Two Earthquakes: Colorado and Virginia

Both of these Earthquakes were the biggest earthquakes in a very long time. In fact, the Virginia has never had an earthquake this big in over 100 years. As people reported their experiences most who lived all their lives on the east coast had never experienced an earthquake like this at all. The Virginia Earthquake was a 5.8 quake. I have been in many this size and it is enough to scare you pretty bad, bring down chimneys all over the place (like this one did) crack foundations of buildings and bridges (likely this one did this too and make some older brick and mortar buildings fall down completely or partially (this one did this too). This quake was felt by people in 22 Eastern States. The Colorado Quake was first at 5.3 which appeared to be a harbinger for the second. What is interesting to me is that you can draw a line from the first to the second and it is almost completely East of Colorado in a straight line across the U.S.  There was also a 4.4 quake in Guatemala and a 4.7 quake in Columbia that could be indirectly or directly related to the ones in Colorado and Virginia.

I was in a quake about this size in Orange, California a few years ago while visiting my cousins house. My daughter was in the pool and luckily she was in the center of the pool and was about 8 years old at the time. She wondered why all the water started splashing outside of the pool and called for me to come and see it. I was very grateful she hadn't been near the edge of the pool because she could have gotten her teeth knocked out or gotten a concussion from the moving water against the side of the pool. I was in the living room and found I couldn't stand up and then I ran for my daughter because being in a pool as you can see isn't always the safest place to be in an earthquake even though it might cushion the shocks if you are in the center in a flotation device like my daughter was at about a 5 or lower. Above 6 in ratings you might be severely injured or die being in a pool. So it is always the luck of the draw in an earthquake. My ex-wife and her ex-husband were in college during the San Fernando or Sylmar Earthquake which was a magnitude 6.6. In that quake all the windows in their house broke and all their college books came down on top of them from all their bookshelves. When they looked outside their bedroom window all the telephone poles were moving and falling down and electrical lines off the poles were snaking around on the ground and some cars were moving as the ground moved. There was 1 Billion dollars damage from this quake.

About 65 people died in that quake and even though I was a long way from the epicenter during that same quake living then on Yucca Mesa above the little city of Yucca Valley at the time I was woken up before dawn to the earthquake. At first I thought to myself since I grew up mostly in California, "Oh. It's just another little earthquake" and thought "It just might rock me back to sleep." But then it kept getting stronger and stronger until I thought I was going to die because it just didn't stop and kept getting stronger and stronger. I have never been more afraid in any earthquake than this one because it really felt like we were all going to die. I haven't ever been personally in another one where I actually thought I was going to die. In 1971 I would have been around 22 or 23 depending upon the time of year that one was.

If you want to read more about this one here it is:

1971 San Fernando earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is a picture of what the 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco did. If you are interested in learning more about this picture and the 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco go to wikipedia and type in this heading: "1906 San Francisco Earthquake".

If you click on this photo it will get larger. Also, a few days later I realized that there is not a single window left in any of these buildings at all. Then you notice that a fire caused by the earthquake must have burned many of these buildings down that weren't already down.