A small earthquake in northern Illinois set off car alarms, knocked books off the shelves and jolted scores of people awake at 4 a.m. Wednesday, but otherwise caused no serious damage, officials said.
SHOPPING ONLINE? Please, come here first!
Your use of my Amazon link is a major part of my income. It helps to pay for insurance, groceries, everything. Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.
Try AmazonFresh Free Trial
Shop Amazon Gold Box - New Deals. Everyday
Shop Amazon Gift Cards - Instant Delivery or Free One-Day Shipping
Try Prime Discounted Monthly Offering
And you do need a Kindle! - HERE
Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans
About this blog…
“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
Fr. Z’s VOICEMAIL
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
This blog has to earn its keep!
PLEASE subscribe if it is useful.
That way I have steady income I can plan on, and you wind up regularly on my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I periodically say Holy Mass.
For a one time donation...
I set up a
CONTINUE TO GIVE
account, which functions rather like PayPal. Some of you use it. Here is a QCode you can use with your smart phones. Try it!
Also, to receive a link to donate via Continue To Give using your smart phone SEND MESSAGE:
4827563 TO: 715-803-4772 (USA)
Some donations also come through CHASE. That works well. I don't think they take any percentage as fees.I was at this conference last year. I’ll probably go this year! That’s how enjoyable it was. I’ve marked my calendar.
CLICK and say your daily offerings!
A Daily Prayer for Priests
Yes, Fr. Z is taking ads…
Because it matters what children read…
Be a “Zed-Head”!
I carry one of these super-strong rosaries in my spare mag pouch! The Swiss Guards have them too!
CHALLENGE COINS!
My "challenge coin" for my 25th anniversary of ordination in 2016.
Want one? I do exchanges with military and LEOs, etc. and you can make a donation.
PLEASE RESPOND. Pretty pleeeease?
Loading ...WDTPRS POLL
Loading ...“Rigid”? Pfffft. “Faithful!” No priest’s desk or kitchen is complete without one, for young, old, and priests in general.
Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere
Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
GREAT causes to support
Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee – UPDATED LINK) and Norcia (beer) and the wonderful "Soap Sisters" of Summit, NJ!
Please follow me on Twitter!
If you travel internationally, this is a super useful gizmo for your mobile internet data. I use one. If you get one through my link, I get data rewards.
Illinois sits on the largest fault line in the country. http://www.scchealth.org/docs/ems/docs/prepare/newMadrid.html
Who knew?
And related sort of, God still owns the weather. God is still in charge not tinpot messiahs. Alleluia, Alleluia.
Living in California, we are all to aware that Haiti can happen.
Southern California has had an especially wet winter. The recent series of storms has produced thunderstorms (unusual for winter storms) and a couple of tornadoes!
Most of the locals are resigned to the fact that earthquakes happen. Though tornadoes are so rare that it freaks most people out.
As Disturbed Mary pointed out, we in SO-IL and Eastern MO sit on New Madrid fault. A couple of summers ago, we had morning tremors on a couple of days. I felt the rumble, like a heavy truck making its way down the street toward our home. I felt the house rumble.
Yet, I recall one year–1990–I had just finished grad school, we were warned that “the big one” was coming–as if it could be predicted. My roommate got me skittish as well. We took things off walls and shelves. Needless to say nothing happened.
We can’t predict where or when, but we must always be ready–at least spiritually.
In northeastern Illinois earthquakes are quite rare. The New Madrid fault is in the south side of the state. I’m actually literally just down the road from the epicenter. At 4 a.m I wake up, my closet doors are shaking like someone’s trying to get out, it feels like a car just crashed into the side of my house and I’m wondering if a part of the roof might collapse.
sorry… just down the road from the epicenter of the one that hit last night… not the New Madrid….
I worry about the New Madrid Fault. My father (the structural engineer) says a lot of cities in the fault area don’t have the building codes to withstand a major earthquake, Memphis particularly. Major earthquakes on New Madrid may be rare, but it would be devastating.
California is ready for earthquakes. The building codes are modern and strict.
And I slept through it… :(
Yes, California is ready for earthquakes, but in 1989, as I was negotiating getting to my front door during that huge quake, I was frightened that I wouldn’t get out in time. I lived in Alameda then, a small island just beside Oakland, and the apartment complex was built on landfill and stilts – yikes ! It was very scary for this Pennsylvania girl. All my kitchen things flew out of the cupboards, my bedroom dresser mirror came unfixed and fell and cracked, it was rocking and rolling while I tried to get to my front door, falling down twice in the process. None of us went back inside til the wee hours of that night.
It will happen in Chicago.
Peggy R,
I remember the 1990 “Illinois earthquake rumor.” I was just a kid at the time, and all sorts of ridiculous rumors and talk of it had filtered down to my elementary school. I was absolutely terrified for several days, especially since there was no “official” information on TV or anything like that – just wildly exaggerated rumors. 20 years later I’m still puzzled as to what the heck happened there. Earthquakes can’t be predicted, as everyone knows. How did such a stupid rumor get started?
