Shaken, not stirred

First there was yesterday's 6.0 quake near Parkfield, located smack dab on the San Andreas fault line. I was on a phone conference which included a friend from San Jose who grew quite nervous as the building he works in began to sway. He dropped off the call and called back a few minutes later when it was obvious the building was not going to fall down.

This was his first quake experience since moving to the bay area (from Georgia) a couple years ago, but it's still interesting how well a tremor located 135 miles south east of his location was transmitted along the San Andreas fault. Would a magnitude 8 quake in the same location knock buildings down as far north San Jose? I suppose it's possible.

We didn't feel anything here but I've heard reports that it was felt as far south as Palos Verdes.

Today was another story. We felt the 5.0 quake near Bakersfield this afternoon. It was a series of a long waves which caused a gentle rocking motion (the rocking was north/south) for nearly a minute. A couple minutes later the pool table lamp was still slowly swaying in the same direction. I figured this was a major aftershock (or the real thing), but it seems to have been totally unrelated. It's interesting, but after doing the 'did you feel it' report and checking, we're 134 miles (more or less) from the epicenter.

This could get interesting. The San Andreas fault has birthed many geologists fantasies. Something has got to give (excuse the pun) eventually.