I wrote the following post on Monday March 5, 2012, when I couldn't go back to sleep after two successive earthquakes, a short and sharp 3.5 and a rattling and shaking 4.0 with an epicenter in El Cerrito, a town just northeast of my home:
I got up at about 4:30 am to go to the bathroom and then I couldn’t
get back to sleep. I can almost always go back to sleep so I wondered what the
problem was. 20 minutes later, I heard rumbling coming from the east. I knew it
was an earthquake, and a wave passed through the building from my bedroom
windows to the living room, parking lot, next building and on toward the bay.
And then there was more when the shaking began and I heard rattling
windows, and tinkling wine glasses in the cabinet. I sat up in bed, and knew
that this was not just a light roll of the earth. I got out of bed, and tried
to slip my feet into my slippers but it was dark and everything was moving
around me. I’m sure that my legs were shaking, too. I wished I had left my Crocs
by the bed since they are sturdier than my slippers. I will start doing that
again. Supposed I had to step over glass and debris? I couldn’t get under my
bed because it’s too low, so I went to stand in the doorway until the shaking
stopped. I’m not sure I made it to the doorway before the shaking stopped. It’s
hard to make decisions when you’ve been somewhere between sleep and awake for
an hour.
When it seemed that the coast was clear, I went into the
next room and turned on the computer. I went to the U. C. Berkeley
Seismological Center and clicked on the link to the USGS Earthquake site for
Northern California. I love this site because it has maps with little colored
squares that tell me where in the state the quakes have occurred. I can choose to
look at quakes that have happened within the past 7 days, past month, past
year, etc. Lots of choices for a mind like mine. I click on a square and I get
another page, which provides more details on each quake, such as the time the
quake occurred, how deep in the earth it originated, the location of the
epicenter from several major towns or cities, latitude, and more geologist
friendly details.
Turns out, this one was a 4.0 centered in East Richmond
Hills. There is no such town on the map, but I figured that it meant the hills
east of Richmond. Perhaps it’s a real estate created term like Hudson Terrace, which
is really the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, where I lived when it
was still referred to as Washington Heights. My instincts had told me that I
couldn’t take this quake lying down. This one made me get out of bed. This one
wasn’t over in a few seconds. My instincts were right.
SFGate reported that the epicenter was at a country club in El
Cerrito. Is there a relationship between class and earthquakes? I’m not going
there. I’m getting ready for work.
