'I heard the roar': Big earthquake hits Idaho

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By REBECCA BOONE

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A large earthquake struck north of Boise Tuesday evening, with people across a large area reporting shaking.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports the magnitude 6.5 temblor struck just before 6 p.m. It was centered 73 miles (118 kilometers) northeast of Meridian, near the rural mountain town of Stanley. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

More than 2 million live in the region that could feel the Idaho quake, according to the USGS, with reports of shaking coming in from as far away as Helena, Montana, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Marcus Smith, an emergency room health unit coordinator at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center, said the hospital, about 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of the epicenter, shook but the quake didn’t interfere with the treatment of any patients. The hospital in Blaine County is on the front line of Idaho’s coronavirus outbreak, in a region with the nation’s highest per-capita rates of known COVID-19 cases outside of New York City and its surrounding counties.



This photo provided by Tyler Beyer shows a rockslide on Highway 21 near Lowman, Idaho, after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Tuesday, March 31, 2020. The earthquake struck north of Boise, Idaho, Tuesday evening, with people across a large area reporting shaking. (Tyler Beyer via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/ee4018c9240bd4768dbea25c40712198

[MontanaMama]

1. We felt it in western MT.

I was taking a bath (and enjoying a glass of wine) and the water in the tub started sloshing around. Then the mirror on the medicine cabinet started rattling.

[2naSalit]

19. It was just a

bit of motion here, on the other side of the divide, noticeable but that's it.

[DENVERPOPS]

40. Well MM

Hell, MM, some of my favorite chicks live in Montanaland.....An incredibly beautiful state you have there........

I would tell you if you were a Trumphumper that Trump will soon be explaining to his sheep that the Lord was trying to tell you something, and that maybe you were having delirium tremors from too much wine. Or, you should be working, or studying the bible, not relaxing in a bathtub drinking, or next time the mirror will be shattered by a lightning bolt from God, sent down as your final warning to correct your sinning ways.

Or, never mind, you get my drift, MM!!!!!

(PS and a side note MM: On a serious note MM, ETOH (Alcohol) and Hot baths or Hot Tubs can be a lethal combination.....please be careful, MM!!!! I, for one, would tremendously suffer if we did't have your posts!)

Okay everyone, tune into Trump's daily briefing today and lets see if he:

1) blames the earthquake for causing the Covid Virus

2) blames the Covid virus for causing the earthquake

3) or blames both for happening at exactly the same instant

4) He tells his Trumphumpers that the earth experiences gas, just like they do, and it's the earth's stomach rumbling, just like before you belch or fart........After all "People" are amazed and comment often at how much I know, especially about science......"

5) He claims he caused it, to set "mother nature" straight on just WHO the F********* she is dealing with. And WHO truly controls this planet..... Inferring, once again, that HE is God who sits far above any outspoken, fictitious, nasty, low intelligence female critic who is actually a democrat trying to pass as some illusional "mother nature" to her merry band of Libtards.....

6) States that "people" are telling him that Hillary and/or Obama was spotted in the area just prior to the quake by DOJ BARR....

C'mon people, join in and add to my list. Remember, that with Trump and his Republican cabal, anything is "possible", and even "probable" if you ignore things like scientific research, reasonable doubt, or facts to enter in to the discussion...

Fire away........let your imaginations wander. Don't worry, your truest fantasies cannot ever even dream of what ****** ****** **** comes up with........(The ********** is because, it seems, DU is spanking me for some of my true, correct portrayals of ****** I wonder if they send the same criticisms to my all time favorite "ferret" who post's here on DU? He is without a doubt every bit as good as Molly Ivins, Hunter Thompson RIP, and Nance the Ranter........and his decriptive language that is extremely irreverent, but right on, in describing the *****************

[Stuart G]

2. K and R...thank you for posting this..I would like to add that in the late 70,

(I think 79) there was a very mild earthquake in Chicago where I lived. like a 5.0 or 4.8..something very mild..

It was in the morning, I was in bed, the bed shook some..I had a very strange feeling. The room shook a little. I remember that, and will never forget that bed shaking. I had never felt anything like that before or since.

