Seismic shiyat

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We just had a bloody Earthquake last night!

Not a major one, but enough to shake me up a bit! We never have Earthquakes in Britain and I didn't know what the hell it was until I saw the news this morning. I've no experience of what it's like. There was no noise, or violent shakes, it was just like a really, REALLY strong wind just hit the house. Probably because we're quite a way from where the epicentre was here. Still, the whole house swayed, and sent a few things scattering about. Only lasted about 5 or 6 seconds though. Worst Eartquake in 25 years apparently.

Bloody hellfire!

Yours
Scared Barmy

 

/me was in a Rock pub, drunk

/me didn't notice

 

You whimp.

I've been through so many earthquakes that they don't even phase me anymore. The worst was probably the Northridge Earthquake back in 1994. I was only 10 or 11 at the time, but I remember that night like it was yesterday. Besides that big one, I've felt been dozens of small earthquakes growing up.

Hell, just last week there was a quake to the west of us. The epicenter was in a small town in Nevada, but we were still able to feel it here in SLC.

Oh the joys of living near a major fault line.

 

We experienced only one quake while living out west, the one that hit Seattle in 2000. Since we were about 200 miles from the epicenter, I had no idea what it was at first. I was driving, and the way the car rocked I thought I was having brake problems! Not until I got back to the office and saw that the building had dumped (which is the last thing you're supposed to do, BTW!) did I realize what had happened.

The funniest part was that Arlyn slept through it all, even when three other babies were put in his crib to make evacuating the infant room easier.

 

Never witnessed anything like it. But there was some lame thing in 1992, apparently. Had something to do with a mine that collapsed, somewhere in a far-away place in Limburg, South East Netherlands. That was at night. Many people woke up, but that was it, afaik.

I think I would be pretty scared if something drastic would happen, like someone farting real loud.

 

Come out with me on a Saturday night after a few beers a chicken boona. You'll be petrified.

 

I was in that earthquake in Seattle. I was in the shower. I was afraid of dying whilst naked.

 

It's been aeons since there has been an earthquake here. Last time there WAS one, it was so weak I didn't even noticed it.

There was a solid one some 10 years ago, IIRC. It was pretty cool, actually.

 

LOL, sigh, the British... it was only a magnitude 4.7 one too, that's nothing!

I recall 3 earthquakes in my lifetime. One I was on a couch that felt like it moved, the next one I was playing computerin the evening and I felt the whole house move sideways (scariest of the 3), the third (I think this was the Seattle one that I felt from Vancouver) I was in a math class we felt the portable shake. The teacher said what was that? and kept on teaching. When he later turned on the radio and found out it was an earthquake, he made the joke that math was more important than running out to save ourselves.

 

Magnitude 5.2, but who's counting. We've just never experienced anything like that before. Now terrorist attacks, enemy planes/boats attacking our shores, we can handle!

 

We have small ones in Tennessee every 6 months or so - we're waiting for the big one on the New Madrid Fault that takes out Memphis and St. Louis.

Glad you're OK, though, Barmy, they're scary things.

 

I've experienced far worse ones, so didn't even notice it... though it might have been because the wind was rocking my room like crazy anyway

@Rally: It must have been a pretty strong earthquake if you noticed it while driving! I've been through a few while in a car and never noticed on the spot.

 

I remember watching something about one of the ones in Seattle (might be 2000, but it could of been more recent) and the teachers at a school were running an earthquake drill when it hit. The kids (elementary students) thought the school just really amped up the reality of the tests when as it turned out, it was an actual one

 

There was an earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico that I felt in Gainesville, Florida last September. This was the first one I had ever felt, and I was freaked out... ground shouldn't move like that.

 

You have to do it with a touch more cockiness, but good effort

 

Cockiness, uh, yeah.

Saw some video of the damage - it did look a lot like medium-sized California/Japan earthquakes. Had a friend who lived in Tokyo 4 years, with a dog, and the dog would periodically go nuts and the friend would realize they were having a mild earthquake. He was so used to them a little light rattling passed under his threshold of awareness.

 

Steady on old chap, we aren't all as panicky as those English southerners. You should see them when they get the barest hint of snow!

 

Having never been through one myself I was quite worried when I saw it on the news here because they didn't really say much about it...just spoke to people who had experienced it...and being at work didn't really lend itself to hearing much of what was on the TV.

Anyway, the main reason I was worried is because I know and still (stupidly) care about someone who experienced it and I had no idea how bad or not it was, had no idea if she was okay...

Certainly would have been scary for anyone not used to that sort of thing I'd imagine

 

It's not the absolute strength of the quake that matters so much as the strength relative to other quakes in the region over history. Where this really comes into play is in building codes. Public or industrial buildings (like, I dunno, how about a nuclear power plant? You have a few of those over there, don't you?) are generally (*) built to withstand the largest quake expected for the region. Since the Richter scale is logarithmic, structures built for an expected 2.6 quake because that's the historical norm may come tumbling down in a 4.7. (**)

(*) This is based on US experience, of course
(**) I'm pulling numbers out of thin air, here.