9 ms·
6.0 Northern California earthquake
- Mc_Big_G 12y agoIt didn't feel big North of Berkeley but it seemed longer than others I've experienced
- Sanddancer 12y agoIt was definitely one of the more gentle big quakes I felt. I remember the Whittier Narrows quake down in socal, and that one felt more violent, but this one lasted a lot longer than that one.
- wgo5 12y agoWhat is going on with all this geologic activity?? SESH!! first iceland, then chile, and now the bay area?? This has gotten me a little shaken up, I won't lie. Hope everyone is okay. Be sure to have an evacuation plan with your significant others and expect aftershocks.
- saticmotion 12y agoEarthquakes are not that rare, really. Here is a live map: http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/ http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/ Though I'm not sure how accurate it is, it only shows two earthquakes in Iceland in the last two days for example. And this page shows some estimates for number of earthquakes of a certain magnitude per year: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqsta... Magnitude 6-6.9 earthquakes occur about 130 times per year.
- kenrikm 12y agoIndeed, woke me and my family up. Only lasted a few seconds and was a big side to side movement but very gentle rocking motion overall.
- camillomiller 12y agoIs the Valley ready for bigger earthquakes? Serious question
- SchizoDuckie 12y agoI've been wondering this too. Could become a S.P.O.F. for the web's future if there's a big one.
- monochr 12y agoGiven that when I pointed out we shouldn't be building all our infrastructure in once place I got downvoted to the bottom of this thread (currently at -4) I'd imagine the answer is a big NO and most people are hoping that if they pretend hard enough it can't happen it won't.
- Sanddancer 12y agoYou were downvoted by a lot of people because you showed a serious ignorance of the area. A major earthquake is not going to "destroy" the area. It's a pretty standard part of business continuity plans around here to have measures in place for when a quake hits, and there's enough redundant infrastructure to ensure that any problems are pretty localized. It's drilled into peoples' heads around here that a quake is going to happen, and as such, nearly everyone has plans for how to ride things out.
- idlewords 12y agoEveryone has plans, but it's not possible to guess the systemic effects of everyone trying to implement their plans at once. We're just going to have to see. We work in a new industry that has never had to deal with a major earthquake, and for some reason we've concentrated it all in a place where there's bound to be one.
- hueving 12y agoYou were down voted because what you said made no sense. All of the infrastructure isn't concentrated here. You are confusing tech workers with data centers.
- floatingatoll 12y agoPlease take a moment to fill out the USGS "I felt it" form: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72282711#dyfi_form http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72282711#... Especially if you don't live in the Bay Area, since they'll want to know the falloff curves for it. (You can fill out the form even if you didn't feel it. They need that data too.)
- suyash 12y agothanks just did, hope they use data wisely and share the stats later.
- ghshephard 12y agoThe USGS has (for at least 10 years, maybe longer) provided real-time updates on peoples DYFI (Did you feel it data) on the web. Here are the responses for the 6.0: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/nc/72282711/us/index.html#map-section http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/nc/722827... (Click on "Responses") Here is the Map: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72282711#dyfi http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72282711#...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- monochr 12y agoAnd this shows us why it is a bad idea to have a large portion of the worlds digital infrastructure in a place which will destroy it sometime in the next century. Put it in the middle of the Australian outback, nothing's happened there for a billion years, nearly literally. To the people down voting me: please explain why you think it's a good idea to put our digital infrastructure in a place which might well be destroyed in an afternoon when it can be put quite literally anywhere.
- rasur 12y agoPerhaps the people down-voting you might like to share _why_ they think you said something wrong. FWIW, I would tend to agree - in general terms.
- sohailk 12y agoI didn't downvote, but it seems that all these companies would(should) have backups outside of the bay area. I can't imagine major services going down for an extended period of time. I do foresee a significant drop in overall productivity in the area for a longer period though.
- rasur 12y ago> I do foresee a significant drop in overall productivity in the area for a longer period though. True, though there are a lot of people working in that area. Deaths at the wrong time could be catastrophic.
- ghshephard 12y agoLatency and Bandwidth. You want your Data Centers to be close to improve performance. You also want to have massive amounts of bandwidth - Australia is particularly bad for both. Also - there are a ton of data centers out in Nevada, Oregon, DC, etc...
