Because I am very busy at work, I had to delay posting about three earthquakes I felt yesterday. I have about an hour of rare free time, and will share my interesting experience.
Yesterday morning, just before 10 am PST, in Palm Springs, a conversation I was having was interrupted by what at first seemed like an explosion. In fact later on, as I spoke with other people, most others reported hearing a bang or an explosion!
After the bang, the windows rattled and bowed just like they would from an explosion, and I went outside only to see a puddle of water vibrate. Then I was aware of the ground shaking a bit.
This event seemed to last about ten seconds, and it clearly felt like a 5 mag event. I looked on the USGS site, which took a while to report the event. Once it was up, the quakes were first reported at being 4.7 to 5.1. Three strong earthquakes were reported, along with a dozens of fore and aftershocks.
Recently I have learned that often the USGS lowers the magnitude of strong and high moderate earthquakes for insurance reasons. We live in a nation and a time where business and science mixes, and objectivity comes in second to money.
We need to go back to telling the truth with science. This event was clearly 5 mag and not 4.7.
