# I just felt my 1st eartquake!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 15, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393 "2014-02-15T03:53:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/1 "2014-02-15T03:53:51Z")
Well, tremor really I guess. Actually at first I thought the dog was scratching and bumping the bed frame…
I’m in SC a bit south of Columbia, looks like it was centered in GA somewhere?
Kinda neat anyway, when it’s small like that 🆒
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### Author:  [@iMouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iMouse)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/2 "2014-02-15T04:44:32Z")
So, the Earth finally moved for you?
Congratulations.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/3 "2014-02-15T04:53:53Z")
I am from the SF Bay Area, but always managed to sleep through them, and it wasn’t until I moved away that my most felt earthquake occurred. Yes, I am counting Loma Prieta, I was awake, although young and sitting in a car.
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### Author:  [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/4 "2014-02-15T05:52:16Z")
M 4.1 - 12km WNW of Edgefield, South Carolina
[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000mr27#summary](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000mr27#summary)
I’m in San Francisco and we haven’t had a decent dish rattler in a while. ☹
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/5 "2014-02-15T06:45:43Z")
Felt it in Clemson. Half convinced I imagined it till I checked the Internet’s.
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### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/6 "2014-02-15T07:04:51Z")
I’ve lived in Sacramento for all of my 46 years, and just managed to actually feel my first a few months ago (the quake was up in the Sierra foothills, about 60 miles or so away). I thought that one of the dogs was bumping up against the sofa at first, until I noticed that they were both asleep. So much for that whole ‘animal sixth sense’ thing…
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### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/7 "2014-02-15T07:44:44Z")
Little earthquakes are sort of fun/interesting…but I was in LA for the Northridge quake and, well, let’s just say the fun factor goes down as the Richter Scale goes up.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/8 "2014-02-15T08:31:54Z")
I seem to have an uncanny skill for just missing earthquakes.
In 1969 I left home in San Fernando Valley area go to college in Berkeley. Shortly after that (1971?) came the big Sylmar quake. (ETA: Not to be confused with the big Northridge quake in 1992 or so.)
In 1989 I left the Bay Area to live in San Luis Obispo area. Soon after that (1991 or so?) was the big Loma Prieta quake. (I actually felt that, but just slightly, in the Paso Robles area.)
In 2004 I left San Luis Obispo County, due to illness, and went to live with kinfolk in San Fernando Valley, who also lived part-time in a retirement community in Orange County. While I was there, came the San Simeon quake that trashed much of Paso Robles. (Again, I felt it, slightly, even way down in Orange County.)
I’m wondering what major quake I’ll just miss next.
(ETA: Note, I’m just giving approximate years for those quakes, from memory, rather than looking up the exact correct years.)
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/9 "2014-02-15T08:45:10Z")
Yeah, very approximate. The Loma Prieta quake occurred in 1989, the year you left the Bay Area. That’s the one that halted the World Series between the Giants and the A’s.
And the San Simeon quake occurred in 2003.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/10 "2014-02-15T09:01:17Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Yeah, very approximate. The Loma Prieta quake occurred in 1989, the year you left the Bay Area. That’s the one that halted the World Series between the Giants and the A’s.
>
> And the San Simeon quake occurred in 2003.
Okay, no argument. I was just citing all those years based on some relatively vague recollections.
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### Author:  [@kim\_okla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kim_okla)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/11 "2014-02-15T15:46:21Z")
Senegoid, please don’t move to Oklahoma. Ok?
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/12 "2014-02-15T16:08:11Z")
First and only earthquake:
June 2009: Just arrived at the outskirts of the Smokies (North Carolina side), just finished unpacking, sit down to rest after 9 hour car ride–BA-BOOM! What the hell was that? I bet a tree fell over somewhere close by. Nope, earthquake. I didn’t know they got them in that area. :eek:
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### Author:  [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/13 "2014-02-15T16:34:13Z")
> [@kim\_okla](#):
>
> Senegoid, please don’t move to Oklahoma. Ok?
[Too late…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Oklahoma_earthquake)
> [@DMark](#):
>
> …and, well, let’s just say the fun factor goes down as the Richter Scale goes up.
Says you. 🆒
Well…let me take that back. I’m very lucky in that I’ve never lost anyone or anything in a major earthquake, and that includes Sylmar, Whittier, San Simeon, Chino Hills, and of course Northridge '94. Northridge was actually the first time during a quake where I feared for my life, and it’s funny, while it’s happening you don’t even think about personal possessions. (And my roommate, once it was over, spoke the perfect one-liner: _“I hope that wasn’t a foreshock!”_) But we’re all earthquake-savvy here in Southern California; you have to be to live here.
Also, hate to tell you this, but like New Madrid MO, earthquakes have happened before in Charleston S.C. ([1886, 7.3](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_earthquake)) They are extremely rare, though.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/14 "2014-02-15T19:43:40Z")
I’ve only felt one earthquake in my life. I was sitting in a restaurant, and I thought a truck was rumbling by. There are a couple that I slept through (I did wake up in the middle of those nights, but I don’t know if it was because of the earthquakes or not).
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/15 "2014-02-15T20:07:59Z")
We felt it also, we just thought it was our cats. 😃
This makes two for me, both little’uns.
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/16 "2014-02-15T20:10:33Z")
I was awoken by the 2008 Illinois quake, which was 5.4 at the epicenter. Later that morning there was an aftershock that everyone felt, too. Those were small enough to be fun.
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### Author:  [@Esco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esco)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/17 "2014-02-15T20:55:00Z")
I wonder if its because of fracking??
And yeah, quakes are a really cool experience so long as they are under 6.0
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### Author:  [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/18 "2014-02-15T23:21:34Z")
My first earthquake was the big Northridge quake in '94. It’s all been downhill from there.
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### Author:  [@kim\_okla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kim_okla)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2014, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/19 "2014-02-16T15:34:38Z")
Yes we have recently been having noticeable earthquakes, that 5.4 freaked me out. The bed is rocking and I’m looking at the dogs, good grief who’s scratching and shaking the bed. Someone mentioned you can hear them coming in Oklahoma. You mean everyone can’t? It sounds like thunder or tornado strength wind.
Here, some are blaming fracking since oil is big business.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-felt-my-1st-eartquake/681393/20 "2014-02-16T15:56:40Z")
My first (and last) really big one was the 1964 Alaska quake that registered 9.2. It was the second largest earthquake ever recorded after the one in Chile in about 1960. As a megathrust quake, it was a real doozy, causing soil liquefaction, tossing cars around like toys, causing large fractures of the earth, and collapsing buildings. I was a junior in high school at the time, but luckily the quake happened on a holiday, so the schools were empty. The second story of my high school was destroyed and subsequently removed. Megathrust quakes are the most powerful type, which makes “the big one” the west coast is expecting all the more scary.
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