Folks —
Looks like the Illinois earthquake this morning didn’t hit the railroads too hard. I talked this morning with all the major railroads operating in the region, and none of them experienced much more than an inconvenience and a few delays. Check the News Wire for a complete update.
Best,
Andy Cummings
Associate Editor
TRAINS Magazine
Waukesha, Wis.
As usual it gave the press and talking heads their hysteria story for the morning. Apparently I am one of the few people in Chicago who slept through it and didn’t panic or run into the streets thinking the world had ended.
Felt it here in Ohio this morning. Since I had to go to work early, I was awake when it happened but didn’t realize right away what it was. I was sitting at my computer in my home office when my chair started vibrating, monitor started to shake a little, and my door to the room started to rattle. Thought it was my cats until I opened the door, they weren’t there, and the door was vibrating in my hand. That’s when I began thinking it was an earthquake since I’ve never actually felt one before. Then heard it on the radio on the way to work that it was a confirmed earthquake.
Kevin
Being as it was a little after 5:30am local time I thought my dog was scratching herself making our bed shake. Then I realized it wasn’t her and laid there for a moment and said to my wife: “So this is what an earthqauke feels like.” Had I actually been a little more awake I might have gotten a little more excited about it.
Oh Contrare,
The lead GP-38 of my northbound manifest left the tracks but managed to stay up right. One of my tanker cars fell on its side. There are no real hazmat concerns though, as I had plenty of Windex at the ready.
On a more serious note, for as minor as it was, I am very surprised at all of the press this thing is getting. If a tornado comes through, kills a few people demolishes a few homes, it barely makes page four of the paper. But the lead truck of the lead unit of my model railroad engine comes off the ground, there is a media frenzy.
I will never understand,
Gabe
The earthquake this morning was on the New Madras fault. In the winter of 1811-1812, three of the largest earthquakes ever felt in the contiguous United States shook the mid-continent: these are the New Madrid earthquakes. The felt area from each of the three ground-shaking events dwarfed the equivalent felt-area from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The ground liquefied over an area of more than 10,000 square km. The URL below shows the distribution of uplift and subsidence as a consequence of rupture across three large faults within the New Madrid fault syste. The Mississippi river actually ran backwards during the quakes and the land lifted up several feet… KC and St Louis are right near the fault line.
Actually, according to the United States Geological Services, it was in the Wabash Valley Sesmic Zone. Also, Kansas City is some distance from New Madrid. Memphis has a much closer proximity.
I slept through it also, as I have many others. People don’t think of the midwest when they think of earthquakes, but the New Madrid fault is a dangerous one because it is unpredictable. In the area of New Madrid itself, the ground quakes and trembles regularly. I have been down there on assignments and once thought it was me trembling when I had my camera set up on a tripod.
This morning, about 10:30 we got an aftershock. I was drinking coffee and reading the paper and knew what it was so I went on reading. I hope the folks in the epicenter are allright. They had a TV crew from Louisville on our local channel, and the man seemed calm but the woman seemed almost hysterical. They showed some broken glass from an apartment building.
By the way, we here in this area pronounce it MAD-drid.
We here on the epicenter are fine the quake lasted 45sec and had 1 big after shock right after the quake. the center is 3 miles from me . I didnt know the earth could roll like that. and the noise it makes is just as bad as the shake. that after shock at 10:30 was 4.6 and hit hard then rolled away. the thing is it just keeps rolling and shaking and rolling. some buildings are damaged roofs caved in mostly and a few chimneys losing thier bricks. and this is not the new madrid fault.
How ironic: Today in San Francisco we ‘celebrated’ the 102nd anniversary of the infamous 1906 quake. Although celebration may not be the correct word to use…?
Wayne
I was in the process of getting up at the time when the quake should have hit, but felt nothing. Aftershocks would have hit while I was at work, but I also felt nothing there, nor did anyone else make any comments.
Darn!
…For some reason I did look at the clock about the time it would have happened but felt nothing at all…But neighbors right across the street did feel it. Said it banged a mirror on the dressor against the wall and rattled a door in the bedroom. Strange stuff.
It awakened me. My bed was shaking and the gutters were rattling. I grew up about 30 miles from West Salem and we had several earthquakes during the 60’s/70’s
ed
GABE,
Your right on the Wabash zone, but it is connected to the New Madrid fault through the Olmstead seismic zone. So today’s quake may have been good, by relieving some of the pressure on the New Madrid and delaying the big one for a while [hopefully]. Which would be a lot more catastrophic today than the ones of 1811 and 12.
We live a little way north of the epicenter; I was up drinkin coffee and felt it. Didn’t take me long to figure it out, since this was the 3’rd one for me in this area. The wife was in our waterbed and thought I was washing clothes [yea right] and the washer was way out of balance.
inch
When is California West of the San Andras fault line leaving for Hawaii?
Up here in NE Missouri we felt the earthquake, but I slept through it. I did feel the 10:30 aftershock, though. Not much, except one of the doors rattled. It kind of reminded me of the rattling hubcap right before the Polar Express pulled in…
There was a headline in the SF Chronicle not too long ago that said there was virtually a 100% chance of “The Big One” happening within the next 30 years. Not sure how one can make that kind of a prediction but mabe we’ll be on the way to Hawaii sooner than I expected.
Wayne
The girfriend and I woke up about the time it happened. The headboard was shaking but since I wasn’t real coherent, I wrote it off as a freight train. Anyway, I was surprised when I heard there had been a quake. The media and talk shows were all over it, trying to make tragedy out of something minor. The local media was okay, it was the national network news shows like GMA and the evening news shows that were a tad over the top. No one was injured and damage, from what I understand, all things considered, was very minor. I didn’t feel the aftershock, however, probably because a train was going by at about that time.
Speaking of the railroads, the BNSF was running everything through here rather slow until about 9:00 or so. Three freights, and several METRA trains all seemed to be doing about 20 mph or less, but that didn’t last long. The coal drag that comes through right about the time I take the kids to school came through at it’s usual speed (about 40mph or so), and all the rest of the scoots were runnning normally.
Gabe, sorry to hear about your derailment. Be thankful it was a diesel, and not a steam engine, otherwise, you would have to deal with that di-hydrogen monoxide mess…[;)][(-D]
Tectonically speaking; you Californians are headed for Alaska; not Hawaii.
Across Illinois and Indiana tornados are quite commonplace and usually – usually – just finish off a few leaning, rotting barns here and there. On the other hand, an earthquake on the prairie of this magnitude happens only once every 20 years or so and affects a far wider area = news value.
No one expects an earthquake.
Actually, I found it to be quite a refreshing diversion from the eternally-long-dragging Democrat primary race. No one got killed or injured by the quake, so I say let’s enjoy it.