[Progressive Jones]

34. I live out in Elgin IL (45 miles NW of Chicago)

I moved here in 2003, and since then I've experienced 3 quakes.
2 were deep rumblers. One was loud and it shook the house.
That one happened in a farm field, a couple of towns over, maybe 10-12 miles from my house.
It sounded like a bomb going off nearby.

[Maxheader]

36. Yeah ,

The first time you experience it, it is weird..

Minor stuff here in sc kansas..but it will rattle the shower doors..

Happened at a time of extensive fracking in nc Oklahoma..

[DonaldsRump]

3. Is this fracking related? n/t

[CabalPowered]

7. No

There's no fracking for 500 miles. This is in a very remote area.

[cstanleytech]

8. Unlikely as there has been little to no fracking done in the rockies

and none that I could find at least from before 2014 in that region.

[DENVERPOPS]

13. No fracking done in the "rockies"

Obviously you haven't been to the front range in Colorado rockies.....

[cstanleytech]

18. I said "little to no" not "none".

[DENVERPOPS]

44. Just for fun, and as a starter

Go to the intersection of I-25 and Highway 66. Then look around 360 in a five mile radius, and tell me about "little to....... no fracking".
For even more fun, go to an aerial on Google earth, bring up that intersection, and then back off slowly showing the counties surrounding that area...........

If you mean the "rocky mountains" in areas like downtown Vail or Aspen, Telluride, or the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone, you certainly won't see any there, that's for sure.

[2naSalit]

20. +1

[C Moon]

29. That was the first thing I looked up, but I agree with others, it doesn't appear to be. None nearby.

[greyl]

4. Ducks reacting to the quake:

(Lower right corner)

Link to tweet

[cstanleytech]

10. Damn, that video makes me miss snow even more and no I am not joking.

[greyl]

12. I might know what you mean. Under 2 inches here this winter,

and I'd usually be holding out hope for a little early April snow, but forecast shows that's far from likely this year.

[BigmanPigman]

26. How come my dog doesn't even wake up when we have them here?

[Anon-C]

31. Interesting flash at about 16-17 secs.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. I saw that and thought "volcano lightning".

It is actually a phenomena that can happen with earthquakes though (as I have now discovered) - https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-are-earthquake-lights?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

The other suggestion from USGS for flashes during an earthquake relates to possible electric line arcing (and/or transformer explosions nearby).

[DENVERPOPS]

38. My first thought is

that it was cloud to cloud lightening, which is commonly seen when it is snowing. It even produces thunder which is really weird!
I've seen it many a time when younger when we were winter mountaineering in the Rockies.........It is really bizarre when the mountain you are climbing is ACTUALLY IN one of those clouds, and your ice axe starts humming and the metal pick/adze would give off sort of a blue light aura. Same with our crampons... If we took off our stocking caps, our hair would actually be standing up on end. We would immediately proceed, with extreme haste, to glissade down to a lower/safer level, trying to get down below the cloud we were in.......

And no, we weren't doing drugs or suffering from low oxygenation to our brains because of the altitude......

[BumRushDaShow]

39. I'm a weather hobbyist so am familiar with cloud-to-cloud lightning

It's common during any types of intense convection. But the thunder wouldn't be unusual since any type of intense movement of air after being heated up by lightning, can generate a sound!

I am glad you weren't zapped when you were near it though!

[DENVERPOPS]

41. Amen to that BRDS

Yes, I think of what could have been and..........Have you ever personally experienced the conditions I describe? It is so weird, and yet soooo, sooooo, soooo cool at the same time......

Believe me, the first time it happened, I was caught wondering if one of my fellow climbing rowdies had slipped LSD into my water bottle...... At that time in my life, ('60ies) some of my climbing buddies would have done something like that, to just sit around at lunch and let me provide them all with entertainment, watching me hallucinating, and tripping out at 14,000 feet....LOL Believe me, they were far less wicked and horrific than what we are currently experiencing with the top "officials" in our Federal Gov/t, BRDS!!!!!!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

43. Thankfully I haven't had that experience

although I have been near where lightning has struck and happened to have a radio with me that of course registered some serious static. One of my BILs did get swiped by lightning through his kitchen window when he was younger and it knocked him across the kitchen. He was okay but I expect it was unpleasant.

