My first (micro)earthquake
Well, I guess this makes me an official Angeleno: After living here more than a year, I have finally experienced my first earthquake. I was sitting on my couch watching TV this evening when I felt a tiny, almost imperceptible rumble. I thought the vibration might have been the result of a big truck passing by on the street, though I didn’t hear anything, and I had almost forgotten about it when I came across this on the AP wire:
A small earthquake struck Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley on Saturday, and there were no immediate reports of damage or injury, authorities said.
A visit to the U.S. Geological Survey’s earthquake site confirmed that what I had felt was a magnitude 2.9 quake situated about 10 miles away, near Encino. According to the site, this is what’s called a “microearthquake,” a term that sounds glibly reassuring. Loosely translated, it means, yeah, the ground shook a bit, but no major catastrophes resulted, so who cares? Just so long as my future seismic experience doesn’t involve any macroearthquakes…