his current events class - didn't want to use any of the 9/11 stories because he wanted one that no one else would have :cool: . I'll have to tell him no one down there felt it.

imloulou
09-12-2006, 04:34 PM
T I'll have to tell him no one down there felt it.

Actually here is a quote from the article above:

Even though the earthquake was not strong enough to cause a tsunami, the center received 3,630 reports about it by 5 p.m. Sunday. Eleven reports came from Pensacola.

This is why I was suprised I had not heard of it.

That's neat that your son used this as a report. I just read Monday's paper today :o (I usually see the news 3 times a day and read the current days paper by 6am :eek: ...I've been a bit busy)

cookieee
09-12-2006, 04:47 PM
Lisa, it was on the news here. Actually DH heard the earthquake. He was walking by our glasses in a cabinet and heard them rattling.

eta Is it a coincident that they reported finding a large deposit of oil out there just the other day?