You were fortunate that something grounded you (possibly the hiking shoes into rock)? Of course there are recommendations out there about being inside a "faraday cage" (basically a car can often serve as one) as long as you don't touch any metal in it!

[DENVERPOPS]

49. Yea when I was in a house and

about 30YO when I got knocked about 6' across the room when lightening struck the house I was working in.....I was dazed, but probably from the deafening and concussive impact rather than from the "electrical" component of the strike.

When we got caught out in the open, we would lay down our packs and get off the bare earth by laying on the packs until the storm passed. You certainly don't want to be standing, where Thor can look down on you, you being the highest thing around, and throw one of his lightning bolts at you.

I had a customer, who had survived being hit directly by lightening..... not just once, but twice, while on the golf course, on different days. You gotta wonder why there was ever a "second" time, but then I'm wondering about the intelligence of a lot of people these days. One of the lightening strikes melted the nylon polo shirt he was wearing onto the skin on his back, and melted the nylon cleats on his shoes....He had somehow managed to not become a "Darwin Award" winner.......I told him he should buy lottery tickets.....

Laugh at this you will!!!!!!! Especially being a weather nut. So I asked one of the people who ran under a tree in a storm, what in the world were you thinking, running under a tree? She replied that she didn't want to be in the open where she would be the tallest thing around.
If that isn't LOL enough, she went onto say that she didn't truly expect lightening that day. I asked her if she heard all the thunder......
Ready? She was oblivious to the fact that the thunder and lightning had any connection to each other........This woman has a Masters degree!!!!!
I can only imagine, that somehow she missed all the classes in fourth grade when the class studied the most rudimentary knowledge of weather........???????

I probably could tell you many more of my witnessing lightning strikes, but I don't want to bore you!!!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

50. Oh boy

Golf courses are the worst place when storms roll in and then there are the swimming pools. And yup, gotta hit the ground if you have no "large" structure to get inside of. We had the top of one of my mom's neighbor's trees hit about 30 years ago and it fell right on their car (luckily my mom's car was in the shop for some maintenance work).

And that's just sad not connecting lightning and thunder although I do believe there are some parts of the country that rarely get thunderstorms due to their climate and/or topography. But geez - not just learning about it in elementary school - but so many movies (especially the scary ones) include lightning and thunder in them as a dramatic element! And who could forget this guy -

[DENVERPOPS]

53. Good one BR

We do alot of counting around here in the Summer. Our rate here is 5 seconds = a mile for lightning strike closeness because of our thin air, and our dry air..... The "seconds" differ due to differences in the speed of sound in different locations, humidity, and altitudes around the nation......

Two years ago, I was standing in a house up on some land in the mountains, looking out the window and about a hundred yards from me was an old growth pine, (really thick and really tall) that I just happened to be looking at when it was hit by lightning. The electricity, in a nano second heated up all the water and sap in the tree, and covered it instantaneously to steam. for your scientific mind, when a drop of water converts to steam, it expands 1700 times......Needless to say, when that occurs in a restricted confined space the result can be catastrophic.
Like water or steam boiler explosions that completely take out buildings like a ton of dynamite. I wish I had had my video cam running so I could send you the footage for you to watch over and over....That tree, quite literally, exploded, top to base like someone had bored a hole the entire length of it and filled it with explosives........

The conversion of water to steam is, or at least should be, used extensively to aid in fire extinguishment by firefighters. It is hard to impress on upon young recruits and probies that fact. They want to go in, with a straight hose stream and just try and blow away the stuff on fire for minutes on end, when, if they are taught properly, they just need to open the door a bit, shoot a broken stream on the burning stuff for ten to fifteen seconds and then shut the door on that room and let the expanding wet steam do the work. There is far less actual water damage doing that, all though it does nothing for them getting their "Matcho" on in taking on "the Beast"....aka "fire"

Sorry, sometimes I just ramble on with useless trivia

[BumRushDaShow]

54. I have seen videos of exploding trees

and something like pine, has flammable resin.

And of course the old gas law - PV = nrt, explains what is going on. Increase the temp in the small volume and the expansion would cause increased pressure on the walls of the entire circulatory structure of the tree, and kaboom! In the scenario you mention, as long as there is some kind of "escape valve" (maybe a slight gap between the floor and bottom of the door), and the steam reduces the oxygen in the room, then it should definitely help!

