Funny, I thought exactly the same thing when I woke up to the 5.4 quake in Illinois. How on earth could the cat be scratching herself THAT vigorously???
I experienced the Loma Prieta earthquake back in 1989. It’s funny, but I can still remember how the car bounced up and down, my favorite radio station wasn’t working, but I still didn’t catch on to an earthquake until I got on the freeway and I saw all these cars stopped on the shoulders with scared looking people inside. I thought I was done with earthquakes when I moved back to the East Coast, but the August 2011 earthquake in southern Virginia reached all the way to Arlington VA. Scared the crap out of me when I realized what had happened.
I’ve felt multiple small tremors, the worst only rattling the dishes a bit because though a couple have been big ones, those were always centred far away from where I was each time. The nearby ones were deep. So I’ve been lucky in both senses, to have felt them, and yet to have not been seriously in trouble from them.
New Zealand is right on a fault line through its centre, where two tectonic plates meet (much like California), while Australia is a fair distance away from faults so will likely never be at high risk.
From what I’ve heard, it’s not the cracks in the earth or the toppling buildings that are the scariest, it’s that the most solid thing you know - the ground you walk on - moves like liquid and has no stability. It turns your brain topsy-turvy to see such a thing.
I was curious and it looks the the San Andreas and Alpine faults (Calif. and NZ) are the same type, too.
I wouldn’t be so sure. If Australia does have a quake, I can imagine it happening like this. It’s a documentary, be warned!
I was within 5 miles of the epicenter of the 2011 Virginia earthquake. I had felt a few small brief ones before but never anything like that. It started off like a distant train, then everything started shaking, bookshelves were swaying, seemed like it went on for a minute or more. A lot of brick chimneys and sheetrock were damaged in the area. Drawers and cabinets open with contents spilled out, my toilet tank lid fell off but luckily it didn’t break. We spent the rest of the afternoon outside listening to the aftershocks booming deep underground.
I felt it in Charlotte.
Felt the couch move and thought “huh, I normally don’t feel that much movement from the stairs”. Then about a half hour later my girlfriend texts
“did you hear about the earthquake”
“THAT’S what that was?!?”
Move to Downieville, CA.
You’ll feel the ground quiver all the time.
It’s not when he moves there that’s the issue, it’s when he moves away… :eek:
My two big ones are:
1987 Whittier Narrows - I was heading to the bedroom from the shower so I was nekkid. When it started I braced myself in the doorway, as we had all been taught. My wife was watching from the bed and was amused by the effect that the motion had on me. The next day the front page of the LA Times showed a collapsed building, which just happened to be the garage where I got my car repairs - a block away from my office.
1994 Northridge - I remember waking up screaming “HOLY SHT HOLY SHT HOLY SH*T!”. We had damage to our home from that one. We have since moved and now live within a mile of the epicenter of that one.
Haven’t had one that was noticeable in a long while. C’mon, it’s about time!
I still remember that Northridge quake with that motorcycle cop lying at the bottom of a highway overpass where the road had collapsed.
Sad 
There’s a film sequence very often shown to illustrate the 1989 Loma Prieta quake - it shows a female bartender behind a bar racing to safety as the liquor bottles go flying and the building and contents sway wildly. Just one of those bits of stock footage that I often see during reports/documentaries on earthquakes.
That bar is my neighborhood bar, about 50 yards from the house I lived in at the time of the earthquake. We still go there all the time for the excellent Jersey-style cheesesteaks, and every time I go I remember that the Big One is coming, and I need to be prepared. For many years I’d also greet the bartender (who was shaken up but unhurt) from that video.
Oh, damn. I totally forgot about the VA quake. We did feel that at work, or at least,3 of the 4 of us did. It felt like a faint ripple in a waterbed, just a little wooze and then gone. So weird. At least this recent one felt like something shaking, even though it was faint.
So that’s three.
In possibly related news, Ragnarok is supposed to be happening on the 22nd. 
I have felt quakes in California, Egypt, Hawaii, and Indonesia.
The coolest was our last quake felt in Jakarta (the epicenter was in Central Java). For one thing, all our Javanese gongs (a collection that looks exactly like this) began to chime on their own - a deep, unearthly and wonderful sound.
I also had the presence of mind to run outside and look at the swimming pool, a few minutes after the shaking stopped. WOW. The energy waves traveling across the pool surface were eerily straight and evenly spaced - nothing like what you see if you throw something in the water and watch the concentric rings spreading.
I had just landed at SFO and was waiting in a customs line when the Loma Prieta quake hit. The P-wave knocked many of us to the ground and nerd that I am, I started counting to see when the S-wave would hit, in hopes of working out how far away the epicenter was. It was quite exciting except for having to spend the night at the airport, but I still have a copy of Chronicle published the next day.
I heard a story about some university student(s) being in the pool playing water polo and being deposited on the deck by a seiche wave during the Loma Prieta quake. It is possible but I don’t recall those kind of waves having much power due to their long wavelengths.
Yes, a little concerning - we’re overdue for one.
Probably 3-5 minutes had elapsed after the shaking started before I thought to check the pool. The ground around the pool was soaked in one area, suggesting that the quake had caused an initial wave(s) a lot bigger than what I saw.
Last year I heard my first earthquake. I was lying in bed just waking up, and all of a sudden I heard a deep rumbling sound, almost like thunder, but it was more of a grinding sound, and it lasted like 10 seconds. It was pretty cool.
The only one I ever felt was a 7.2 that hit about 100 miles east of San Diego in Baja California, Mexico. What was weird is that I was in Phoenix, AZ shopping at a grocery store at the time.