# Have you ever experienced an earthquake? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 23, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257 "2014-08-23T01:40:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/81 "2014-08-25T00:35:58Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > And now there’s been a 6.0 quake, early this morning in the East Bay. Napa isn’t “The East Bay”. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/82 "2014-08-25T00:44:41Z")
I’ve been in several. The first felt like a heavy truck going down the street, except it lasted for too long (may 20 seconds). My wife was taking a shower and didn’t feel a thing. The worst was around 3 in the morning. It woke me and one picture fell off a wall. There was one at 10:59 one night that I felt, but my wife across the room refused to believe until we heard on the news the next morning that there was an earthquake around 11PM last night. There have been a others. We obviously live in a minor earthquake zone. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/83 "2014-08-25T02:17:52Z")
My first was the Borrego Mountain quake in 1968 (6.4) which shook real good even as far away as I was in Covina. The next major one was Sylmar in 71 (6.6). I have to say, I kinda miss them since I moved away, crazy as that sounds. ---
**Author:** ![justanothermike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@justanothermike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justanothermike)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/84 "2014-08-25T02:42:39Z")
I can’t imagine what a big quake would be like. Years back we had some tiny little quake and my wife and I were asleep. It was a rolling quake as I heard it described, and it felt like the earth was rolling in waves around us. We first thought someone was breaking in because the storm door shook so much. For now I’m happy in southern Indiana with that one memory. We don’t have to try anything bigger than that. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/85 "2014-08-25T07:15:53Z")
A tiny 3.3 one here in LA at 8:50 this evening. Just a slight boomp, which I would not have noticed if my reading lamp had not jiggled a bit and one of my cats looked up to see what was going on. Small beer, compared to what happened in Napa this morning, but there it is. Now people will insist the two quakes were connected, somehow. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/86 "2014-08-25T08:25:15Z")
Yes, a couple. They are _very_ different when you are 2 miles underground, believe me. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/87 "2014-08-25T08:29:54Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > Now people will insist the two quakes were connected, somehow. You’re aware of the Californian fault systems, right? California earthquakes are mostly all connected. Or did you mean the timing? ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/88 "2014-08-25T12:58:41Z")
The majority of quakes I have felt have been in California ( North and South ). Overseas, I felt some in South Sudan, Kazahkstan, and Papua New Guinea but none of them were very significant in intensity. ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/89 "2014-08-25T13:08:34Z")
In 2008 there was a 5.2 earthquake in Northern England in the middle of the night. It felt like someone was shaking my bed, so I half woke up, shouted “Stop it!” and it stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/90 "2014-08-25T13:59:01Z")
A few of them. The first couple were in SoCal where the infrastructure is more set up for that kind of thing. Also I was very young at the time. So I didn’t think much of it, because no one else made a big deal of it. The only one that freaked me out was when I was 18 or 19 and home alone with my baby, giving her a bath. I grabbed her out of the bath and stood in the bathroom doorway (I’ve since heard that a doorway isn’t really any safer than the rest of the house anyway) and it really shook me up. “They” have been saying for over 20 years now that we’re due to have “the big one” in this area (Seattle) anytime, and periodically there are news stories that warn how unprepared we are for it, and when I get to thinking about it I get pretty anxious. I would like to find something to make me feel better about it, like how I used to worry a lot about apartment fires until I learned more about fire regulations in newer buildings (I may not trust my idiot neighbors not to fall asleep while smoking or leave the oven on or whatever, but now I know I would probably have plenty of time to escape), but I’m afraid to do too much research about this because it could be all the way true, and then I’ll just feel worse. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/91 "2014-08-25T17:40:52Z")
I live in the Bay Area now, and have felt 4 or 5, all small, but my first was late 1973 or early 1974 in Urbana, Illinois. I was at lunch, and felt the table leg quiver. Didn’t even think about it being an earthquake until I saw the news. One earthquake, zero tornadoes. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpbass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jumpbass/32/147_2.png) [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/92 "2014-08-25T19:00:42Z")
