Earthquake in St. Louis MO

Friday, April 18, 2008 By

Chris Hammond

We just were awoken by an earthquake here in St. Louis. No other info yet. No damage, just a shaking house.

Update 4: I really wish I could go back to bed, but I know I'm not going to be able to sleep now! My drive to Kansas City this afternoon is going to be rough! Check out some of the other blogs being posted about the St. Louis Earthquake https://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=earthquake+st.+louis

It looks like the USGS is now placing the quake 9km NW of Mt. Carmel Illinois, I don't know if that is West Salem, or somewhere else?

Update 3: I think the St. Louis University Earthquake Center must have been overloaded with traffic this morning, their website hasn't loaded for me once this morning. https://www.eas.slu.edu/Earthquake_Center/

It's funny watching the blogosphere light up with traffic this morning, even friends of mine are up posting!

A lot of comments on this post are saying "thanks for letting me know I'm not crazy", I was totally thinking the same thing till I was able to find the info on the USGS site. Natalie thought the pipes were just shaking in our house, I was pretty darn confident this was not a localized issue just to our house. I'm glad to see that so far everyone seems to be safe.

Update 2: Alright, so my wife made me turn off the TV so she could try and go back to sleep so I'm sitting here looking at all the USGS info, it's amazing how much info they have so quickly.

I haven't been through an earthquake that I remember since the 7.3 and 7.1 quakes in Southern California in the early 90s, I am sure I probably felt something when we lived in Northern California, but that was easily 10+ years ago now.

Update 1: Apparently a 5.4 magnitude quake located in West Salem Illinois.

I found this on the USGS site 5 minutes before we finally found it on a news station, first one reporting info in St. Louis appears to be Fox2.

Some USGS Pages

https://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_qza6_t.html

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/32.42.-90.-80_eqs.php

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/32.42.-90.-80.php

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/270_40.php

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2008qza6.php

Magnitude	5.4
Date-Time	Friday, April 18, 2008 at 09:36:56 UTC Friday, April 18, 2008 at 04:36:56 AM at epicenter
Location	38.520°N, 87.873°W
Depth	5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region	ILLINOIS
Distances	12 km (7 miles) E (90°) from West Salem, IL 13 km (8 miles) NE (53°) from Bone Gap, IL 14 km (9 miles) W (266°) from Allendale, IL 36 km (22 miles) WSW (241°) from Vincennes, IN 67 km (41 miles) NNW (335°) from Evansville, IN 206 km (128 miles) E (93°) from St. Louis, MO
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 4.1 km (2.5 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	NST=135, Nph=135, Dmin=31 km, Rmss=1.61 sec, Gp= 32°, M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=8
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	us2008qza6

Tags: Earthquake Illinois St. Louis West Salem

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Recent Comments

just felt the same quake. friend in glen carbon, il called and said they felt the same thing 34miles away from stl as well.

Posted By: Nate Repuyan on Apr 2008

Today is April 18 2008. My whole house was shaking! My 7 year old asked my why her funiture was moving. I tried to call the news stations but all lines aree busy!

Posted By: Katherina Roed on Apr 2008

yea, I didnt know what was going on at first (never been in one). I thought someone was under my bed shaking it ahaha

Posted By: Sean Bennett on Apr 2008

I too was woken by this earthquake in Chesterfield. No damage. Just shaking house as well.

Posted By: sarah p on Apr 2008

I felt it too. I was looking to see if there were any reports of it yet.

Posted By: Leah W on Apr 2008

i woke up and the bed was shaking and my husband woke up and said it was an earthquake and everything was rattling and confirming it on the news now...happened about 4:30 a.m.

Posted By: ann nasur on Apr 2008

I was wondering if I was the only one who'd felt that. I checked the news sites and there's nothing.... thanks for confirming I'm not crazy!

Posted By: Che Thompson on Apr 2008

yea, I didnt know what was going on at first (never been in one). I thought someone was under my bed shaking it ahaha

Posted By: Sean Bennett on Apr 2008

same here, but i believe the time should be 4:40 am.

Posted By: Santosh Tokekar on Apr 2008

We were awakened by strong shaking of our house...realized it was an earthquake. We have several cracks in our walls and an inside beam is loose at one end. Otherwise we are ok. We are in Chesterfield, MO a suburb of St. Louis, MO

Posted By: Elizabeth Okenfuss on Apr 2008

My family felt the earthquake in Eureka, Mo. Kathy Gavin

Posted By: Kathy Gavin on Apr 2008

Thank you for letting me know I am not crazy :) I felt the same quake and thought my bed was moving, and it freaked me out! I have never been in a earthquake, wow... that was crazy :D Anyway, I feel better now knowing im not nuts, ha

Posted By: Jarrett Lowrey on Apr 2008

I was awaken as well. Thought it was a bad dream, because my bed was shaking. Couldn't go back to sleep because I thought I smelled burning, but that was just part of the bad dream I was having. I almost felt better that I wasn't going crazy, and that it was a quake. I live in Washington, MO.

Posted By: Marie Campbell on Apr 2008

neat! someone else who experienced *this* quake *and* the 7.1 in california! it is pretty crazy the speed of information now..

Posted By: duff f on Apr 2008

Public safety announcement: In the event of an earthquake...immediately get out of bed and BLOG!

Posted By: Matt Mercurio on Apr 2008

Damn skippy Matt! I was wondering if you were still around the other day.

Posted By: Chris Hammond on Apr 2008

My parents in Ellis Grove, Il felt their bed shaking at 4:30am

Posted By: Tara G on Apr 2008

my step mom thought that our hot tub was exploding so she ran downstairs like the wind to see, and i waslike what the hell are you doing. she didnt believe me when i told her that was a earthquake, she soon believed me when she saw the news. i thought i was dreaming it at first, then i was like holy crap, and my cat ran out of my room like a bat out of hell and havent seen her since till later that night around 8p.m. that was just insane friday.

Posted By: Bryan Kurilich on Apr 2008

This is a test to see if comments work again!

Posted By: Chris Hammond on Oct 2019

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