I was woken up this morning at 4:40 am to my bed shaking and a strange rolling thunder noise in Springfield, Illinois. News reports are just now coming in, it was an earthquake and that doesn’t happen much around here! It lasted for at least a good minute or longer and was definitely noticeable. I knew immediately it was an earthquake. There doesn’t appear to be significant damage here in Springfield, thank goodness. I heard an estimate of 5.4 magnitude centered somewhere in southern Illinois, so I would imagine that St. Louis felt this earthquake too. It’s kind of a strange way to start the day early!
You have to wonder about living in central Illinois. We have ice storms, blizzards, temperatures below zero, heat waves, tornados and even earthquakes. And we’ve had all these things happen in the last couple of years! I remember the last earthquake here, I was in college in summer school. The building out at UIS (Sangamon State University) shook a little bit, it was noticeable. I would guess that was sometime around 1987.
Update on April 21, 2008:
We’ve just had another aftershock early this morning, however I didn’t feel this one at all. And that surprises me based on finding out it was rated 4.5 on the richter scale, same as the aftershock Friday morning that I definitely did feel. I guess I’m sleeping really soundly at 12:40 am, which is when the aftershock was this morning according to the State Journal Register here: Strong Illinois Earthquake Aftershock 4/21/08.
There’s been a lot of news this weekend of course all about our earthquake and earthquakes in general. Here are a few State Journal Register links of interest on the subject by date:
4/20/08 Aftershocks Continue for Illinois Earthquake
4/19/08 Aftershocks to Illinois Earthquake No Surprise
4/19/08 Midwest Earthquake Fault Zones
4/18/08 Recent Illinois Earthquakes
4/18/08 The New Madrid Fault
4/18/08 Earthquake Severity
4/18/08 1987 Springfield Illinois Earthquake
4/18/08 102nd Anniversary of Great California Earthquake
We felt it in Chatham at precisely the same time, but I would estimate the duration not to exceed 10-15 seconds. We called Chatham Police who confirmed a tremor in Southern Illinois.
I felt it for much longer than that. It was well over a minute, and died down somewhat after that. But I could still feel a little tremor after the major one for a while after that too. Major shake was about a minute with a thunder noise, minor tremor for I’d guess a minute or more after that.
Yeah I felt it as well, scared the crap outta me. Never felt anything like that in my life
at first i noticed my desk shaking, then i finally seen the whole apartment was shaking.
I want to add that immediately I started checking the television and internet for news. I couldn’t find anything and started to question myself and what had just happened. Was I dreaming? Maybe it wasn’t what I immediately thought it was. Luckily I surfed to WMAY-AM and streamed their live broadcast. Thanks to you, Jim Leach, for being up and working today! I then had confirmation of what I knew had just happened!
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008qza6.html
lasted for about a minute here
Thanks Bob, the link is helpful, especially the maps!
Finally the local newspaper has some information!
http://www.sj-r.com/extras/breaking/index.asp?ID=5337
More people reporting on what they felt here:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080418024611AAWRt9T&cp=1
I thought that I was dreaming until my daughter said mom the bed is shaking. She thought that it was a tornado. LOL I told her that it was an Earthquake. We are moving to L.A. in July so I guess we got a taste of whats ahead. Everyone have a Good Morning!
I just heard something funny on the radio . . . “We’ll be right back to discuss . . . . THE GREAT QUAKE OF 08″!!!! Hilarious, but it does have a nice rhyming ring to it.
Kathy, you are a blogging fool!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DBah4bLn5pQ my story haha
LOL, thanks for sharing Dougie. Hope you’ve changed your clothes by now!
I was awakened by finding myself falling out of my bed…that doesn’t happen a lot. I didn’t think too much of it until while getting ready for work and school my youngest asked me who was shaking the beds…I said nobody…I thought she was maybe dreaming..kinda like me falling out of the bed…I turned on Springfield news like routine and heard we had an earthquake…I now know how or why I found myself on the floor. Everyone have a wonderful beautiful weekend!
updated State Journal Register story:
http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/28922.asp
Aftershock at 10:15 am central time? I’m not sure and have no confirmation, but my house started creaking a bit and I heard a very faint rumble.
Confirmed now, noticeable aftershock of 4.5 at 10:15 am central time, CRAP!
I just felt another earthquake here this morning at around 10:20
Yes, WMAY-AM is reporting an aftershock now. It was not nearly as long as this morning, but still noticeable! I guess they are sayig aftershocks can go on for days, so we may not be done yet unfortunately.
Until the 10:15 aftershock, I thought it was my cats mischievously knocking over items on a shelf. Then i realized i owed them an apology. The thought of an earthquake never crossed my mind. Crazy.