ST. LOUIS — The shaking only lasted a second or two, but the rumblings about Friday's earthquake in St. Louis County haven't stopped.
"We have always had an occasional earthquake," Washington University Geophysics Professor Michael Wysession said. "But it's been a while."
Friday's earthquake was a magnitude 2.8. Wysession said the last earthquake most people felt was a 5.2 magnitude in 2008.
"That was actually along the border of Illinois and Indiana," Wysession said. "It's been quite some time since we have had one right in the St. Louis area."
Having one earthquake doesn't mean that there will be more in the near future.
"Having any one earthquake doesn't really change the probability of having another one," Wysession said. "We're as likely to get another small one tomorrow as we are ten years from now."
St. Louis is in the Illinois basin-Ozark dome region of the country's tectonic map. The region borders the New Madrid seismic zone to the north and west.
Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region each decade or two, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once or twice a year.
Since there is no scientific way to predict earthquakes, we have to prepare for earthquakes.
Ann Vastmans is with St. Louis County Emergency Management, she recommended, "hanging your mirrors and paintings on closed hooks, as well as securing heavy furniture and appliances such as your water heater to wall studs so they can't fall over and knock you down."
Earthquakes themselves aren't dangerous, it's the things they knock over. Vastmans said it's a common misconception for quakes.
"People believe that the shaking is where most of the danger comes from, but it's actually from debris and falling objects so covering your head is very important," she said.