You’re not completely crazy. Although, it isn’t as bad as you think.
During the past 24 hours there have been more than 30 earthquakes in the Lower 48. Most below the laymans criteria of “bad” but there have been a number of people feeling the ground move.
The picture to the left is a screenshot from the USGS website.
The two largest, a 4.8 and 4.3 magnitude were in Yellowstone and Crescent, OK respectively. The preliminary depths of most of the earthquakes is between 3.0km and 7.0km.
The 2.5 magnitude in La Habra, CA was only .2km deep. That is a little more than a mile. Rather shallow.
The map below shows where the 31 earthquakes have occurred in the last 24 hours. Mainly in California, Oklahoma, and near Yellowstone.
Geologically speaking, this isn’t uncommon. California – alone – can tally 20 earthquakes in 24 hours without blinking. Oklahoma – once it starts moving – can register a half-dozen to a full dozen earthquakes in a 24-hour period.
As for Yellowstone, the earth moving isn’t necessarily a concern either, considering it is sitting on top of a supervolcano.
Plus, let’s look at some statistics. Below is a table found on the USGS website of the number of earthquakes per year. If you do some math for the years 2009-2012, there are about 17,000 quakes per year. That means about 48 per day.
So rest easy, America. So far, there is no reason to panic.