- monochr 12y agoNielsen's law means that we have to build half the pipes we have every year. It doesn't have to be Australia, just some place where natural disasters don't happen. The places you mention don't warrant much more optimism than California: http://www.usa.com/nevada-state-natural-disasters-extremes.htm http://www.usa.com/nevada-state-natural-disasters-extremes.h... http://www.usa.com/washington-state-natural-disasters-extremes.htm http://www.usa.com/washington-state-natural-disasters-extrem... http://www.usa.com/washington-dc-natural-disasters-extremes.htm http://www.usa.com/washington-dc-natural-disasters-extremes....
- te_chris 12y agoThere's nothing quite like an earthquake to make you feel mortal. Growing up in Wellington NZ we were always taught to expect and prepare for the 'big one', it was just part of life. Sometimes they completely come out of nowhere though, hitting places that are unprepared and often unaware that they are susceptible to seismic risk. This happened in Christchurch NZ in 2011 [1]. I'm not sure about the Valley, but there is nothing scarier than a new fault opening up. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake
- cmb99 12y agoHow wonderful it must have felt to always be preparing for "the big one." Are you ready for it now? Best wishes.
- cmb99 12y agoSuch strange down-voting. What did you not understand?
- dredmorbius 12y agoDisaster preparedness in the general sense is actually a pretty good idea. The basics in any situation are largely the same. A supply of water, and/or water purification means. A food supply. Shelter, such as a tent or sleeping bag. Sturdy clothes and boots. Flashlights. A radio that doesn't require mains power to operate. Inventorying your possessions, knowing what community resources exist, and having proper insurance also helps. Bdale Garbee made a pretty heart-wrenching presentation (though uplifting overall) of his family's experience with utter devastation which arrived on a few moments' notice. Not an earthquake, but a wildfire, which reduced his Colorado home and possessions to ashes and puddles of molten metal. It's instructive. In other areas, hazards include tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, landslides, fire, tsunami, and civil unrest or war. In pretty much all of these cases, a basic "earthquake kit" is a pretty good start on being prepared and increasing your odds of survival and/or comfort should circumstances turn south.
- Widdershin 12y ago
- k-mcgrady 12y agoThis is a silly question but as someone who lives in a place that will never experience an earthquake can someone explain to me why they are so dangerous? I get that things can fall over/collapse but in areas such as CA aren't buildings structured to survive an earthquake? Don't you secure large objects (cabinets etc.) to the walls?
- genbit 12y agoJust wondering, what is this place?
- k-mcgrady 12y agoIreland.
- genbit 12y agothis can be interesting: http://earthquaketrack.com/p/ireland/recent http://earthquaketrack.com/p/ireland/recent I myself leaved in place, where I thought never can have earthquake, but at some point was woke up but 1.5 magnitude. I think almost every place on Earth can have earthquake at some point.
- arnorhs 12y agoYou would be the first person in the history of mankind to wake up to a 1.5 magnitude earthquake :) I believe up to 2.0 they are not felt by humans, only recorded by seismographs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale
- genbit 12y agoThanks, didn't know ) Don't remember magnitude exactly, long time ago. Just was trying to say that it was low
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- wozniacki 12y agoProbability Report by the Northern California Seismic System (NCSS) [Operated by UC Berkeley and USGS] http://i.imgur.com/qyVI3vv.png http://i.imgur.com/qyVI3vv.png
- gone35 12y agoIt will likely be updated in the coming hours/days. Also note these aftershock probabilities are quite crudely modeled anyway. Permalink: [1] http://www.ncedc.org/recenteqs/QuakeAddons/NC72282711.html http://www.ncedc.org/recenteqs/QuakeAddons/NC72282711.html
- suyash 12y agoJust woke up to it in city, felt a strong termor. Hope no Tsunami follows
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y agoWhy (and where) would you get a tsunami from this quake?
- bayesianhorse 12y agoTalk about disruptive events!
