Hector Mine Earthquake
This doesn’t really classify as an adventure but then again, not many people experience an earthquake… so perhaps it does.
In the early (very early) morning of October 16, 1999, I was in Los Angeles to work as a television pit reporter for the broadcast of a USAC sprint car race at Irwindale Speedway. I was staying on the sixth floor of an eight-story hotel near Irwindale when at 2:46 am, I awoke with a start.
The floor was swaying and I was rocking back and forth in bed. It took me a few seconds to orient myself since I had been sound asleep. As quickly as I could, I reached over and turned on the lamp beside the bed to see the rest of the room swaying as if we were on a ship in the middle of a stormy sea. Since I’d never been through a major earthquake before, it took me a few moments to identify what was happening. I expected things to shake violently but instead they just swayed back and forth, with the lamp on the table opposite my bed sliding across the tabletop and nearly falling off. Not only did everything in the room move, the room itself moved. That, plus the sensation of swaying back and forth really threw off your senses. Everything your brain understands about the stable attitude of the universe is kind of suspended. The sound of breaking glass and falling objects came from other rooms, along with a few doors slamming and some voices. To my great surprise the building didn't collapse and the world didn't end. The swaying, rumbling and unidentifiable sounds of geographic chaos eventually disappeared, replaced by the sound of footsteps and a few panicky screams.
In the early (very early) morning of October 16, 1999, I was in Los Angeles to work as a television pit reporter for the broadcast of a USAC sprint car race at Irwindale Speedway. I was staying on the sixth floor of an eight-story hotel near Irwindale when at 2:46 am, I awoke with a start.
The floor was swaying and I was rocking back and forth in bed. It took me a few seconds to orient myself since I had been sound asleep. As quickly as I could, I reached over and turned on the lamp beside the bed to see the rest of the room swaying as if we were on a ship in the middle of a stormy sea. Since I’d never been through a major earthquake before, it took me a few moments to identify what was happening. I expected things to shake violently but instead they just swayed back and forth, with the lamp on the table opposite my bed sliding across the tabletop and nearly falling off. Not only did everything in the room move, the room itself moved. That, plus the sensation of swaying back and forth really threw off your senses. Everything your brain understands about the stable attitude of the universe is kind of suspended. The sound of breaking glass and falling objects came from other rooms, along with a few doors slamming and some voices. To my great surprise the building didn't collapse and the world didn't end. The swaying, rumbling and unidentifiable sounds of geographic chaos eventually disappeared, replaced by the sound of footsteps and a few panicky screams.
After the initial quake, which lasted for some forty seconds or so, I called down to the front desk and told them that I was from Indiana, so should I be “running amok, going downstairs or just going back to sleep?” If it wasn’t over yet, I didn’t want to be halfway down the stairs when the building collapsed. I figured I was better off staying where I was and hoping for a soft landing. The lady at the desk acted as if it were no big deal and told me to go back to bed, but to expect aftershocks for the next hour or so. The aftershocks were interesting but not nearly as frightening or severe as the main quake. Fortunately the epicenter of the quake was out in the desert instead of actually in Los Angeles, otherwise there would have been quite a mess. It was a big quake.
I later learned that one of the guys in the hotel had run outdoors in his underwear and refused to go back in the building. It was cold outside that night… I don’t know if he ever changed his mind or not. Turns out there was a pretty big crowd outside in the parking lot, but I never left my hotel room. In the forty seconds or so that I had to consider my options, the idea of racing six stories to the bottom of the stairs before the building collapsed seemed to be a lousy gamble. Fortunately it didn't and the decision was irrelevent.
The Southern California Earthquake Data Center wrote this of the quake:
At 2:46:44 am on the morning of Saturday, October 16, 1999, most of southern California, as well as parts of Arizona and Nevada, shook and rattled in the seismic wake of the largest earthquake to strike the area since the M 7.3 Landers earthquake of June 28, 1992. Originally measured at magnitude 7.0, this earthquake was centered in such a remote part of the Mojave Desert that, instead of being named for the nearest town or the community that suffered the greatest damage, it was named after the closest spot in the list of reference points used by the Southern California Seismic Network: the Hector Mine, an open pit quarry 14 miles (22 km) northwest of the epicenter.
