The Pacific west coast from North America to South America lies on a major fault line = warning: earthquake zone. On our second day in Nicaragua recently, I took a little nap in the afternoon while my family stayed outside enjoying the pool. I was rudely awakened by what I thought was my husband shaking the bed...but when I turned around to confront him, there was no one in the room. That's when I realized what happened, and made a bee-line out the door. They had felt it too, outside. It WAS an earthquake. It only lasted a few seconds....maybe 5-ish? And, although at the time it make us a little nervous, no one else around us seemed remotely concerned. And, to my surprise, I forgot all about it until now - almost 2 weeks later, while watching tv and hearing about an earthquake that struck Panama today I decided to search via the internet to get some details.
This website that tracks earthquake activity throughout the world, gave me the info I wanted about the Panama quake....and also, after a quick search found that the earthquake we experienced was listed there too! Imagine, 5.7 and no one running for the hills, no damage, nada.But even more shocking to me was reading about the dozen or more earthquakes that happen every single day!
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/
Magnitude 5.7 NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 20:50:19 UTC
| Magnitude | 5.7 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time | Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 20:50:19 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 02:50:19 PM local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones |
| Location | 11.31N 86.25W |
| Depth | 56 kilometers |
| Region | NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA |
| Distances | 48 km (30 miles) WSW of Rivas, Nicaragua 76 km (47 miles) SSW of Granada, Nicaragua 93 km (58 miles) S of MANAGUA, Nicaragua 1648 km (1024 miles) ESE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico |
| Location Uncertainty | Error estimate |
| Parameters | Nst=305, Nph=305, Dmin=181.1 km, Rmss=1.21 sec, Erho=19.9 km, Erzz=8.5 km, Gp=134.0 degrees |
| Source | USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) |
| Event ID | us2011jsb7 |
No comments:
Post a Comment