- ryan-c 12y agoWelp, I'm sure glad that I actually bothered to anchor all my cabinets/shelves to the walls right now.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- kmfrk 12y agoYou can read about the implications of a harder Cascadian earthquake on SF here: http://crew.org/products-programs/cascadia-subduction-zone-earthquakes-magnitude-90-earthquake-scenario http://crew.org/products-programs/cascadia-subduction-zone-e....
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoAnd that isn't including the possibility that rainier will blow its top.
- suyash 12y agoSad Truth: No local channel has woken up to it, only 1 Breaking news banner in KPIX Channel 5 but others are busy playing late night informercials. How do people using no HN, twitter, facebook etc get updates?
- __david__ 12y agoI set up a geofence on the USGS web site so that I get notified of earthquakes over a certain magnitude. USGS will send you emails and/or text you. Back when I was a kid (when there was no internet) we'd turn on an all news AM station until they mentioned it.
- thrownaway2424 12y agoQuake.usgs.gov has accurate data within seconds of quakes. Back in the day you could get latest quake info on their finger server.
- smsm42 12y agobreakingnews.com was on it within minutes: https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/503489912528969728 https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/503489912528969728 I wouldn't imagine many people watch TV at 3:30am anyway. And why people wouldn't use twitter and other social media to look for updates on breaking news?
- prezjordan 12y agoFelt it here in lower Nob Hill! Lying half asleep wondering why my blinds were clacking against each other, then felt the entire room start to shake, very surreal. I actually got up and walked around this time. Last time I felt an earth quake was 3 years ago in NJ and that was super weird. Feeling a little spoiled with these Earthquakes! Only moved here a few weeks ago.
- dingalinga 12y agoFeeling spoiled with earthquakes? Shut up.
- anonbanker 12y agoPlease don't make these posts on HN. They do not contribute anything to the dialogue. If anything, they discourage further postings.
- locomojo 12y agoTitle should say "Wine Country" or "North Bay". Silicon Valley was not the center.
- nb4hnp 12y agoBut that won't get as many clicks.
- zbowling 12y agoAt iOSDevCamp working on a hack in San Jose. Turned my coworker and said "Huh. That's a weird vibration."
- shurcooL 12y agoCurious what the experience was like for anyone living on a high floor of a tall apartment building in SF, like nema.
- eastdakota 12y agoI'm on 4th floor (not that high) in SOMA in SF. Felt the building shake for ~30 seconds. Heard it too (maybe dishware rattling in cupboards). Definitely biggest quake in SF in the last 5 years, but no damage.
- mdaniel 12y agoI'm on the 8th floor near Hayes Valley and my experience was a slow wobble to the entire building, and my pedestal lights would bang against the walls, but nothing else is out of place and (for me) it wasn't a scary experience as much as "curious."
- enra 12y agoI was on 11th floor in downtown. Felt the whole building wobbling, squeaking and paint rattling. Nothing felt over or broke in my apt though.
- esmeralda9472 12y agoI felt it I was awake listening to music on my phone and I felt my bed shaking and I paused then looked at my baby's crib and it was moving side to side since we have tile floor it made the crib literally move and our bed was moving the key hanger were the keys are hanging were moving hard hitting against the wall I've never felt anything before like that this was my first time feeling this and it sucked a lot because I was the only one awake at home my husband and baby were asleep 💔😲😨
- possibilistic 12y agoSorry to change the subject. Does HN now have image emoticons, or is my phone's browser swapping out the last bit of text here? If it's the latter, this is unwanted behavior.
- obsession 12y agoI believe it's your phone. The emojis are unicode after all. 😁
- batuhanicoz 12y agoEarthquakes really do scare me. They are expecting a huge earthquake in my city and a recent analysis I read said if it happens (and happens in the magnitudes they are expecting) millions would die (not from the quake itself, but from not being able to get help, cold etc.). I believe in a case like that entire economy (and everything, really) of the country would fall irrecoverably for at least a 50 years. Well, if it happens in the night, at least I won't be alive to see the effects of it. (My apartment is old and I live very near to the sea, so there is also the risk of tsunamis. YAY!)
- rbanffy 12y agoCould this havê been triggered by the drought? Just a couple days back it was mentioned the loss of groundwater has made the crust rise a couple inches.
- paul_f 12y agoNo. This earthquake was 11km below the surface.
