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Public asked for help reconstructing recent 5.4 quake

August 7th, 2008, 3:00 am · 2 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor

chinohillsfault-copy.jpgMore than 40,000 people went online to tell the U.S. Geological Survey how much shaking they felt during the magnitude 5.4 earthquake that erupted in the Chino Hills on July 29. The response — much of it coming from Orange County — helped provide scientists with an unprecedented amount of detail to analyse about a local quake.

But researchers want more.

Sue Hough, chief of the Pasadena office of USGS, says “it’s not too late to fill out the ‘Did you feel it?’ form. Basically, every person who felt the quake is a seismometer, and the information they provide can help us understand how the quake behaved.”

CLICK HERE to fill out “Did you feel it?” The process takes about one minute.

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Caltech has determined that the quake occurred on the Yorba Linda trend fault, a little known 20 mile system between the Whittier and Chino Hills. (Story). Researchers are still debating whether the event was a strike-slip or blind thrust event.

“I think we’re looking at a complicated region — the wedge sandwiched between the Whittier and Chino Hills faults — that probably has a lot of small faults with different orientations,” Hough says. “It doesn’t take a very big fault structure to generate a M5.4 quake.”

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2 Responses to “Public asked for help reconstructing recent 5.4 quake”

  1. Pastor Chuck McCoy Says:

    Myself and a friend , were taking a load to Goodwill , of thing I Didn’t need, There Heavy, When it Stuck we standing to my Friends Truck, And I could feel it in my Toes First,Because I Had A Stroke about 10 Yrs Ago, At first I Thought The Fork Lift Was to close to Me, But it wasnot ,It hit Hard, Then I Tryed to call MY WIFE TO “NO AVAIL”, On my Cell Phone, Then She had been to reach me, When couldn’t reach me She Left her work to Come To my house and Sure I Was ok… During all of this TIME NO’ONE COULD REACH ME……..I THINK “SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE AT LEAST OUR CELL PHONES, MY WIFE MADE A UN-NEEDED TRIP FROM IRVINE TO ANAHEIM FOR NOTHING !!!

  2. judy leaf Says:

    1035 Avenida Loma Vista San Dimas,91773 Quake
    hit hard and fast w/oany warning in our 2sty single family home. Unable to stand or walk during quake.
    Thown from wall to wall. Life long resident. Never felt this type of quake prior. Felt like house was dropping and was going to collapse. Unknown damage to my knowledge. The Northridge felt completely different. Loud boom with that started with rolling both before and after and lasted longer.
    had light damage. This recent quake felt more threatening however. No warning from animals prior
    to quake, but the next 23hrs. dogs appeared nervous.

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