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M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

earthquake.usgs.gov

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Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#311

Post by jpalawaga »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #304
chrinic74929 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's a 4.8 lol Equivalent in lateral motion/shakiness to a California 6.0 due to the shallow depth of the 4.8

Lol, now you are making stuff up. Most local magnitude scales are >>> determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. Adjustments are included to compensate for the variation in the distance between the various seismographs and the epicenter of the earthquake[1]. So unless people in the East have seismographs located farther underground with scientists staffing them really deep under…

From your stack overflow link:

>"Feels like" is measured on seismic intensity scales such as the Mercalli scale. These measure the peak acceleration or velocity at a given point, or the damage done by the earthquake. Intensity is influenced by many things, such as the depth of the earthquake, the distance to the ruptured section of the fault, and the local surface material.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Mercalli_intensity_sc...

NYC has had 5.x earthquakes that have caused e.g. chimneys to collapse, something unheard of in california.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#312

Post by [deleted] »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #304
chrinic74929 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's a 4.8 lol Equivalent in lateral motion/shakiness to a California 6.0 due to the shallow depth of the 4.8

Lol, now you are making stuff up. Most local magnitude scales are >>> determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. Adjustments are included to compensate for the variation in the distance between the various seismographs and the epicenter of the earthquake[1]. So unless people in the East have seismographs located farther underground with scientists staffing them really deep under…

[deleted]

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#313

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

jpalawaga wrote: post #311
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, now you are making stuff up. Most local magnitude scales are >>> determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. Adjustments are included to compensate for the variation in the distance between the various seismographs and the epicenter of the earthquake[1]. So unless people in the East have seismographs located farther underground with scientists staffing them really deep under…

From your stack overflow link: >"Feels like" is measured on seismic intensity scales such as the Mercalli scale. These measure the peak acceleration or velocity at a given point, or the damage done by the earthquake. Intensity is influenced by many things, such as the depth of the earthquake, the distance to the ruptured section of the fault, and the local surface material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Merc…

The Mercalli scale you cite is defined in roman numerals.

The parent posted decimals.

As you said, they are not the same thing.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#315

Post by 0xffff2 »

bee_rider wrote: post #305
filoleg wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot speak for California, but in PNW there is even less “surprising, sudden weather thingies.” Rain is not pouring, unlike on east coast (speaking from my expeirences in both NYC and Atlanta), it is just drizzling at a very low rate. It doesnt thunderstorm. I’ve heard thunder iirc only 2-3 times in my 7 years living there. No tornados or tsunamis. No massive blizzards out of nowhere. I felt this earthquake in NY…

I thought California had a lot of Earthquakes. Oregon is full of volcanoes and about to slip off the continental shelf, right? But I guess those surprises just exists in potential form.

I have lived in California for something like 33 of my 36 years. I have actually felt a grand total of 3 earthquakes in my entire life. Even out here, quakes big enough to shift the wall decorations across a large portion of the state are vanishingly rare.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#316

Post by jpalawaga »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #313
jpalawaga wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your stack overflow link: >"Feels like" is measured on seismic intensity scales such as the Mercalli scale. These measure the peak acceleration or velocity at a given point, or the damage done by the earthquake. Intensity is influenced by many things, such as the depth of the earthquake, the distance to the ruptured section of the fault, and the local surface material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Merc…

The Mercalli scale you cite is defined in roman numerals. The parent posted decimals. As you said, they are not the same thing.

Are you intentionally being pedantic? The point doesn't have anything to do with whether decimals are used or if conversions are direct. The point is that a 4.8 earthquake can feel different given numerous factors. The Mercalli scale attempts to capture the surface-level disruption, rather than the inherent force at the site of the quake as the Richter scale does.

Depth IS relevant to how an earthquake feels (as opposed to your assertion it isn't)--even the usgs publishes depth information. If you go back to the stack overflow link you posted, you can clearly see that a lower magnitude earthquake can be much more damaging.

The point is, richter measurement doesn't tell the whole story, and yes, you could say that a 4.8 would feel like a 6.0, even if we don't have a good way beyond the mercalli scale of discussing that. That's because the original output energy is only partially relevant to how someone experiences a seismic event.

tl;dr: your pedantic assertion that there's no conversion between the two is correct. your assertion that depth doesn't matter for feeling quakes is incorrect.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#317

Post by coldcode »

_sword wrote: post #9

That was eerie! I felt my apartment building start to rock and sway as the walls were creaking. Not something I’m used to as a NY native, and not something I loved to experience 20+ floors above the ground.

I experienced a 3.8 (I think) in Dallas some years ago, 30 stories up. It was likely caused by oil drilling action in the area, as Texas is not an earthquake zone if I remember correctly. It was not fun, no dampers in that building.

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#319

Post by quesera »

triceratops wrote: post #283
slingnow wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that earthquakes transmit instantaneously? Why would they not have a propagation speed like everything else in the universe?

On the earth the speed of light as is good as instantaneous.

> On the earth the speed of light as is good as instantaneous.

Frustrated network architects would disagree!

Re: M 4.8 – 2024 Whitehouse Station, New Jersey Earthquake

#320

Post by JohnTHaller »

eggy wrote: post #135
JohnTHaller wrote: post #116

In NYC. This was much stronger than in terms of local shaking than the others of the last 25 years. Living on the 4th floor of a 90+ year old building. My fridge was trying to walk across the floor.

Were you always on the 4th floor for the others? You would feel it more the higher up you are as the building resonates.

The last larger one in, iirc, 2011 I was. Same apt. Definitely stronger.
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