[P-Marlowe]

Wow. I was like about a mile from the epicenter, and it seems like it only lasted for maybe seven, ten seconds.

The earthquake actually lasted less then one second. The ripple effect took up to 30 seconds. The closer you are to the epicenter, the less ripples there are.

[Finny]

Yeah, that explains it! I looked on the satellite map and our house, where I was working in my home office, is 3/4 of a mile from the X-Marks-the-Spot epicenter, in an area where I have often walked (beautiful hills there), and been maybe 500 yards from the epicenter.

The quake whacked our house but good and scared the hell out of me and the cat, but other than that, I didn't even feel any aftershocks, though I may have been ignoring them. I had a lot to do, a busy work schedule. No time for aftershocks!!! Though the phone rang off the hook from friends and family calling to see if we were okay,which didn't help! House sustained zero damage that we can see, and very few things even fell off the shelves. The folks five or six miles away got hit MUCH harder than we did. So I guess it's better to be sitting on top of the epicenter instead of miles away.