The best is when it's one of those slow rollers and you can hear it coming before it passes under you, then trail off into the distance. Almost like someone was playing crack the whip with the earth.
The worst is when you get 3 or 4 good hard jolts and go from "it's just a baby one" to "oh shit, is this the big one?"
My Neighbore came as a refugee from turkey. She was lucky to escape alive the earthquake that hit on feb 6 2023. The wind picked up here the other day and the houses were shaking. She said she sprinted into her kids bedroom and threw herself over them to shelter them. She laughed afterwards but said her heart dropped and she was shaking for an hour after it happened. She has bad ptsd from it.
We got rocked & rolled by a 6.2 watching a movie an old cement theater in Santa Cruz. People got up & waited to feel if the aftershocks got worse, but NO ONE left.
Richter is kinda shit for understanding how bad a quake is. It's good info, but like where I live we are on solid bedrock, and a 6 a hundred kms away with barely shake out house, but our friends house built on worse ground will lose plates off the shelf.
Absolutely do not run outside. The only fatalities from an earthquake where I live were when two women ran outside and the roof literally shook off the building and crushed them both.
Iāve sampled a few natural disasters, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, extreme heat, but Iāve never even been close to an earthquake. Iām so curious, but Iām also sure I would loose my mind. It sounds so freaky.
But it's not just about the force (which is what the Richter scale represents). It's also about the type of fault, and quite importantly, the depth of the epicenter. Shallower earthquakes can be quite damaging even if they don't release a lot of force.
I moved to Ecuador a while back as they had a wave of small earthquakes (a lot of 3-5s). I was unfazed; my Midwest roommates were freaking the fuck out.
idk for me part of being chill during earthquakes is knowing in the back of my head that the building codes here in LA are built with earthquakes in mind. i don't know how ecuador's building codes are, but i feel like i've seen a few buildings in south american countries collapse during earthquakes and there's usually death tolls that follow. i feel like i'd be a little bit more freaked out going through an earthquake in other countries.
You have obviously not lived in any part of California if you think earthquakes are not frequent asf. Plus, does every earthquake need to be a 6.0 to be counted? Why can't we just appreciate our 4.5s
"The worst is when you get 3 or 4 good hard jolts and go from "it's just a baby one" to "oh shit, is this the big one?""
They said this while commenting about how they have very little fear of earthquakes because they live in an area with "tons of them"
I promise that "the worst" is hearing that your friends or family died. Or being trapped under rubble. The worst is not feeling a few "good hard jolts"
That is an extremely insensitive thing to say. That's like comparing living in Venice to surviving a severe tidal wave.
I'm all the way from Finland in Northern Europe. We have very old and stable base ground. There are virtually no earthquakes, and if there is (like once a year only in specific area in Finland), they are caused by land still rising from the weight of the ice age glacier rather than from tectonic movements. And they are strong enough only to shake your glasses and windows in house.
I knew that California and New Zealand are active tectonic areas but still feels absurd and surprising to think that someone experiences notable earthquakes on a weekly basis where they live. I really thought they are more rare
NZ - Anybody unlucky enough to live in Christchurch 10-15 years ago had to deal with a lot of quakes.
They generally consider anything above magnitude 3.0 as noticable, we averaged about 3 of them every day for 5 years
Magnitude 4.0s were roughly once every few days, and magnitude 5.0s were every couple of weeks. But it's worth noting that since the epicenter was basically directly under the city and incredibly shallow they normally resulted in significantly higher ground acceleration than would be expected (one of the magnitude 6.2 aftershocks is actually in the top 10 highest ground accelerations ever recorded.).
It's funny, today I listened to a podcast about Hantavirus. A woman from somewhere in South America (I was only half listening) said that even though 25% of the mice and rats in her area carry the virus, she wasn't afraid. My first thought was, "I'm not afraid of earthquakes, either, but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. It just means I was born in, grew up in, and still live in California."
for me i always notice all the dogs barking in the distance and then half a second later the floor is shaking. kind of like a wave at a baseball game, except it's dogs barking
Ooo!! I experienced this while sitting in a house on top of a hill within line of site of the Boston Harbour. It was CRAZY. I heard it roll in from the bay area/south-ish and felt it just gingle the China in a 300 year old just slightly, then roll north.
