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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

#371

Post by beowulfey »

filoleg wrote: post #299
bee_rider wrote: post #207

If any west-coasters are confused as to how this is news: the Northeast is sort of geologically unusual for the US in that we have almost no surprising, sudden weather thingies. No tornados, mild thunderstorm, occasional hurricanes (but they are usually weakened a bit compared to, like, Florida by the time they get up here and they’ve spent a long time going up the coast so they tend to be well tracked by forecasters…

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 count fires as a form of weather in CA, would probably apply to the PNW too

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

#372

Post by idatum »

bee_rider wrote: post #207

If any west-coasters are confused as to how this is news: the Northeast is sort of geologically unusual for the US in that we have almost no surprising, sudden weather thingies. No tornados, mild thunderstorm, occasional hurricanes (but they are usually weakened a bit compared to, like, Florida by the time they get up here and they’ve spent a long time going up the coast so they tend to be well tracked by forecasters…

Everything gets amplified on the East coast, any event, since much of the media we consume originates there.

The PNW does get tremendously powerful Pacific cyclones every so often [0]. These are huge storms that would do real damage to mid-Atlantic cities.

And there's the known risk of the "big one" -- subduction zone quake, Seattle fault, etc. Sleep tight East coast, you'll be fine.

[0] - https://www.climate.washington.edu/stormking/mainindex.html

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

#373

Post by dredmorbius »

nwiswell wrote: post #347
dietrichepp wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can think of some ideas: parking the heads on hard drives is one. Magnetic hard drives are sensitive to vibration. You can shout at hard drives and measure the effects (video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4 ). One of the worst-case scenarios is a head crash. A head crash will damage the media and may result in data loss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_crash My guess is that earthquakes powerful eno…

Some other thoughts: - Personnel-level warning to immediately rerack servers, close racks, and get off ladders and away from fall hazards - Proactively spin up generators to reduce failover in the more-likely event of a power disruption - Potentially temporarily shut off very large circulation fans so that blades don't collide with the housings - Potentially stop and carefully restart cooling water loops, in case the…

Good list.

Add to this: initiate failover or zone transfer of distributed servers / services to other DCs outside the likely impacted area.

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

#374

Post by dredmorbius »

ancientworldnow wrote: post #241
georgeecollins wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a native Californian this provokes a bit of a chuckle. Try a six plus sometime! But seriously, I hope everything is fine.

The geology of the east coast makes earthquakes about ten times more intense (according to usgs) so this is similar to a west coast high five.

Do you have a link to share on that?

I'm aware that Atlantic and mid-American quakes are felt over a much wider area than Left-coast temblors, because of the more-intact, less-fractured, largely limestone and granitic foundation bedrock (as opposed to a largely fractured sedimentary basement along the Pacific seaboard). But is the actual shaking intensity greater? AFAIU that's mostly affected by factors such as ground liquifaction, total ground water, and the like, which tend to be fairly strongly localised in effect. E.g., you can find seismic hazard maps of the SF Bay Area which show high-risk regions, largely on fill, reclaimed marsh, and sand dunes (e.g., the Marina, Financial District, SOMA, Sunset and Richmond districts of San Francisco), as opposed to bedrock (Twin Peaks, Potrero Hill). The former all amplify ground movement, the latter tend to shake far less.

River bottom land and estuaries on the East Coast would similarly show higher seismic motion, but I'm not sure this carries over for the region as a whole.

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

#375

Post by TuringNYC »

mtalantikite wrote: post #113
scrumper wrote: post #104

Felt that very strongly in southern Westchester county NY. Not like the 2011 earthquake I felt in NYC, which was kind of slow and made the building I was in sway violently; this was more like the vibrations from a huge truck passing nearby, but more intense. Loud and very unpleasant, about 15 seconds duration. Did not like that at all, am now inspecting all our services like gas and water for disruption, checking for…

There actually was a large truck coming down my block in Brooklyn at the same time it started and it took me a second to realize that no, it actually was an earthquake. And I definitely agree, the 2011 one was more of a sway, this felt like a rumble.

Funny you say that! I live in NJ now and felt the quake today. I just brushed it away as a truck passing by (I grew up in Brooklyn.) In NYC, it is so common for large trucks, major construction, pile drivers, subways running under the building, bad roads causing trucks to shake, etc...that I am just used to this.

I have not yet gotten accustomed to the stillness of suburbs despite being here for years now. (Side note: In NYC you can also get stillness and quiet, usually by going upwards into skyscrapers)

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

#376

Post by nashashmi »

areyousure wrote: post #364
nashashmi wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shockwaves travel further. The 2011 earthquake was in Virginia and everyone felt it on the eastern seaboard. It was only 2.4 M too. Still.

In case anyone was curious, the 2011 Virginia earthquake was magnitude 5.8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Virginia_earthquake

Yes. Thanks for the correction. I didn’t know

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

#377

Post by alexb_ »

coolspot wrote: post #183
alexb_ wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “stop, drop, and toll” In California, even saving yourself from being on fire is taxed.

Guys, calm down, it is actually an ok pun joke. “Toll”, get it?

I didn't think this would get hate rofl

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

#378

Post by joecool1029 »

joecool1029 wrote: post #360
metaprinter wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30% is 16.5 Billion gallons. OP is saying that much rain got into a reservoir that sits on top of an ancient volcanic caldera and has no rivers flowing into? Unexpectedly? and they didn’t think to stop pumping water in from the South Branch or release some water? The math ain’t mathing.

It's not at full capacity yet, they are pumping into it daily (around 200 million gallons) until it is. Only spruce run reservoir upstream of it fills naturally (and is spilling currently). Operations data for the reservoir updates every morning during workdays, so we'll know Monday if they paused pumping into it after the quakes, I don't have any better than daily numbers for it. Letting the water down isn't an opti…

Just to follow up on this, there was another way to tell they maybe shut the pumps off for a few hours after the quake (and I linked it in the same comment). The downstream gauge: https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=phi&gage=...

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

#379

Post by throwup238 »

alexb_ wrote: post #377
coolspot wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys, calm down, it is actually an ok pun joke. “Toll”, get it?

I didn't think this would get hate rofl

I don’t know why you got downvoted. I liked the joke!

I guess my fellow Californians can be a little touchy about taxes.

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

#380

Post by bickeringyokel »

bertil wrote: post #242
bickeringyokel wrote: post #213

Reading this on the toilet now wondering what my priorities would be if there was a quake in the next couple minutes.

That one is easy: You won’t shock anyone if you show up at the hospital with dirty underwear. You don’t want a trauma surgeon to say that they have to page the neuro-chir. Get under a doorframe, and put your pants up when your head is safe.

I thought the door frame thing was actually not a good idea? The mantra nowadays is drop, cover and hold on. Which might actually put you in a more precarious situation during said quake.
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