Earthquake

We had an earthquake here this morning around 4am. I was sleeping, Ross was upstairs playing Magic online. I suddenly found myself awake (a pretty normal occurrence these days) and when I heard the cats scrambling frantically in the living room I assumed that it must have been them that woke me up. But the next thing I know Ross is running down the stairs calling my name. He came into the bedroom and said, "I think we just had an earthquake!"

Apparently while he was playing his game he noticed that the monitor started to rock back and forth. There was a low noise and within a few moments he said the whole house felt like it was shaking. He IMed the guy he was playing with that he had to quit the game because he thought we were having an earthquake!

I was skeptical at first but I remember that we've had a couple of small earthquakes in the last ten years or so and I realized he could be right. But I told him I didn't think we should worry because the nearest dangerous fault line was down near St. Louis. So I went back to bed and he went upstairs to check the news.

Sure enough, it was a 3.8 (originally reported as 4.1) earthquake originating just 45 miles outside of Chicago near Gilberts! I have friends who grew up in Gilberts, it's covered in corn fields and cow pastures and it looks like the last place you would have an earthquake. As freaky as it is to think we can have seismic activity so close to home, what we felt doesn't even compare to the earthquake in Haiti, which was about 1,600 times stronger, according to US Geological Survey. I can't even imagine.