Actually this isn’t one of those where someone bumps into or shakes a model railroad causing the equipment to fallover. We have had a whole series of earthquakes in northern Nevada. The epicenters are almost directly below our house. The biggest has been a 5.0 but there has been a whole series about 4.0 or more. We have had some damage, mostly to pictures and glass falling. We’ve been havin 1-2 small earthquakes per hour and there are concerns that a >6.0 big one might happen. It is getting old. There was a 4.2 at 4:30 am today- no going back to sleep after that! All of the equipment on my railroad has been knocked off the track and most of the cars have been knocked over. The engines have not tipped over and nothing so far has fallen off the railroad to the ground. Now that we have the pictures and glassware protected, my next job is to move the MR equipment to a safe place tonight. - Nevin
I hope you’re spared that 6.0, Nevin, and that Mother Earth quiets herself back down soon. What has the longest duration been?
This reminds me of the ads I’ve seen for large scale shelf systems that are also available in earthquake-proof versions.
Good luck, and post photos of the model mayhem if you get a chance.
whew yea, putem away for now. I wondered about the quake that happenned in the midest that was felt for 500 miles around, I checked my layout if anything fell or whatever, I am like 3-400 miles away from the center of it. Nothing fell it seems, tho I noticed a hooper tipped over… dunno, mice?
Now maybe we have an excuse to model that rockslide…
Take everything breakable of the shelves for the time being, dont leave anything on high shelves either. I hope your tall furniture is strapped to a stud in the wall and that you’ve taken the time to siesmicly prepare your house just in case, no glasses or plates in cabinets without latches, that sort of thing, is your waterheater strapped to a wall? EQs are nothing to take lightly.
What I cant figure out is that ‘swarms’ of many EQs like this are not typical EQ behavior, but more common with vulcanism, hope these are not a bad omen.
My immediate tongue-in-cheek (or foot-in-mouth) reaction? Welcome to Japan!
Seriously, there is nothing like an earthquake to get one’s attention. Here’s hoping the string of small-to-mediums you’ve already had have relieved enough stress that the fault won’t have enough energy left to deliver The Big One.
Back in the time I model, I was in the Base Library at Yokota (west edge of the Tokyo megalopolis) when a 6.4 hit, epicenter about 40 kilometers west, time just after sunset. The building quivered and the lights blinked. A young lady, fresh off the plane from the US, blurted out, “What was that?”
Wiseguy answered, “Just an earthquake. Nothing serious.”
The look she gave him was a classic!
(The next day I learned that a JNR catenary freight motor had been bounced off the rails, tying up a major rail line for several hours while it was being re-railed.)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - hopefully, without earthquakes)
Nevin–
As someone who was born and raised in the Sierra Nevada, that whole East Side of the Sierras from about Susanville south to Lone Pine is one big fault block caused from the Sierra pushing up toward the east. Geologically speaking, the Sierra Nevada is still a ‘young’ mountain range, and it’s still ‘growing up’ from west to east. These earthquakes don’t happen very often, but when they do, it’s pretty jolting for people living in the area. I remember a flurry of them when I lived in Truckee some years back–centered along the Sierra Valley to the north, though nothing like a 5.0. You must live near Mogul, where the epicenters seem to have been the past few days. My niece lives in Reno and she’s really nervous. I’m praying that the 5.0 you had will be the biggest and everything will settle back down for the next 30 years or so.
Take care of yourself–and the trains. But mainly, yourself.
Tom
vsmith–
I’d doubt vulcanism in that area–there’s very little geologic record of ancient volcano activity in the north-central Sierra–the closest evidentiary vulcanism is far to the south near Mammoth Lakes and Mono Lakes on Hwy 395. Several hundred miles, actually. Though I’m certainly far from a professional geologist (though it is a hobby of mine), I’d hazard a guess that the Sierra are pushing up in this particular region, which lies just east of the Sierra fault-block. The nearest dormant volcano to the area is well over 200 miles to the north–Mt. Lassen, and that’s the southernmost tip of the Cascade Range, which IS volcanic in origin.
But then, you never know what’s going to happen on the West Coast, do you? [:O]
Tom
We’ve had 2 dozen from the New Madris in 3 weeks. The issueis the earth settling back down.
I saw that quake on the news today. Hope everything remains OK for you. Seems to be quite a bit of quake activity all over North America lately…
What about Steamboat Hot springs just south of Reno? That about as volcanic as I’de want it. But all these small quakes act like magma on the move under the foothills of the Sierra Navada mts. Why I say that is, the quakes are all centered form one to 12 miles down. These quake events do not appear along a know fault ether. Could be an ancient volcanic crater area covered over from the last ice age. But thats my guess, but thats from my other hobby. If you can read data.
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/FaultMaps/120-40.htm
The UNR seismological lab has been monitoring the events with permanent and portable seismic stations. To address the rumors, their special online report of the activity at http://www.seismo.unr.edu/feature/2008/mogul.html leads off with the statement:
“There is no chance that these earthquakes are related to volcanic activities. Depth of earthquakes are around 1-3 miles deep. It is too shallow for magma movement.”