**Idle Thoughts:** > [@](#): > > Just for the record: > > I started this topic yesterday because I had a dream an earthquake happened. > Not a HUGE one, but a bigger one than usual… > > And now I see California had a nice, sizable one earlier… Please don’t do that again. ( I live in Napa) ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/93 "2014-08-25T19:13:30Z")
I was near the epicenter of the 2011 Virginia quake. In the middle of a heated discussion with someone else in the living room, the house started to vibrate like it had bet set on top of a big bass speaker. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! For about 20 seconds. I figured it was an earthquake pretty quickly. After that, even though I was on vacation, I went back to work (TV news) and ended up in Culpeper VA which sustained some significant damage downtown. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/94 "2014-08-25T19:22:45Z")
We had that earthquake in NYC about 3-4 years ago, which is pretty rare. I was talking to a coworker and we felt this vibration/swaying as if a big truck was driving by (which is not rare). But the vibration/swaying not only didn’t stop, it got worse to the point where we were like “what the fuck is going on!?” So like everyone else, we run outside. Not much else happened at that point. Of course, going outside during an earthquake is probably the worst thing you can do in Manhattan. Even a minor quake might shake something loose off a skyscraper. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/95 "2014-08-25T19:26:51Z")
I was in Northridge during the '94 Northridge quake. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/96 "2014-08-25T19:52:10Z")
Other than a few brief minor rumblings over the years, the only notable one I’ve been through was the 2011 Virginia earthquake. I happened to be a few miles from the epicenter, lucky me. I thought it was thunder or a truck at first, but it just got louder and louder and the building started shaking, bookshelves were rocking. Other people in the building got under their desks, I was actually standing holding up the bookshelves and they were holding me up. It seemed to last about a minute. We spent the rest of the day outside listening to the aftershocks, they sounded like thunder far underground. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/97 "2014-08-25T19:58:47Z")
I spent about six years in Japan as a kid, my dad was stationed at Misawa in northern Honshu. Too many to count, but the most memorable one was in June of 1978. 7.7 on the Richter scale, and killed about 20 people. I had been through dozens of smaller quakes while living there, but this was my first exposure to the ground moving in waves. That was freaky. Watching telephone and power poles dip to almost touching the ground. Also, it caused a small tsunami in Mutsu Bay, which bordered the base. ---
**Author:** ![Wednesday\_Evening](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wednesday\_Evening](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wednesday_Evening)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/98 "2014-08-25T20:06:08Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > I was in Northridge during the '94 Northridge quake. :eek: I’ve lived in California for about 20 years, so yeah, I’ve felt a few. Most notable for me was the San Simeon quake (6.5) of December 22, 2003. I was still in the hospital in San Luis Obispo after the birth of my son the day before. The hospital shook pretty good, but as a structural engineer I know that the seismic requirements for hospitals are very stringent so I figured that was a good place to be in a quake. When I lived in Boston I felt one from up in Vermont or New Hampshire. ---
**Author:** ![Lonnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lonnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lonnie)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/99 "2014-08-25T20:15:29Z")
Four minor that were big enough to feel. Puerto Vallarta, Hawaii, Southern Ontario, and Victoria, B. C. If I recall correctly, residents of the Big Island, Hawaii, said there are several tiny earthquakes there every day but you don’t feel them. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257/100 "2014-08-25T21:43:13Z")
We’ve had two that I’ve felt since I’ve been up here. 10+ years ago I was lazing in bed of a Saturday morning and felt a slight shaking and figured that’s what it must be. Then a couple of years ago around 7:00 PM, same thing as I was at a community meeting. We felt it and wondered if that’s what it was. It was only 4.0. > **[Maine earthquake rocks New Hampshire](https://www.wmur.com/article/maine-earthquake-rocks-new-hampshire-1/5177172)** > > A 4.0-magnitude earthquake is reported in Maine, shaking homes in the Granite State and northern Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Geological Society. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-experienced-an-earthquake/696257.md?page=6)