The Hector Mine earthquake was preceeded by a small cluster of foreshocks that begin about 20 hours before the onset of the mainshock. The largest of these foreshocks was a magnitude 3.8 tremor that occurred at 7:41 pm PDT on October 15. These foreshocks were in the same location as a cluster of aftershocks triggered by the 1992 Landers earthquake.
When the mainshock struck, just before 2:47 am PDT, the rupture was somewhat slow in starting. But within about 10 seconds it was over, having ruptured in both directions (bilaterally) from the epicenter: north along the Lavic Lake fault for about 15 kilometers, and south along the Lavic Lake fault and the central Bullion fault for another 26 kilometers.
The location of the earthquake was so remote that it caused relatively negligible damage for a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. The surface rupture was located entirely within the boundaries of the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, and crossed neither paved roads nor structures (unlike the Landers rupture of 1992).
The quake made news all over the country, but my part in it was over pretty quick and there’s not much else to tell. It was an amazing experience but it happened so fast that you didn’t have time to be scared. The fear came afterward, when you sat there wondering what to do if it happened again and realizing that people die in these things. I later learned that this quake was so strong that it was felt from Nevada all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Since the epicenter was far enough away to avoid major damage in LA it was kind of a neat thing to have experienced... but I’d sure hate to see one close up.
I later learned that one of the guys in the hotel had run outdoors in his underwear and refused to go back in the building. It was cold outside that night… I don’t know if he ever changed his mind or not. Turns out there was a pretty big crowd outside in the parking lot, but I never left my hotel room. In the forty seconds or so that I had to consider my options, the idea of racing six stories to the bottom of the stairs before the building collapsed seemed to be a lousy gamble. Fortunately it didn't and the decision was irrelevent.
The Southern California Earthquake Data Center wrote this of the quake:
At 2:46:44 am on the morning of Saturday, October 16, 1999, most of southern California, as well as parts of Arizona and Nevada, shook and rattled in the seismic wake of the largest earthquake to strike the area since the M 7.3 Landers earthquake of June 28, 1992. Originally measured at magnitude 7.0, this earthquake was centered in such a remote part of the Mojave Desert that, instead of being named for the nearest town or the community that suffered the greatest damage, it was named after the closest spot in the list of reference points used by the Southern California Seismic Network: the Hector Mine, an open pit quarry 14 miles (22 km) northwest of the epicenter.
The Hector Mine earthquake was preceeded by a small cluster of foreshocks that begin about 20 hours before the onset of the mainshock. The largest of these foreshocks was a magnitude 3.8 tremor that occurred at 7:41 pm PDT on October 15. These foreshocks were in the same location as a cluster of aftershocks triggered by the 1992 Landers earthquake.
When the mainshock struck, just before 2:47 am PDT, the rupture was somewhat slow in starting. But within about 10 seconds it was over, having ruptured in both directions (bilaterally) from the epicenter: north along the Lavic Lake fault for about 15 kilometers, and south along the Lavic Lake fault and the central Bullion fault for another 26 kilometers.
The location of the earthquake was so remote that it caused relatively negligible damage for a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. The surface rupture was located entirely within the boundaries of the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, and crossed neither paved roads nor structures (unlike the Landers rupture of 1992).
The quake made news all over the country, but my part in it was over pretty quick and there’s not much else to tell. It was an amazing experience but it happened so fast that you didn’t have time to be scared. The fear came afterward, when you sat there wondering what to do if it happened again and realizing that people die in these things. I later learned that this quake was so strong that it was felt from Nevada all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Since the epicenter was far enough away to avoid major damage in LA it was kind of a neat thing to have experienced... but I’d sure hate to see one close up.