I moved to Alaska about three months ago, and shortly thereafter experience my first earthquake, a very short and barely noticeable tremor. Since then, there has been one or two more, one strong enough to wake me up, but never enough to even knock anything off the walls.
So, I was sitting at my computer Sunday, when everything started shaking. Didn’t think much at first but, then it got a bit strong, and it didn’t stop. After sitting there for while, I went and stood in a doorway cause I couldn’t think of anything else to do. And waited. And waited. At least three minutes later, the shaking subsided. Turns out it was a 7.9 quake a good ways north of where I live. It was never particularly frightening, and still nothing fell down, but man was it a long time.
So, a two-fold post. First, got any earthquake stories to tell?
And also, I live on the first floor in a three story apartment building. For those with more experience/knowledge, if the REALLY BIG ONE hits, is it better to hide in a doorway and hope everything falls around me, or should I go out the porch door and head for the hills? Or will I just fall down?
Try getting under a sturdy table. If that’s not available, go for the doorway. Don’t head for the hills - you’ll run into falling power lines and other dangerous things. Doesn’t everyone learn this as a small child?
I hardly ever feel earthquakes. I felt the '89 one in the Bay Area. I kept thinking, “Gee, this seems like a big one - maybe I should get under a table. Nah, it’ll end in a second. Gee, it hasn’t ended yet.” I was on pretty solid ground I guess. I was pretty surprised to see all the damage done just a few miles away.
7.9 is as big as the S.F. '06 quake. You are not statistically likely to ever live though another one this big, even in Alaska. However, the only bigger one in North America this century was a 9.2 on Good Friday 1964 that tore Anchorage apart, wiped Valdez off the map and killed dozens.
I heard they recently redid the measuring scale for earthquakes though, so that a 7.9 today would have been in the 6ish area on the Richter scale. But I’m new to this stuff so I could be wrong.
Not in Georgia. They just told us what to do in tornados and if Sherman comes back.
The stay/flee decision is very complex - what can you get to, how fast v. what is likely to happen if you stay. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.
One biggie - if you are in an un-reinforced masonry (stone, brick, block, etc.) structure: don’t be - ever. Don’t live there, don’t work there, don’t even walk by - I hope none are left where you live, but if there are: they can explode - a large number of the fatalities in the Loma Prieta (1989) SF quake were folks stopped at a red light in front of an old brick building - tons of bricks came down on them. not pretty.
p.s. - the Richter scale has been obsolete for decades - seismologists use other tools, but translate back to Richter when news-people come around asking “How BIG was it?”.
Kinda like your Dentist using “Novacaine” - he or she is (hopefully) using a newer anesthetic, but everybody knows “Novacaine”, so that’s what they call it when speaking to the great unwashed masses.
