3.1 Magnitude Earthquake with Epicenter 6 Miles from my House
April 23, 2007
I live in Chatsworth California, just on the border of Northridge, so I should be accustomed to earthquakes…but I’m not. I don’t think you can ever get used to them. So less than an hour ago when my room started to shake I braced for what appeared to be a decent sized quake. Turns out it didn’t last too long and was only 3.1 magnitude but it felt much worse because I was only a little over 6 miles from the epicenter.
Whenever I feel (or think I feel) an earthquake I point my browser to the USGS recent quakes page to verify and get more information. I clicked on the recent quake image that linked me to the information page for this quake and noticed a new link below to a KML file to show the location using Google Earth. Since I knew the quake was close by and I had already mapped my home’s location, I thought it would be cool to load up this quake epicenter and map the approximate distance. So I loaded the USGS file and then used the ruler to to draw the distance from my house. Very cool (well technically speaking, not quake proximity speaking) stuff as you can see by the pictures.
Over the years I’ve had a knack for working in high rises. Well, high for Los Angeles standards being on the 16th and 21st floors for two separate positions. In both cases I was the lucky recipient to experience earthquakes in them. Feeling the slow swaying of a building at that height is not a good feeling.
Anyways, nothing like a Monday wake up call from Mother Nature on the day after earth day.
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May 10th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I lived in Sherman Oaks during the Northridge Earthquake. It was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced. Coincidentally, the strip mall around the corner from me in Fort Lauderdale is called the Northridge Shopping Center.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:48 am
Mike, I lived in North Hollywood in a tiny single apartment the day of the quake and just remember feeling like the world was about to end. Coincidentally I also lived in Sherman Oaks (Dixie Cyn and Ventura Blvd) and currently live in Chatsworth…walking distance from the Northridge Shopping Center.