Easter Sunday Earthquake

On Easter Sunday, the West Coast part of our family was visiting in-laws in the Bay Park section of San Diego. They have a beautiful, flower laden patio and the weather was just perfect. The property is near the Rose Canyon Fault.

All of a sudden, while we were sitting on the patio, my daughter’s mother-in-law looked at me and said, “Feel that? Oh, this is big.” Just then I felt very nauseous and felt the ground move. It was like being on a mini-roller coaster ride. I actually felt the ground moving below me. Everyone came out from the house. Both in-laws agreed that wherever the earthquake hit, it was a big one. Also, it lasted almost a minute, which was not typical. It turned out to be a big one (7.2) just south of the Mexican border. One minute later, there was another one (6.6) just north of the border. Again, I felt nauseous.

When I arrived home about two hours later, my bedroom door was closed, but nothing had moved out of place. This was quite an experience. Smaller earthquake events have continued throughout this week. One morning mid-week my son-in-law called to see if I was OK. His house, about 3 miles away, rocked while I felt nothing. Yesterday morning, I awoke around 2:15am as my bed seemed to move from left to right for a few seconds. I went to the computer to find that a 4.4 had occurred at 2:12am near the Mexico border. My daughter didn’t feel anything from that one.

About 2 ½ years ago, on a Labor Day morning around 8am, I was brushing my teeth and the next thing I knew I was actually lifted off the floor and landed about two feet away. Thankfully, I could anchor my right elbow on my bathroom sink and my left forearm on the toilet. This kept me from falling to the floor. I rushed out to the living room to check the TV and sure enough it had been a 4.0 earthquake just off Mission Beach, a few miles from my apartment.

A number of years ago, after a small earthquake which was felt in downtown San Diego where I worked, I spoke with the people in my office. To a person, all twenty people agreed that they would rather risk an earthquake than put up with hurricanes, ice and snow, or tornadoes.

While I believe that all the recent earthquake activity in California has been near the San Andreas Fault line, I discovered that I live near the Point Loma Fault line and, as I already mentioned, my daughter lives on the Rose Canyon Fault line. Apparently when one fault line moves, other faults adjust their position. You can check out the earthquake activity in California at http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm .

I guess it is a matter of perspective. I like living here because of the sunlight. In the eight years I’ve lived in San Diego, you experience bright sunny weather with blue skies during most of the year. I’ll stay here for a while and enjoy the good weather.