I Felt the Earth... Move... Under My Feet

Sounds like a song, doesn't it!

Well, Last night I felt my third and fourth earthquakes since living here in Southern California. I had already fallen asleep but was immediately awakened with the house rumbling. The sound of the earth moving is quite unsettling--more than feeling the house shaking. I wondered if I needed to get out of the house, but there are trees and power lines all around. I assume being outside would be more dangerous. This quake was the first to "cause damage," pictured to the side, here at the house. Of course, I'm being overly dramatic.

A few minutes later was what I believed to be an aftershock, but what is reported as another earthquake.

I immediately checked Twitter to see who was tweeting what: where was the quake, how serious was it, who was being affected? But Twitter was non-responsive. Imagine that! So, after the adrenalin rush passed, i went back to bed.

This morning I learned several things:

1. The epicenter of the earthquake was 4.45 miles from the house. You can see the tiny map below.
2. The quake was a moderate, 4.7-magnitude, quake 9.3 miles below the surface.
3. What I thought was an aftershock (really mildly noticeable) was in fact another earthquake, 3.1 magnitude, 4.02 miles from the house and 7.1 miles deep.
4. As I looked through the USGS earthquake data site for California and Nevada, I'm amazed to notice how many low magnitude earthquakes are happening in this area, even though I don't notice them!
5. Only minor damage reported in the area: see this article.
6. I don't know the degree of difference in magnitude ratings, but they must be significant if a 6.7 in LA in 1994 did $10 billion in damage and killed 60 people.