Ever experience an earthquake?

14-02-2016 09:48PM

About 30 years ago in Pakistan, the strangest thing was watching the fridge "walk" across the room!

metaoblivia · 14-02-2016 10:07PM

Yes! I moved to California in 2014 and have felt a few earthquakes. Most have been small, but one was a 6.0 at its epicenter, which was a few cities away. It hit around 3am, so I was in bed. My upstairs neighbors' washing machine was right above my room, so whenever they had it on it would vibrate my room a bit. Anyway, I woke up and first thought, "Really? Laundry at 3am???" and then I realized it was medium-sized earthquake, so I just pulled my covers up and went along with the ride. It was more of a roll, like you were on a boat in some choppy waves, than a jolt.
There was no major damage in my area, but there was a lot in the city nearest the epicenter.

Kiwi in IE · 14-02-2016 11:28PM

I'm from Christchurch, NZ! Lived there all my life until I moved to Ireland in 2010, a couple of months before the earthquakes started. I remember one small quake from the entire 32 years I lived there. We felt one when we were back home in 2013, I thought OH was kicking the mattress. Every time I get particularly homesick and start making plans to move back, another earthquake happens and puts us off.

Cookie_Monster · 14-02-2016 11:39PM

Dozens a year here in New Plymouth that you can feel but only half dozen or so that moved stuff around and I think only 1 that has caused damage in the last 5 years.

Kiwi in IE · 14-02-2016 11:43PM

There were small quakes when I was living back home but I only clearly remember the one. The rest I didn't notice, was asleep/driving or something, but they did happen from time to time. Nothing like the recent quakes though.

jacksie66 · 15-02-2016 03:58AM

This post has been deleted.

Donald Trump · 15-02-2016 05:59AM

jacksie66 wrote: »

That one yesterday was huge. And I was on the toilet for a 4.2 aftershock last night..

Hmm I know they say that correlation does not necessarily imply causation but in this particular instance I have my strong suspicions.

H3llR4iser · 16-02-2016 03:07PM

Being from Italy, have experienced plenty of earthquakes of various kinds (there are plenty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_earthquake ) since early childhood - one of my earliest memories, from when I was two or three (my brother, 4 years younger than me, wasn't born yet) is about standing in the door arch with my mom with bits of the wall plaster falling down around us. For some time in the early '80s, it was nearly a daily occurrence.

In more recent times (about 1-2 years ago), I was visiting my parents and sitting on the couch when the familiar "shake" happened - small one for once.

It's an odd feeling indeed - an earthquake triggers a completely ancestral part of our mind, an hardwired reaction. You don't really get used to it, every time it's the same - your heart rate rises even if you are relatively calm, and you just wait and hope it doesn't get too strong...

postitnote · 16-02-2016 03:45PM

In late 2007 I was enjoying a tipple or two in a bar in Queenstown, NZ when the bar started to shake. Being quite drunk, the thought in my head was "Hmm, must be one of these moving dance floors that some places have."

It was the bar staff trying to hold on to all the glasses and bottles behind the bar alerted me to the fact it was an earthquake.

Here it is, a bit of a biggy at M6.7, but thankfully the epicentre was in a remote enough area:

http://info.geonet.org.nz/display/quake/M+6.7,+George+Sound,+16+October+2007

The next morning, sitting in subway terribly hungover, I shouted at my travel buddy who I thought was kicking my chair. Turns out it was an aftershock of M6.2

We had been staying in a flat in Wellington for a fair chunk of 2007, so you occasionally felt the odd shake now and then.

Funnily enough, the first one I felt I again blamed my travel buddy, who I thought was hiding behind the sofa and shaking it. It took my other housemate to jump and shout "earthquake!" before I could even contemplate what was going on.

Turns out I'm useless at identifying earthquakes.

:pac::o

anto9 · 16-02-2016 04:09PM

Yes in Chiang Mai ,North Thailand ,maybe 3 years ago .My house shook and the floor was moving .Scary experience but no damage done .

Kivaro · 16-02-2016 04:35PM

I experienced an earthquake while a funnel cloud passed overhead before forming into a tornado. Originally I thought that the storm was causing the apartment building to shake, but it was reported as an earthquake.

It was even better fun because I was on the top floor of the building, so the shakin' and rattlin' was more pronounced.

blastman · 16-02-2016 05:57PM

I lived in Manchester when the Bishop's Castle quake hit, the effect was amplified by the fact I was on the top floor of an eight storey building at the time!

topper75 · 16-02-2016 06:16PM

Used to be a segment in the Science museum in London where they shake the floor to recreate a Japanese supermarket aisle during the Kobe quake.

Timistry · 19-02-2016 09:47PM

Yes In Bali a few years go for my birthday. Didnt notice as I was drunk as a skunk. Only heard about it the next day....

20-02-2016 02:04PM

I'm from San Francisco, and have experienced many earthquakes. The best outcome was in 1989, during the big Loma Prieta earthquake, when all the kids gathered on the streets and I met the new girl in the neighbourhood who then became my girlfriend. All the other smaller earthquakes seem like experiencing turbulence on an airplane.

InTheTrees · 20-02-2016 02:24PM

I was in the 7.1 1989 earthquake in San Fransisco. I was living a few miles from the epicentre in Santa Cruz County.

The aftershocks were the scariest aspect in the 24 hours afterwards they were almost constant, every few minutes. and they went on for weeks afterwards. Over a hundred quakes over level 3.0 in the two weeks afterwards.

Then I moved to Seattle, just in time to experience the 6.8 quake in 2001.

Fun times.

Ever experience an earthquake?

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