We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Earthquakes

Tenputt

Tenputt

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Apr 15, 2017
Messages
18,544
Reaction score
24,922
Location
Utah
Handicap
GHIN 6.4
I was sitting at home last night (as we all are), talking on the phone, when, suddenly, I heard a noise that is hard to describe, but unmistakable if you have heard it before. It is the sound of an earthquake. We had just had one a few weeks previously. Soon after the noise, which is a combination of a rumble and roar that sounds like something approaching you, my home started shaking. Of course, as soon as I heard the sound, I knew another earthquake was happening. The one a few weeks ago was startling. It happened about 7:00 a.m. It didn’t really alarm me. It felt surreal. This time, I will admit that I felt sort of a pit in my stomach, thinking, “I wonder if this time it’s going to be really big.” My kids were upset. I think it is the accumulation of the stress from the pandemic and then multiple earthquakes.

Fortunately, this one was only 4.18 on the Richter scale. It probably did little if any damage. How many of you have ever experienced a significant earthquake? How would you describe that sound?
 
I was stationed in California in 91 or 92 when they had two big ones an hour apart. The sound is hard to describe, you just here a change in the air of the normal surrondings you are working in. What was neat though, was standing on the catwalk of the barracks and watching the parking lot roll as it came thru and feeling the barracks shake a lot. That was in 29 Palms.
 
Snickerdog said:
I was stationed in California in 91 or 92 when they had two big ones an hour apart. The sound is hard to describe, you just here a change in the air of the normal surrondings you are working in. What was neat though, was standing on the catwalk of the barracks and watching the parking lot roll as it came thru and feeling the barracks shake a lot. That was in 29 Palms.
Click to expand...


the landers quake? we were there as well....then the northridge quake in 94
 
When I lived in Japan we would get rocked quite often. Its a feeling/experience that you never forget.
 
I can't really recall the sounds while on land but we had one while I was diving once and that was unsettling...we didn't know what it was till we got out of the water an hour later.
 
NullNomad said:
When I lived in Japan we would get rocked quite often. Its a feeling/experience that you never forget.
Click to expand...

i remember we had a week or so back in the late 70s-early 80s when we had quite a few there while we lived in Yokohama
 
I've legitimately have felt only a handful in the last 30 years and I basically live on a fault.

89 World Series quake was memorable.

Several other 5+ quakes have woke me up in the middle of the night, that's the worst feeling. Waking up to one, not knowing what the hell is going on... The sound is quite unsettling... A quiet slow building rumble. Other than that I just don't notice them and I'm well aware there are mini ones constantly.
 
I have experience a few earthquakes. Once I was in a 16th floor apartment. I really cannot describe the sounds, It is like a really big truck driving by kind of rumble. I can say that it is one of the most unsettling feelings. Kinda like you are falling or dizzy.

It was crazy to be on the 16th floor and feel the entire building sway back and forth...
 
chile said:
i remember we had a week or so back in the late 70s-early 80s when we had quite a few there while we lived in Yokohama
Click to expand...

I was there in the early-mid 80s at Yokota and yea they were pretty regular.
 
Living in the Bay Area in California Ive been through many. The 89 earthquake that stopped the World Series comes to mind. Lots of damage from that one. It was also different from most in that it was a roller not so much a shaker. You could literally see it rolling like a wave coming to shore.
 
Born and raised in SoCal and have experienced them throughout my life. I definitely know that sound you speak of. I’ve always felt I had a sixth sense for earthquakes, I’ll be sound asleep, suddenly be wide awake and within a minute hear that sound coming. One time I felt one sleeping on the ground in a tent, that was weird.

I experienced the Northridge quake and the next day the large aftershock that was up in Big Bear. The second one was interesting as I was riding my bike at the top of our street. When it started I could look all the way down our street(1/4 mile) and see the asphalt rolling with waves of the quake. Will never forget that image.

They kinda freak me out but I love the amazing display of power.
 
Twelve years ago, I woke up early one morning to that distinct rumble, followed by the bed swaying back and forth. It was a 5.2 centered near West Salem IL, which is about 100 miles east of us.

We are near the New Madrid fault line, and get tiny quakes pretty much every day. Most are imperceptible. Every once in awhile, things will jiggle and rattle a little. The one in '08, though, was the strongest I've ever felt.
 
I was in Cairo Egypt in the early '90's... and was sitting on the bed in my hotel room at the Movenpick. I was leaned back against the wall trying to watch tv in Arabic but couldn't understand the language. The wall moved... like when you're in a house and someone slams the door and the wall can shake for a second. It was quick... just a fast slap then it was gone.

It turned out to be a small earthquake. Not the one that happened in 1992 that caused major destruction and killed a few hundred people.
 
chile said:
the landers quake? we were there as well....then the northridge quake in 94
Click to expand...

