Ain't that the truth. I'm a rain gutter contractor, so you know I've been praying for rain :-)
Thank goodness we finally got some (and not just for business sake). We really needed that.
Wonder if rain getting into the dry ground at deeper levels has been a factor in helping to cause the earth tremor?
I highly doubt it. It takes a gargantuan amount of force to shake a whole region like that. Far more than ground penetrating rainwater can exert. The same plate tectonics that move the west coast so much, are responsible for what we felt here tonight. There's just a lot less movement in this part of the country.
Several years ago I dated a seismoligist.
Although he very often made my eyes glaze over talking about his work, he was pretty interesting. He showed me a map once of faults in the US.
As you said, there is a lot less movement here, but he assured me a bigger “bang” could definetly happen.
I’m hoping he was exaggerating. Our buildings won’t hold up.