What does a 4.7 earthquake feel like?

Question

We just had an 4.4 earthquake in Windsor, CA that we did not feel, and we want someone to tell us how it feels.

It was a 4.4, not 4.7.

Answer 1

I was sitting on the floor of my apt (in Emeryville), and the building started to shake back and forth. It was easily felt and not in itself dangerous, but when the shaking starts you don't know how much stronger it will get and for how long, so you just stop what you're doing and wait anxiously for what comes next. This time the shaking lasted 15 to 20 seconds, and the entire building was creaking and stuff was rattling in the kitchen. Walls were creaking and the sliding glass door rattled in its frame. My vertical ventian blinds kind of did a hula dance in front of the sliding glass door. The quake came in a couple bursts and since the building I'm in is a six storey wood frame structure it swayed for maybe 20 seconds total.

Quakes aren't that bad, unless it's the Big One, in which case you just hope you're not in a vulnerable situation when it hits. It's the combination of the noise of everything shaking and creaking, along with the ground motion, that really makes you stop and wait with anticipation. Not this time, though. :-)

Answer 2

I live in NZ where quakes are common. It would be easy to miss a 4.7 quake, especially if you were in a moving vehicle. I was in bed one night and there was a quake of about this magnitude. I felt no vibration but the floorboards of the wooden house creaked rhythmically just as if somebody was walking around on the floor above. I didn't realise it was a quake until I heard the news the next day. In 1989 we had a 6 point something quake. I was in the kitchen. I heard the oven rattling like a Thermowave oven with a fan in it, and I felt a bit giddy. Then I realised our oven wasn't a Thermowave and I saw the ceiling light swinging. My wife was hanging clothes out in the back paddock and she said she saw a wave approaching from the northwest, across the paddocks. About an hour later the radio news announced that the epicentre was in that direction from us, so the wave wasn't her imagination. In 2004, we had a 7.6 quake; the same magnitude as the one that caused the Asian tsunami a few weeks later. It was about 4am and it woke my wife. She tried to wake me by shaking me, but I slept through it. The epicentre was about 200 km. away. I'd only had a moderate amount to drink the previous evening. There were some cracks in our Gipboard walls and we got a small insurance payout to fix them. In NZ when you insure your house against fire and burglary, you're automatically insured against quakes by a government funded agency. If there was a major quake here, the payout might well be too big for individual insurance companies to handle. A friend of mine, a locomotive driver, was driving a train through a tunnel about 600 km. from the epicentre. He didn't feel or hear anything and only found out about it later.

Answer 3

In SF, first there was a small bump (kind of like what you'd feel if someone slammed the door really hard in an old house).

Then the whole house shook back and forth in a rocking motion for about 10 seconds (which felt like an eternity). I'm on bedrock, so my experience was probably lesser than those on landfill closer to the Bay.

Answer 4

A 4.7 is not very strong, but it depends on how deep the quake is.

If it is a shallow quake, you would definitely feel it. It would rattle the house and nick-nacks.

A 4.4 isn't much different from a 4.7. Alaska has quakes like that all the time.

Answer 5

A light earthquake occurred at 8:08:12 PM (PDT) on Wednesday, August 2, 2006.
The magnitude 4.4 event occurred 5 km (3 miles) W of Glen Ellen, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles).



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Magnitude 4.4 - regional moment magnitude (Mw)
Time Wednesday, August 2, 2006 at 8:08:12 PM (PDT)
Thursday, August 3, 2006 at 3:08:12 (UTC)
Distance from Glen Ellen, CA - 5 km (3 miles) W (268 degrees)
Rohnert Park, CA - 9 km (6 miles) E (79 degrees)
Cotati, CA - 11 km (7 miles) ENE (69 degrees)
Santa Rosa, CA - 14 km (9 miles) SE (133 degrees)
San Francisco City Hall, CA - 67 km (42 miles) NNW (347 degrees)

Coordinates 38 deg. 21.8 min. N (38.363N), 122 deg. 35.4 min. W (122.589W)
Depth 9.1 km (5.7 miles)
Location Quality Good
Location Quality Parameters Nst=250, Nph=250, Dmin=2 km, Rmss=0.15 sec, Erho=0.2 km, Erzz=0.3 km, Gp=36 degrees
Event ID# nc40187964
Additional Information map with fault names
Topo map centered at earthquake (This link takes you offsite).
Did you feel it?
NCSN First Motion Mechanism 1
Waveforms

Answer 6

Anything above 5.0 in Richter scale will be felt and above 6.0 is serious. Above 7.0 in areas near ocean, tsunami is likely to occur depending upon the zone.
VR

Answer 7

i just felt an earthquake in san mateo. the ceiling lights were rocking and the whole place shook about 4 times. it was a little scary but we are still here

Answer 8

A little more shaking than a 4.3 earthquake and a little less shaking than a 4.5 earthquake.

Answer 9

You might actually feel that if you're anywhere near the epicenter. If you're walking or driving, you might miss it altogether. Been there, done that. My whole life's like that. ;-)

Answer 10

Like someone is shaking your house pretty well.