Utah Engineers Journal 2021 Issue

47 A Community Wake-Up Call: The Surprising Power of a Moderate Earthquake in Magna, Utah Figure 1. Magna Earthquake ShakeMap https://earthquake.usgs . gov/earthquakes/eventpage/uu60363602/shakemap/intensity O n the morning of March 18, 2020, life was already a bit surreal. Due to the rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic, local schools had abruptly closed to in-person learning, keeping our two elementary school-aged children home. We voluntarily sat out day care for our youngest child, and my husband’s office closed completely the day after the infamous Rudy Gobert incident that triggered the shutdown of the NBA. At Reaveley Engineers, we had a partial exodus of staff under a voluntary policy. I opted for a hybrid. With deadlines on a large hospital project looming, I intended to split my time between the office and my dining room table — not wanting to put the entire burden of taking care of three children on my spouse. I stood in the kitchen, waiting for my coffee to brew, when the earth moved at 7:09 a.m. The shaking at my home in Cottonwood Heights was significant enough to cause me to brace myself with the counter. I looked out the window toward Holladay and Salt Lake City, where the sparking transformers looked like flashes of lightning. This earthquake was only the third one I had felt in Utah since moving home after college. The first was a foreshock in Bluffdale, Utah, in 2019 that awakened me enough to have my mobile in hand looking for U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) updates when the magnitude M W 3.7 mainshock hit. This time, as in 2019, I went first to the USGS website to submit my citizen science report of what I felt. In the next few minutes, I was surprised to learn that the magnitude M W 5.7 event occurred in Magna. I made sure my family was settled after the excitement, reached out and responded through text messages with family and friends, and headed to the office to face what was inevitably going to be an interesting day. Figure 2. Did You Feel It? https://earthquake.usgs.gov/ earthquakes/eventpage/uu60363602/dyfi/intensity Jessica Chappell, S.E., LEED AP Continued on the following page SEAU