In California, 4s are a regular occurrence and we have 2-3s every day. I rarely notice anything less than a 5, and, often do not notice up to a 5.5 in my area. The worst quake I have personally experienced was the 1989 Loma Prietta quake which was a 7.9 IIRC. It caused some significant damage to some substandard (by modern measure, not when they were built) structures, most notably the bay bridge and the cypress and embarcadero elevated freeways and a brick-and-morter (literally) mall in Santa Cruz. Other than that, the damage from the 7.9 was minimal outside of a relatively contained zone rather close to the epicenter. I've been through more than one quake in the 5.2-5.5 range, so, perhaps they are rare in the Netherlands (6 million years or so), but, in California they are much more frequent, perhaps 5-7 years or so. Owen On Mar 24, 2010, at 12:31 PM, Jeroen van Aart wrote:
I saw a recent(-ish) short thread about a mag. 4 quake in the SF Bay Area. This http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/36.38.-123.-121.... should provide with everything you need to know.
I check it on a daily basis and it's been rather quiet the past week or 2 or so. Actually I guess it's been rather quiet ever since the 1989 quake, but then a year or so ago I woke up in the morning from some rattling doors so I guess it all depends on your perspective.
So far the "worst" quake ever I experienced was in the Netherlands back around 1988. Magn. 5.2 or something. Which is interesting considering these happen like once every 6 million years or thereabouts ;-) Actually I slept through it so I don't know if one can call it "experiencing".
Greetings, Jeroen