Earthquake Tremors in Chicago (Wheaton, Evergreen Park: house, contractor, home inspector)

[ChicagoNita]

Hello,

I live in Chicago in a Graystone building. No matter how strong the structure
of this building appears to be, I experience tremors pretty regular.

In one of my bedrooms I have a ceiling fan with a chain hanging down.
When these tremors occur I see the chain shaking and I can actually feel
the tremors.

How serious is this? Is there a service that will come out an check
the premises?

ChicagoNita

[Attrill]

Do you have any idea what is causing it? Any home inspector or contractor who does foundation work should be able to inspect your foundation and let you know if there is a problem.

Most likely it isn't a problem, my house is close to the El and we get tremors every time the El goes by (a glass of water sitting on a table will have ripples in it). Our house was built in 1879 and has no structural problems at all.

[MarquettePark]

If your ceiling fan chain shakes, it is because it is unbalanced, screws attached to the blade irons have come loose, due to torque, your light kit, is loose, due to torque. I sold electric supplies and ceiling fans for ten years, at Gem Electric, in Roseland, Alsip, Evergreen Park.

Graystone 's are old, and if they havent been renovated properly, they may still have what we call old work electical pipe, or even worse no pipe at all, just an 8 B box, octagon box,

I am 37 years old, I have only left the Chicago area twice in my life, for a period no more than three years, and I have experienced only one earthquake in this City, it happened around 1984 or 1986, it was noticeable only if you were sitting still on a couch.

Illinois has a huge chunk of the New Madrid fault, located within its borders and thats what caused our wimpy quake.

I suggest you grab a phillips screwdriver, and tweak your ceiling fan, or hire an electrician.

[ChicagoNita]

MarquettePark

My ceiling fan was not running when the tremor occured.
The tremor shook my chain not the ceiling fan. It was
off and not running.

[jettsetter]

There is a fault line that runs right under Chicago.. Its called the New Madrid fault... They say it moves however so many years, and a few people have said that it is around that time!

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by jettsetter

There is a fault line that runs right under Chicago.. Its called the New Madrid fault... They say it moves however so many years, and a few people have said that it is around that time!

The New Madrid fault is downstate, hundreds of miles from Chicago - not "right under" it. Chicago doesn't get quakes very often, about once every 30 years there may be a slight tremor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NMSZBig.gif

[Emelie]

We definitely had a tremor today. I was sitting on my couch at approximately 4:20 a.m. and the whole 50 story building moved back and forth -- it was quite scary, especially since I'm on the 31st floor, but by the time I realized what was going on it was over. The building occasionally sways in large gusts but the winds had calmed down and this was an altogether different experience than the one that occurs in windy conditions.

[iGirl]

Whew - I thought I was going crazy - the tremor was so powerful around 4:20 in my 18 story building it shook my bed forcefully enough to wake me up and I heard a ton of stuff dropping to the floor in the units above and below me as well as dishes rattling in my kitchen. Probably lasted less than a minute. I have a large painting on a wall which is now tilted about 10°. HAD to be a tremor or small quake.

[Gcoxusa]

I live in Wheaton, Illinois. At 4:38 AM central time I experienced the effects of a slight tremor or earthquake today (4/18/08). My bed doesn’t normally move - so yes it definitely woke me up. It wasn’t anything major but it made wonder if somewhere else in the country was getting hit much harder.

[cmh logan square]

Glad to see I'm not nuts. I was up nursing my baby and felt it at 4:40, too. I have lived in San Diego and experienced minor earthquakes, so knew right away from the swaying motion that it seemed like an earthquake.
Update: I just read that there was a 5.4 richter scale earthquake in downstate Illinois (near Evansville, IN).