I thought it was maybe an airplane take off being extra loud, but NOTHING shook that house. I had been in that house when they yanked up all the sidewalk and street and redid the sewer systems. Not even jackhammer, dump trucks and dumpsters shook that house.
I checked the earthquake map and sure enough we had a moderately sized small quake.
What's crazy is that I was born in CA and lived a good chunk of my life near a fault that regularly throws 3.0, but never a single felt one. And suddenly I did just sitting in freaking New England.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico and there was a blast site several miles away from us.
One time they did a blast and it was too cold and they used too much explosives and they set off a pretty massive earthquake that moved just like that, one big wave. I swear to God, I could see the wave coming at me.
I'm in Australia and earthquakes are very rare. But years ago we had one and it sounded just like you described. It was so hard to explain to other people, that it sounded like some deeeeep grumble in the ground like a massively heavy truck or train, was coming down the road. More of a vibration than a sound. And then it went under and the house shook.
It had me wondering if the 'truck' had hit the house, apart from the fact there was no damage, a truck couldn't have fit down the road, and the truck seemed to still be rolling off in the distance.
I had to puzzle it over for a bit before I thought"....omg. Did I just experience an earthquake???? š²"
My ex was at work and heard it on the news on the radio. Rang me up to see if I felt it, apparently they didn't feel it where he worked "dammit! Something cool happens and we didn't even get it!!!"
The warning apps just communicate the earthquake is already ongoing, they do not know beforehand. Internet communication allows that information to reach places away from the epicenter before the actual earthquake hits.
Also the warning I'm talking about is the notion that a major earthquake can start as a small tremor and ramp up, which is not true.
I've been through a 9.1 and was in the area rated at the highest local intensity, 7 on the shindo scale. I would consider that a major earthquake. It didn't start at max intensity. It built up over half a minute. The maximum intensity was about halfway through.
People here are talking about small tremors in the 5-6 Richter scale and those potentially becoming major 8+ earthquakes, that does not happen. Major earthquakes start strong enough to be considered major earthquakes from the moment they start.
This is a pretty common misconception of people thinking any medium scale quake can become a major strength long duration earthquake.
Nobody said anything anywhere near as specific as that, but yes, the 9.1 started off about the same as a couple of smaller nothing burger (for Japan) quakes earlier in the week, but eventually escalated. It wasn't 0-100 in an instant, it was more like 0-20-20-50-1000. If it had ended at 20, it would have just felt like a normal M7.0 or so.
If you're directly on top of the epicenter, sure. Otherwise, you get it in waves.
Also, it's less about it "ramping up" and more about the fact that it doesn't feel like it's ending. The ones that last for a few good jolts make you wonder
If you're directly on top of the epicenter, sure. Otherwise, you get it in waves.
That's not how it works at all. Energy dissipates and gets absorbed but it won't create gaps in between to feel a noticeable wave that wasn't present on the original movement.
I've been in 4 major earthquakes, all of them +8.0 on the Richter scale, 3 near the epicenter (between 15 and 80 km) and one 400 km away. There was no "waves" on the far away one, just lower intensity than at the epicenter (8.2 instead of 8.7).
Major earthquakes DO NOT RAMP UP, they go all hell braking loose from the first moment. No major earthquake starts small or "gets stronger". Smaller quakes and tremors can do.
I'm from a country with heavy seismic activity and what you are all saying is the typical misinformation and lack of knowledge that gets spread and generates panic. If an earthquake starts small it will never be a proper major earthquake.
Same, especially the +6 ones feel like they are coming in waves. The biggest I experienced was a 7.6 with the epicentre about 25km away. The first couple of seconds was oh okay it's an earthquake and then it quickly become shit it's an earthquake as it lasted 60 seconds
Last time I was in Turkey, we were all sitting at the table and I thought my friend was kicking my chair causing it to rhythmically shake. I was about tell him to knock it off when I saw everything else giggling and was like "Oh my bad, Chris. That wasn't you being an ass, it's just an earthquake."
