USVI-On-Line

There was a 5.7 magnitude Quake about 15 minutes ago - centered in Puerto Rico------------------ but long and loud and some serious shaking here in STT.
They are putting it at 1:16 AM AST.

Sounds scary. Hope everyone is OK.

We didn't feel it and we're here in SJU but of course we were sleeping at the hour.

I was dreading coming to work for fear of finding hot sauce and broken glass all over the floor, but all is well.
I'm glad I slept through that one.

- Ruth

wow, I'm surprised you felt it in STT? They said it was centered in northwestern part of P.R.....glad all is well....

... not seeing reports of damage or injuries. So glad!

Ruth, good to know that the shop is fine and that you slept through the tremors... I don't think I would have.

Exit, as your report was only minutes following the quake, I assume that you were very aware at the time. Hard to get to sleep afterwards I should think!
"Loud" sounds from what??? Like thunder? Or movement of household items? I am having trouble imagining that.

Loud in the sense of a rolling sound in the hose -- literally the house shaking I guess that is making the sound - it feels like a sledge hammer hitting the concrete slab.I was on the computer and could feel the desk moving and chair vibrating - sorta freezes you as you start to realize what is happening.

Exit Zero wrote:chair vibrating - sorta freezes you as you start to realize what is happening.

Well, I guess so! Thanks for explaining.
Hope that is as bad as it ever gets!

My friends and family who have experienced this tell me that the first thing they notice is a big bang. Some describe it a thunder bolt that struck very close. Others have said that it sounded like the trash truck struck the building they were in. That is followed by the shaking. The interval between the two depends on how far you are from the center of the quake and the type of quake. The duration of the shaking depends on a lot of things including the magnatude.

The damage depends on so many factors. Of course, strength of the quake is the main factor. The type of quake, its depth, and distance are all important. The type of soil is also a factor. Quakes in the eastern US transmit much further than those in the west.

JIM

I haven't tuned into the nightly news lately so this question may have been covered but I haven't seen it.... why does it seem like we are having so many earthquakes lately?

Are there the same amount as there have always been and we are are just more aware of them because of news 24 hours a day?

Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgins all lay on the Caribbean Plate and just North of these islands is where it meets the North Atlantic Plate, which is also the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, - so there is constant shifting and many earthquakes , though most are smaller, the Haiti Quake earlier this year was a terrible disaster.
If you watch the USGS sites with any regularity it doesn't seem to have any noticeable increase of late.

I think there is a perceived increase in the amount of earthquakes because they are striking more populated areas lately. There is no actual increase, it's just that those that have happened lately seem to affect people, hence they lead the headlines.

For those of you interested, there have been alot of earthquakes in the Puerto Rico region in the past few days....check out this web site, very cool as mentioned above:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... es_all.php

In fact, if you find the earthquake from yesterday morning, and click on the map, it shows all the quakes around P.R. in the past 7 days. Actually, there have been a few not far from Cruz Bay, check it out.....