I spent most of my life about 15 minutes from the original capital of Illinois which was destroyed when an earthquake in the New Madrid fault caused the Mississippi river to actually flow backwards and cut through the land causing Kaskaskia Island to be formed. It is one of the few sections of Illinois that lies west of the river and actually can only be reached from Missouri. The island has 9 residents and has a very old Catholic Church.
http://www.greatriverroad.com/stegen/randattract/kaskchurch.htm
From Wikipedia, caveat lector:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaskaskia,_Illinois
AJP,
Here you go:
http://www.showme.net/~fkeller/quake/comments.htm
AJP,
There was a “scientist” who announced that he had figured out how to predict earthquakes. His name was Brown or Browning or something like that. Anyway he predicted a major earthquake on New Madrid on December 3, 1990. I remember the date because I was on a field trip.
The earthquake in Illinois was not related to any significant fault line… the nearest seismic zone is the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone to the south. The epicenter of this quake is located in one of the most geologically stable areas of the United States. You just never know exactly what is going on beneath the surface.
I live in the New Madrid Seismic Zone… just across the river from New Madrid, MO… and I can look out my window and see rift lines from the 1811-12 quakes. If you fly over western Tennessee, you can still see the discoloration of the soil caused by the sand blows. Quakes definitely get our attention, especially if they swarm, or there are many smaller quakes in a short period.
There are some pentecostals that have been predicting a Chicago earthquake for years. Google “chicago+earthquake+prophecy” – but be forewarned, its pretty flaky stuff.
Brian,
Not just Pentecostals…
Gowing up in Indianapolis we were taught that we sat on part of the New Madrid zone, and that nothing has been built to withstand earthquakes. One of my geography instructors at IU took great pleasure in telling the class about all the damage that would be caused if the New Madrid went off again, fun stuff.
We were also taught that when the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 hapened, they rang church bells in Boston and broke windows in Charleston.
We were taught that it was all Tecumseh’s fault.
Heh… I kill me. ;)
Dr Eric and Jenny,
Thanks for the info! That Dr. Browning sure sounds like a character. It’s also a good illustration of just how much the truth can be distorted by rumors. The earthquake was “predicted” to happen on the New Madrid fault. At the time I lived outside of Chicago, hundreds of miles away from the New Madrid. Even if an earthquake had hit the NMF, Chicago wouldn’t have been affected. Yet the local rumors made it sound like Chicago would be.
Re: Andy Lucy’s comment: “The earthquake in Illinois was not related to any significant fault line”
As a lifelong resident of California (indeed, my relatives go to back to the Spanish), I know that statement should properly read “…known fault line”. We do not know all the cracks and bulges under the surface. Even in California, many earthquakes happen on previously unknown faults, some as low as 50 miles under the surface. You really don’t know.
There are very good guides online about earthquake-proofing your house. Those in the Midwest should take those steps (like bolting your house the the foundation and securing your water heater). Don’t have a huge mirror or bookshelves above your bed, anchor your bookshelves to studs in the wall. Minor things (a day of work, except perhaps the foundation part).
When we moved back to IL from DC (where global warming is in full swing, you know), we were given the option to buy earthquake insurance. We decided to go with it, as it cost very little and if the unthinkable happened, we were covered. We’re also on the bluffs of the Mississippi, just above flood plain. We did get flood insurance as well.
I suppose an argument could be made that given the, ahem, caliber of the politicians we’ve inflicted upon the nation of late (the Obamessiah, Rahmbo, Blago, “Turban” Dick Durbin, Roland “Tombstone” Burris, etc.) we Illinois residents are overdue for some kind of divine retribution. Personally, I think just having to see Blago in the NBC “Celebrity Apprentice” promos is penance enough… but I digress.
Seriously, though, I have felt earthquakes about 3 or 4 times in my life. I did not feel the one this morning as it was too far away (I live in Springfield). The biggest one I have felt was about 2 years ago, it was strong enough to wake me up at 4:30 a.m., rattle windows, and make a rumbling noise. That one also had an aftershock about 6 hours later. The aftershocks now taking place in Haiti are about the same magnitude as what happened this morning.
A lot of the destruction in Haiti was due to the flimsy construction of their buildings. Remember, they are the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and since they live in a tropical climate, don’t need thick walls or insulation. I suspect most Midwestern buildings are built better than in Haiti, but it is true that earthquake stability was not a major concern until recently — so a “big one” on the New Madrid fault could cause lots of damage. We won’t know for sure how much until it actually happens, however.
Also, much of central and southern Illinois experiences mine subsidence because extensive underground mining of coal took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these old mines were never adequately mapped. The shafts sometimes collapse and cause damage to buildings above them. Less than a year ago, for example, a brand new school in the town of Benld, about 50 miles NE of St. Louis, started falling apart literally overnight due to mine subsidence and had to be abandoned. These mines didn’t exist at the time of the last big New Madrid quake so they have the potential to add to the damage.