Northridge is the last big one that I remember, Quakes are scary things, get in the doorway - lots of scary things mother nature can throw our way.
 
My one and only experience with an earthquake was pretty tame. We were living in Grecia, Costa Rica in 2017 and the Poas volcano was very nearby and had been active recently. One evening, my wife and I were watching TV on the couch and we both felt a very tiny movement that lasted all of 1 second. We looked at each other and both asked "was that an earthquake?". It was confirmed the next day, and though I don't know what it scored on the Richter scale, it was a VERY tiny event. I can't imagine how scary a strong earthquake would be.
 
Stationed in California in the 80’s, I lived thru several earthquakes. I was living south of Oakland in ‘89 when that one hit. The sound you described was eerie, but I heard many more too. I was loading my wife’s collapsible 10-speed in the back of our Honda, parked right in front of the strip mall where she worked. I had gotten off work 15 minutes earlier and driven the Cypress Structure, in the southbound lane, the bottom section. I was stationed at NAS Alameda at the time. Anyway, while loading her bike, I fell in the back of the Honda unexpectedly. Pulling myself up and out, I soon realized both cars on either side of mine were bouncing, then noticed mine bouncing too. WTF? came to mind. Then I noticed the huge pane glass storefront windows were flexing in and out. I could here the low roar, could feel the ground rolling under my feet. I also heard people screaming, babies crying, transformers popping, and funniest of all thought I heard cow mooing. People were running out of the stores. I quickly went to the doorway where my wife worked, and there she was, casually strolling towards me. I yelled for her to get out now and she replied in typical native Californian, “What? It’s just another earthquake.” Yeah, but it was a big one. It seemed like it lasted for a long time, but it probably only lasted a few seconds. That one scared me more than any other I had felt before, even the first big one I had experienced years before. Every aftershock that followed kept me on pins and needles. This Missouri boy, who lived on the New Madrid faultline, had never experienced anything like this. We finished loading up and headed home. The only damage we could find on our little one-bedroom cottage was a slight shifting of the brick column which supported one end of our stoop, and a few pictures askew on the walls. Having no power, we turned on our portable radio to find out what exactly had transpired. As the reports started coming in, we realized how bad it truly was, and how fortunate we both were. The Cypress Structure I had been on seemingly moments before, had collapsed and killed dozens of people. A wall in San Francisco had fallen and killed half a dozen. Part of the Bay bridge had collapsed, and one had died trying to jump the span out of fear in their car. Yeah, we were fortunate.
 
I have only ever experienced 1. It was mild as we never get them here and it was not really that close to here where it actually was the highest on the scale. I was actually in the bed taking a nap before I had to work since at the time I was working a later shift. The dogs knew before I did and started acting funny which woke me up. I heard the sound you are describing and felt the earthquake but like you I am not sure exactly how to describe it. All I know is it is unmistakable once you have been through it once.
 
It was early childhood for me. I was 8 or 9 years old. I lived in California for years. The sound definitely sounds like a "rumbling roar" to me. The shaking of the ground and walls was absolutely disturbing at that age and I don't see it being any different now. Unsettling to say the least. I can still vividly remember seeing things fall off the shelves and frames fall from the walls. Hope I never experience it again.
 
We've only have very very minor ones in nj. More like a "what the hell was that, a car accident outside?"
 
OITW said:
Northridge is the last big one that I remember, Quakes are scary things, get in the doorway - lots of scary things mother nature can throw our way.
Click to expand...

This isn't any safer actually, they lied to us! I remember learning this when I was a kid but it's actually somewhere you don't want to be.
 
SlightDraw said:
This isn't any safer actually, they lied to us! I remember learning this when I was a kid but it's actually somewhere you don't want to be.
Click to expand...

Well that's good to know, been 17 years since I lived in Cali and oh how the world has changed ha
 
I've lived in California pretty much my whole life, so I've experienced a bunch. As to the sound, it does vary depending on the type of quake, and to some extent, where they happen. For instance an earthquake in the Sierras will normally be more of a Boom than a Rumble, or at least it seems that way to me.

I've been through a few big ones, but what I remember most are all the small ones that were pretty routine when I was a kid in school. A class full of kids sitting at their desks, and all of a sudden we all look at each other and say "earthquake!" No one got exited about it, just a normal thing living in SoCal back then.
 
I find that the "rolling" quakes are quiet. Last one my wife didn't even notice it was happening. The other (I don't remember what they're called) have this kind of loud, low rattle sound to them.
 
SlightDraw said:
This isn't any safer actually, they lied to us! I remember learning this when I was a kid but it's actually somewhere you don't want to be.
Click to expand...
I think they're now saying this because of cheap, modern building materials. Back when door jams were made from solid wood it may have been safer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top