A more detailed map of the 25 April event is shown at http://www.seismo.unr.edu/shakemap/shake/2008117_242554/intensity.html
The red lines are mapped faults. These are not necessarily all the faults in the area.
A brief .pdf report issued by UNR on 26 March (http://www.seismo.unr.edu/feature/2008/Reports/NSL_Mogul_Earthquake_4-26-2008.pdf) summarized results of monitoring obtained to that date. Within that report is the following:
“Figure 4 [of the report] shows the focal mechamisms of the two largest earthquakes, as identified in the figure. These mechanisms consistently show strike-slip motion. The two alternatives are right-lateral strike-slip on a northwest-trending fault, or left-lateral strike-slip on a northeast-trending fault. Because the aftershocks are aligned along a northwest trend, we
have high confidence that the causative fault is a right-lateral fault with a strike in the
northwest direction.”
Repeated lateral motio
[quote user=“Shilshole”]
The UNR seismological lab has been monitoring the events with permanent and portable seismic stations. To address the rumors, their special online report of the activity at http://www.seismo.unr.edu/feature/2008/mogul.html leads off with the statement:
“There is no chance that these earthquakes are related to volcanic activities. Depth of earthquakes are around 1-3 miles deep. It is too shallow for magma movement.”
A more detailed map of the 25 April event is shown at http://www.seismo.unr.edu/shakemap/shake/2008117_242554/intensity.html
The red lines are mapped faults. These are not necessarily all the faults in the area.
A brief .pdf report issued by UNR on 26 March (http://www.seismo.unr.edu/feature/2008/Reports/NSL_Mogul_Earthquake_4-26-2008.pdf) summarized results of monitoring obtained to that date. Within that report is the following:
“Figure 4 [of the report] shows the focal mechamisms of the two largest earthquakes, as identified in the figure. These mechanisms consistently show strike-slip motion. The two alternatives are right-lateral strike-slip on a northwest-trending fault, or left-lateral strike-slip on a northeast-trending fault. Because the aftershocks are aligned along a northwest trend, we
have high confidence that the causative fault is a right-lateral fault with a strike in the
northwest direction.”
…but not to a geologist.
The shaded relief map shows the Sierra Nevada to the west (left) and the Basin & Range to the east (right). The Reno area is near the boundary between those two geologic provinces. Since about 3 million years ago, there has been differential intra-plate strike-slip movement between the two provinces, along northwest-striking faults. The colored zones on the map are nothing more than areas of equal ground-motion intensity from the 25 April event, naturally forming a bullseye around the epicenter – not a caldera.
No volcanic fields, no caldera, no ascending magma. Relax and enjoy the ground shaking.
So if a John is getting it on at the mustang ranch, does he have to pay more fore the extra motion? Just glad the damage wasn’t more serious. Best Wishes!
Clearly this related to Global Warming. Must be George Bush’s fault!!
[it’s just a joke - don’t get your panties all in a bunch, ok?)
Well, if there IS a major EQ, and FEMA once again sends their crack disaster responce team of Moe Larry and Curly… [:-^][swg][D)][(-D]
Sshhh!! Not so loud! Brrr-rack o’Clinton will hear you. Next thing you know, there’ll be a gazillion-dollar study underway to find out how to control and prevent earthquakes…
Of COURSE they’ll succeed. Right after they figure out how to cure the common cold.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
All of my favorite equipment is now in storage and protected. It is too bad because I have all of the track laid and the DCC hocked up and it was starting to be fun. Things have settled done a bit and the strongest one last night was about 3.1. I guess the question is how long to stay on high alert? We have a suitcase with some supplies and clothes out in the car parked on the street just in case. However, It will probably settle down, I’ll get the trains and all of the glassware back out and then the 6.5 will hit when we don’t expect it.
The head of the UNR seismology lab is an aquantance who lives around here and he assures me that it is just fault activity and I don’t have to worry about lava flowing down the street. Although a supernatural portal opening to the inner depths of Hades allowing demons to escape hasn’t been ruled out. If that happens property values will plunge even further than they have now. 
- Nevin
Actually, when I took Physical Geology at Sierra College (which was then in Auburn, California, in the Sierra foothills), we studied the East Sierra fault-blocks. As I remember, that whole area there around Reno and Carson City is called a “Graben”, which is a land mass that has sunk adjacent to surrounding land masses. Lake Tahoe is an example–a huge chunk of the Sierra that just sank and got filled up with melt-water.
No caldera there–though there is some thermal activity that extends from Steamboat Springs south of Reno north to Campbell Hot Springs just out of Sierraville. But the Sierra has quite a few ‘hot’ springs up and down its length on both sides of the range.
From what I’ve read on the seismologist reports, it’s just that pesky East Side ‘Graben’ acting up again. Sure hope it settles down, though. UP (ex SP) Overland mainline runs right through it in one spot.
Tom
There are thousands of hot springs in California, with a large proportion along the Sierra Nevada. These are all signs of vulcanism. As I recall, scientists are actively concerned that the whole Mono Lake area will literally blow-up (again) one of the millenia.
Here is a sample of many websites on the subject:
http://www.indiana.edu/~sierra/papers/2003/Rosales.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~sierra/papers/2007/burnham.html
http://www.hotspringsenthusiast.com/CA.asp
Mark