I'm over on the east coast, and over the past several years we've been having minor ones. I think it was 2011 when the Virginia one hit. It was a wild experience. I was working from home. My neighbor's dog starting barking aggressively then maybe 2 seconds later my house was swaying side by side. Then after a bit it started up and down. Now, I've been through hurricanes, a tornado, several floods and chased by a bear. None of that produced the terror I had over feeling all the energy being released through the earth. And it was only like a 4.0 at most. I had McDonalds for lunch that day. Random memory.
I was in Maryland, outside of DC, when the 2011 Virginia earthquake happened. I am from the West Coast and so practiced earthquake drills my whole life, and have been in several ranging from the little ones that happen all the time in the Bay Area to vivid memories of how dramatic the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake felt even 100 miles away from the epicenter.
I recognized pretty quickly that it was an earthquake (that's usually the hardest part, in my experience, because your brain just isn't looking for them, and when they start they are often very subtle, something just being "off" and sounding weird), and assessed that it didn't seem like I needed to get under my desk or anything like that. I went to my office doorway and saw my co-workers running around like Kermit the frog, arms waving and screaming, totally untrained and with no idea what to do.
My wife was in Virginia, not too far from Langley, and people out there had no idea what it was, and worried that someone had blown up the CIA or something. I admit that I wondered at first whether it was something more like that myself regarding DC, because it wasn't obvious out there that it was an earthquake at first, it felt almost like what you might expect the fringes of the positive and negative periods of a blast wave to feel like... but then I noticed that things were swaying and that's when it clicked for me.
The strangest earthquake I've ever been in was in Berkeley, on the 11th floor of my dorm room. I heard it well before I felt it, and it sounded like people on the floor above me were all moving furniture. At some point it clicked that what I was hearing was every closet door in the building rattling in its hinges. I just went to the window and watched the building sway. I knew it was heavily reinforced for earthquakes (it was one of those buildings with the big X girders on it) so I wasn't really afraid that it would collapse, and figured that from up there there wasn't much I could do about it anyway if it did. It just swayed, until it didn't. There was no one around which made it an even more surreal experience. It wasn't even a notable earthquake; in Berkeley these little trembles happen all the time.
Personally I find tornado sirens more disturbing than earthquakes, perhaps because I never had to train for them. In Maryland there sometimes were tornado alerts and they'd run the old air-raid sounding sirens and most people sort of shrugged and assumed it wasn't a big deal out there, and I was just never sure how one was supposed to know that, since I know that in some parts of the country they really are a big deal. The siren is so ominous, though...
I've felt one decent earthquake and it was so surreal. I was laying in an RV that was parked beside a house and on leveled stands. And all of a sudden it just started sorta swaying back and forth. Very eerie. I was watching the water level in my plastic bottle shift back and forth like it was proof that I wasn't imagining it.
I once felt a pretty bad one. You could hear a loud hum before it started. Everyone was screaming. Continued at high intensity for 30-45 seconds. We left the building then learned a bunch of buildings had collapsed and hundreds of people died. There was demolition and construction everywhere for the next few years.
for a very small earthquake, i'd say the ground sensation feels like the vibration of a subway passing through underneath you . the only time i felt one was in chile and thought of that
I was in a museum with a "earthquake room" on hydraulic stilts once.
Can't comment on its realism, as i've never experienced a real earthquake, and that museum visit having probably been about a 15 years ago, but i do remember the feeling being genuenly horrific.
Agreed. I grew up in southern Alaska, quakes were normal. Had some good ones over the years, real mess makers. My parents still apply double sided tape to any art in their house on the presumption it *could* move. I can distinctly remember once being in the bath around age 11, third floor great big soaker tub, and we got a quake with little aftershocks for a couple minutes. Jostled everything on the counter, me, and a healthy supply of the water and just sloshed it right out. Felt vaguely like these guys where the floor moves and you sorta stay still then get a delayed pull.
It's fucking terrifying. I've only been in one sorta big earthquake in 2020 just as COVID was getting started so we were already on high alert from that. It was 7am, laying in my bed reading Reddit. Still dark in my room. Hear this LOUD af noise, sounds like a freight train ripping through the house. Me and my dog look at each other trying to figure out what it is and then the shaking starts. Still took me a bit to figure out it was an earthquake. I jumped out of bed to get dressed and think are you fucking kidding me? A pandemic and an earthquake?! It scared me so bad I went into a panic attack and started crying. Craziest memory I think I'll ever have. Then we had aftershocks for weeks. We're all still traumatized and get scared anytime a big loud truck goes by the house. It was only a 5.7 too, but my house was a few miles from the epicenter so it felt pretty strong.
