I don’t want to be a school marm or anything, but the 1972 quake you mentioned actually happened on February 9, 1971 at 6:01 AM, in Sylmar. I was a kid, living on Long Island, NY at the time, but I remember following it quite closely.
It’s interesting that you mentioned Missouri. Two of the biggest quakes that ever hit North America happened in Missouri, in December 1811 and January 1812, measuring over 8.0 on the Richter scale. The quakes woke up Thomas Jefferson in Monticello and rang church bells in Boston has a continent away. The quakes were centered on the New Madrid fault. A repeat performance today would devastate Memphis and St. Louis.
I lived in Santa Barbara for many years and experienced a quake close to 6.0 on August 13, 1978. There was a foreshock in May around 3.0 which woke me up. In Santa Barbara, however, I was more concerned about wildfires than earthquakes.
I live in Maine now, and there was a series of small earthquakes off the coast of Bar Harbor last fall. The only quake I felt was a 4.2 quake last October 2nd. It was different that a California quake....there was loud rumbling and banging; it sounded like Mac trucks were slamming into the house. Everything rattled. The quake caused massive landslides on the hiking trails in nearby Acadia National Park; a 200 ton boulder slid down a mountainside in one of the landslides. The quake was felt all over the State of Maine, but it caused only minor damage near the epicenter.
I did slip up on the date and the name. Thanks for the correction. I’m tired, but should have known better. The old VA hospital in Sylmar collapsed. That was the location of the most casualties.
I have read about the New Madrid quake. The area is actually overdue for a major repeat. The people in the region are in for trouble if it happens since they don’t require much in the way of earthquake preparedness in their structures (as I understand it).
Quakes in California are different one from the other. I know what you mean about rumbling. We had one major quake where I could hear the quake coming. One strange aspect of that same quake was that I called the national park where my folks were staying to let them know their house was okay. While on the phone an aftershock passed by the park. It took something like ten to fifteen seconds to arrive at the folks home. That was a strange wait I can tell you.
Thanks for the post.