- rbanffy 12y agoAll it says is the most fragile point was 11 km down. The vertical load could be stabilizing whatever originated the quake. There is a comment about it at http://gizmodo.com/californias-drought-is-so-bad-the-mountains-rose-half-1626043465 http://gizmodo.com/californias-drought-is-so-bad-the-mountai... Compared to the other loads at the faults, water is relatively minor.
- litzer 12y agoCheck for gas leaks! http://www.totallyunprepared.com/turn-off-gas-earthquake/ http://www.totallyunprepared.com/turn-off-gas-earthquake/
- sgarrity 12y agoThis was the Earth's crusts doing a 'pivot'. Probably quite disruptive.
- wwwwwwwwww 12y agomaybe if we're lucky the entire bay area will break off and form a new continent. face it, that's the only way you're gonna get your Silicon Valley state, Draper!
- stretchwithme 12y agoDefinitely felt it. Thousands of people without power in the North Bay: http://www.pge.com/myhome/outages/outage/
- quattrofan 12y agoAs I understand it the most dangerous fault in the area is the Hayward-Rogers which is historically due for a major quake. So the question is did this quake add or release pressure on that fault as it sits around 7 miles away (the epicenter).
- jedberg 12y agoIt would have released pressure. Every quake near the Hayward releases pressure on it, which is a good thing.
- quattrofan 12y agoInteresting, thanks.
- ridgeguy 12y agoI'm curious about possible coupling between the ongoing drought in the western US and seismic activity. There is published work indicating correlations between rainfall and seismicity (1) and rainfall and volcanic activity (2). There's other work relating seismicity to fracking, filling the Oroville reservoir, etc. A study (3) this week indicated a median land uplift of 4mm ranging up to 15mm uplift in some California mountains due to a mass deficit of 240Gt of missing rainfall since 2013. I wonder if the drought-related uplift could alter underground strain patterns enough to influence earthquake frequencies or magnitudes? Any geophysicists wanna weigh in? (1) http://www.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/~igel/PDF/hainzletal_grl_2006.pdf http://www.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/~igel/PDF/hainzletal_gr... (2) http://envam1.env.uea.ac.uk/matthewsetal2009.pdf http://envam1.env.uea.ac.uk/matthewsetal2009.pdf (3) http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/08/20/science.1260279 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/08/20/science.1...
- 001sky 12y agoSuggesting this is caused or correlated with drought is not supported by any data.
- tptacek 12y agoThis is a non-sequitur comment. The very comment you replied to provides sources.
- 001sky 12y agoI wonder if x is correlated with y. Here are some citations on z and y. If that's what you mean, sure. You win. Here's some more data: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/historical_state.php#california http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/historical_sta... _____________ edit: Big quakes are at once relatively rare and over time quite common. The last one happened under the ocean... 0.652°N, 124.692°W 18.2 miles below the surface. in 2010
- Houshalter 12y agoSee this post from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8210235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8210235 "Epic Drought in West Is Literally Moving Mountains "
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- michaelq 12y agoAccording to my wife, she woke me up and kept shouting "earthquake!" I was rolling around on the bed. I just grabbed her pillow, covered my head and muttered, "OK. Let's go back to sleep".
- russell 12y agoI lived through the Loma Prieta earthquake 6.9 and the San Simeon earthquake 6.5. Both times my house was about a dozen miles from the epicenter. We suffered no damage at all, not even things falling off the shelves. At the time of the Loma Prieta earthquake we lived in a forest of 100 foot pine trees. The ground and streets were covered with the tips of the branches of the pine trees. The moral of the story is, if you are going to live in earthquake country, live in a well constructed wooden house on top of a mountain, or at least solid rock.
- junto 12y agoOut of interest, does anyone know what kind of disaster recovery plans big IT companies in Silicon Valley have if a really big one happens? The kind of earthquake where they lose both key staff members and core infrastructure?
- helper 12y agoEvery company that I have worked at has had disaster plans for things like that. My current company's plan is basically: redundant data centers in geographically dispersed areas and a transportation plan to get critical staff members to a location where they can keep our services running.
- gtremper 12y agoI think I slept though it this morning. I always seems to miss earthquakes.