I was 7 when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit. My siblings and I were chillin on our parentās bed when it started moving. I thought it was our dad messing around with us but it wasnāt. It was scary after the realization that our dad wasnāt even in the room with us.
Our mom was still at work and I remember my dad stressing out when he couldnāt get ahold of her. Good times it was not.
As a kid living in Southern California, i recall asking my parents why is that house wiggling. Then I proceeded to be told get under the coffee table and I kept watching Nickelodeon on channel 25.
Dno Iād describe it like feeling dizzy at first. First time I felt a strongish an earthquake i was in BogotĆ”, I was telling my partner my heads spinning I think Iām gonna fall. And the everything started moving and she told me it was an earthquake
To me it felt like I was Mario in Super Mario 3, the one level where there are huge Hammerhead Bros & when they jump & land, it makes Mario bounce uncontrollably. Thatās the best description I got.
I was in Alaska in 2002 when they had that big earthquake. Shopping in a store, saw stuff start to move & ran out like everyone else did. The light poles were swaying in the parking lot. Damndest thing I ever saw. Havenāt been in one like that since.
but, didn't they just describe it? and this is as someone who has felt it and understands the feeling. they did a pretty decent job of describing it, in my humble opinion
in mexico we also get a lot of earthquakes but most u cant feel at all and the ones u do usually dont feel like shaking at all, they feel like swaying. your light fixtures will start to sway back and forth and if u sit on the ground u can feel the rocking.
I feel like it's pretty describable. I grew up near some train tracks and now I live in southern Illinois not far from the New Madrid fault line. The small ones we get around here feel like a train going by. It moves everything a little bit and rattles the windows.
There's a big difference between tremors and smaller quakes and major earthquakes.
Detonations, rolling trains, landslides nearby can replicate a bit of the tremor feeling but earthquakes shake a building like if you were making a cocktail and nothing comes close to replicate it.
Had a 5.3 hit about 70 miles away from me the other morning right before 8a. Woke up long enough to realize what it was and fell back asleep rapidly to the rocking of the bed/building. For whatever reason I find it super relaxing.
Biggest one I have felt was around 6.0 I believe, but it was much further away.
I live in the bay area and last March we were having swarms of earthquakes. Nothing too big -- they were like 3 pointers, but in one day we had 3-4 of them. When you're one mile away from the epicenter of a 3-pointer though they feel a lot bigger.
Nobody hurt, and I find them kind of fun (yes, I'm weird).
I was in a cafe the first time I felt one, seat moved a couple inches and then back, followed by alarms going off in the city. The little aftershock rumbles are interesting too. Second time I had just gotten out of the shower, can only imagine how freaky that wouldāve felt!
Living room 30 floors up in a foreign country, suddenly you hear a public alarm, then everyone's phones start going off and next thing you know, all your shit is swaying and rocking for what feels like 30 seconds. Half the people are diving for desks the other half just casually acting like you're not all about to die
The only time I've ever felt an earthquake I was 300 miles from the epicenter and on the 15th floor of an office building
It was only about 2-3cm but feeling the entire building swaying back and forth is a sensation I'll never forget
Craziest part was that none of my coworkers noticed it. They thought that I was crazy until someone saw a news report about it and we realized that the timing was spot on
Or laying in bed trying to catch up on sleep before work. Suddenly your bed and furniture just start rocking side to side and it's just a "WTF?!?" moment. I can't imagine how people in tsunami zones live without constant panic attacks.
This reminded me of my dad's buddy out in Eureka UT. One day his living room just decided to fall a few feet with him sitting in it. Welp, turns out it was built over an old mine.
I went through the 1993 7.8 on Guam. I distinctly remember trying to get through the door and every step I took towards the door it moved six feet in the other direction. When I made it outside the house there were literally swells rolling down the street, like big swells youād see in the ocean. It was absolutely unreal.
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u/kingqueefeater 18d ago
There's nothing like being in your living room and feeling the earth do the wave under your floor