Have you ever personally been through an earthquake?

Question

Not on TV or the movies.
I'm talking about an earthquake of at least 5.0?
Which one and what was it like?

Answer 1

I live in Humboldt co. Calif and we get earthquakes on a regular basis, and all i can tell you is if your not used to them it is pretty scary all of a sudden everything in your house starts to shake like a big cat grader is coming thru one of your walls, even though we have then all the time my grand-kids still cry when they see the house plants start to quiver. and you just need to get in a safe place and pray lol till it is over the biggest one i have been in was a 7.2 and it broke alot of things in our house i had 2 fish tanks 100 gal. each and they shifted and that was the end of my fish tank days lol.

Answer 2

No. Only a 4.7.

I grabbed my precious Guild guitar, and stood in a door way. Much more interesting and exhilarating than even the best ride at Disneyland. We old folks refer to this kind of stuff as "an E-Ticket ride."

That was in So Cal when I was a kid...

Friends who were in tall buildings during the last big Frisco earthquake do not describe it in "Disneyland" terms at all. They were frightened beyond belief, and they had it far easier than their brothers and sisters on the Bay Bridge or Nimitz Freeway.

I was 130 miles from epicenter, thought my chair had just broken, and couldn't figure out why my drapes were swinging.

Methinks earthquakes have a lot in common with floods, tidal waves, hurricanes and tornadoes. They are to be avoided whenever possible...

Answer 3

I have only experienced one (Toronto is pretty stable seismically)

It was a 4 and was a P wave, so it was basically like a big bump ... the whole house "bumped", I think it cracked the foundation .. found the crack much later so I can't be sure ... remember the movie Broken Arrow with John Travolta when the bomb goes off and there is a wave that "bumps" their Hummer? Same thing.).

Areas like California get a lot more S wave quakes. That's the type of quake people equate to sex 'cuz "the earth moved for them too!"
;-)

Everything moves side to side during an S wave quake. S wave quakes generally cause more damage than P wave quakes.

Answer 4

I have been through a few of them. It usually starts out small but gets bigger and bigger. There is a rumbling, creaking and things start falling off shelves. your dishes clatter and the ceiling tiles go wonky. Some even fall out. It depends on the type of quake, but some feel like the floor just rolled up and down and some feel like it bounced. In either case, your balance is affected and you are a little disoriented when you walk (or run) By that time you are usually half-way out the door. Then it all gets really quiet. It feels like forever but it only takes a few seconds. Then you wait for aftershocks...

Answer 5

here in Nevada, we feel them all the time, but they are usualy just rollers, or a small shaker, I have felt many here, But I have never been in a devistating one, But a few of my freinds who came from California have. The kind that destroy things. Like Valencia, in the 70's I think. I think a Doobie Bros. album "on the faultline" or something similar, has imortilized that earthquake, with a picture of them standing on a peice of broken freeway overpass.

Answer 6

I experienced one while doing Christian Missionary work in Costa Rica. It was such a weird feeling.
We went to a swimming resort the next day that had an active volcano about a mile away--guess what-- it had one rather violent small eruption while we were swimming.
I often wonder if the two were somehow related?

Answer 7

yes but i don't know if it's a 5
it was pretty big

i was inside a building and the whole thing shakes, i yelled
EARTH QUAKE, and everyone screams, the lights flash on and off, and freaking water lines breakopen and some people froze, some took cover in the correct places, between doors, under a huge table, i felt my heart going from calm to almost exploading, then it's over and it was pretty cool, as long as it dont kill anyone, i got no problems with earth quakes

Answer 8

Yes - I was on an oil platform in the Timor Sea at the time. It was the same earthquake that caused the tsunami that hit Banda Acheh in Indonesia.

Almost shook me out of my bed.......

Answer 9

Yes I have experienced one. It was approximately 19 years ago. Books fell out of my bookcase, some cracks in the cement sidewalks, but that was about it.

Answer 10

3 minor ones... they happen once in a like 5 or six years... but they don't do much, kinda just shake the house a small bit, no stuff falls off... well not much.