Oh yeah...It's Earthquake Country

I sooooo hate earthquakes!!!!!! They freak me out!!!! I think NO ONE could be used to earthquakes! We had one last night and it was pretty significant. Living where i do, I don't feel too many. Up until last night thought that was because we were not that close to a fault line. Now I know different and discovered via news coverage of last nites MODERATE trembler, there is a fault line that runs underneath my little suburb of Concord!!! YIKES!!!! While this is no major fault like the San Andreas(the big 6.9 tremblor in 1989 was on this fault) or Hayward fault (seismologists belive our next big quake will be on this fault). Last nights quake was on the calavaras fault and it runs right under my city....which is probably why hubby and I really felt it last nite! Scary!!!!!!! It was a rolling motion then a back-n-forth sway for what seemed it lasted longer than 15 seconds. Although the quake was centered about 70-75 miles south of us, we felt it and my blinds swayed back-n-forth, and my stand that holds our radio and all our pictures swayed back-n-forth also...i think if it would have lasted 10 more seconds or slightly stronger it would have fallen over.

I've lived in Concord for 5 years now and have on only felt 2 big jolts, andt hat was a few years ago when there had been small tremblers on this same fault. I remember then that those series of tremblers ranged from 3.0 to probably about 4. or so. They were centered about 10 miles south of us and we weren't feeling them too much as residents living near their center, but it went on for about 2 weeks, nothing since then. I did feel an earthquake in March,but I was in Oakland and closer to the center, and that was a quick jolt, but that one was centered on the Hayward fault i believe and since then had been quite a few jolts on the hayward fault since then. Being in Concord I didn't feel them. This is just another reminder of the possibility of an even bigger quake! The quake we had last nite was measured at 5.6 and didn't realize that this is the strongest quake to hit since the 1989 quake!! SCARY!!! That means there is alot of pressure build up on these faults!!! There is bound to be a release of its stress sooner or later.......praying it is much, much later!!!

For now, I will work on getting an emergency kit together......kept saying it was important, but never did anything about getting it together. But that was BEFORE I knew we lived above a fault!!!! Hope there are no more little reminders!! I remain nervous and jittery for days following a trembler...........did I mention I HATE earthquakes???