And "trivia" (knowledge) is always good!!!

[Warpy]

5. Video from Boise didn't look too terrible

Swinging light fixtures and window blinds, but nothing falling out of cabinets and no furniture toppling over. Things might be different closer to Challis, but so far it doesn't look terrible.

[blm]

6. Mountains and hills usually absorb the shock.

[CabalPowered]

9. It rattled us pretty good

I thought the tv might tip over. More lateral than vertical movement.

[OnlinePoker]

11. Salt Lake City two weeks ago and now this one

How often do they get strong quakes like this in the Rockies?

[2naSalit]

16. Quakes are common in the region...

this was a bit strong. We have sleeping volcanoes, one's really big with a magma chamber you wouldn't believe.

[Ghost Dog]

45. Would this be related to the Yellowstone

Caldera?

[2naSalit]

46. Sitting on top of it.

Yep.

[Ghost Dog]

47. I thought so. It is that big, isn't it.

(I see further comment below).

[DENVERPOPS]

14. I keep telling you

Mother nature is acting out to show us how pissed off she is that we are screwing HER planet........

global warming, wildfires, earthquakes............

[Cozmo]

21. I've been posting about these quakes since they started a little over a week ago

So far there have been 6. They've not been little ones and most are occurring in locations not usually known for quakes. I'm glad to read that someone else is alarmed. You just can't mess with Mother Nature. She's the boss and she will triumph. Coincidence? I think not.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

28. Interesting

[DENVERPOPS]

32. I'll tell you

one place you don't want one......Yellowstone

[C Moon]

30. The sudden loss of gasoline powered vehicle emissions must be playing on the earth in some way.

I don't recall a March as chilly as we are experienced in Southern California. We usually have several days of 80-90 degrees.

I was thinking today, what may happen when the stay-at-home is removed, and all the cars get back on the freeway in one single day...what is earth going to say about a sudden hit of car emissions? That on top of the fact that Trump removed regulations from factories (refineries) during the quarantine.

I think it's going to get ugly after this is all over. We'll never be able to get the factories (refineries) to agree to back off.

[kurtcagle]

51. Hail in Seattle

We've had some very heavy rainstorms, and yesterday about 30 minutes of hail coming down. Mean temperature has been much lower than for this time of year recently. It's worth noting that we're in a solar minimum right now, which should mean that our mean temperatures should be cooler, but emissions have been masking that. Climate change deniers are of course arguing that it's normal variation, but I have NO doubt that we'll see a major shift that will correspond almost perfectly with the tightening of travel restrictions.

[Igel]

15. If there's going to be a quake, it could be in a worse spot.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70008jr5/map?historic-seismicity=true&shakemap-intensity=false

[2naSalit]

17. Hey, that's not far from where

DemoTex is supposed to be spending the summer in a fire tower!

I know that stretch of road well. Slides are common on that road near Lowman. I remember it being closed for a week after one and when they started letting traffic through, it was a real skinny path and you hd to be piloted through for weeks.

[MFM008]

22. I get it

We had a 6.8 in 2001 here in WA.
Terrifying!!!!!

[RandySF]

23. Supervolcano coming to life?

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

25. OH why not? n/t

[DENVERPOPS]

42. The geologist/scientists

have been talking about some of their factual observations that are going on or around Yellowstone for the past few years.
Hundred of mini quakes, which are abnormal for that area, The big lake becoming deeper at one end, and shallower at the other. (tilting), etc etc. They are also reminding people what happened to the North American continent, or for that matter, around the entire planet when that particular super volcano blew the last time.....nuclear type winter, down wind no any sunlight in eastern America, destroying all plant life or animal life for years and years..... etc etc etc

[Xolodno]

24. California be like...

*yawn*

[BigmanPigman]

27. If it occurred in a more populated city

in a low economy country there would be damage.

[ffr]

33. Let's hope the Yellowstone caldera hasn't moved.

A super explosion right now would be the icing on the cake.

[2naSalit]

48. If the virus don't get ya, the volcano will!

[AllaN01Bear]

37. details below at link

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70008jr5/executive

video at link

video , chave weather.

[la-trucker]

52. That was a huge earthquake

I'm glad there were no deaths or injuries