Living in Southern California for over six years now, I have learned a few things about earthquakes.
A Midwest Girl Talks Earthquakes
1- Earthquakes happen all the time. Seriously, all the time. I have quake feed App and if I open it up and see the list of earthquakes in my area it is kind of freaky. Yes, most of them are so small that you don't even feel them, but there are a lot!
2- You might not even feel it. Anything smaller than a 3 and you probably won't even feel it. It also depends on how close you are to the actual epicenter. There have been times where Eric and I were sitting and watching a movie and he will ask, "Did you feel that, was that an earthquake?" (it was), but I didn't even feel it.
3- Earthquakes are noisy. For me the earthquakes I have experienced, many of them you hear more than you feel. It isn't things shaking in your home either, it is the noise of the actual ground moving or crashing and sometimes they are loud. One time it sounded like a big semi hit my house.
4- Most earthquakes are really quick. By the time you have a chance to react and realize there is an earthquake, it is already over (thankfully- not looking forward to the 'big one' where that is not the case.)
5- There are different kinds of earthquakes. There are the shakers, the rollers and the jumpers. (All the scientific names of course). The shakers are the ones you see in the movies, but sometimes it feel likes a wave just rolls through the ground and other times everything just seems to jump.
6- Most people from California try and act like eh just another earthquake- but check Twitter right after one and you will see all sorts of comments about it. Yes, you do start to become "immune" to them, but I bet they always get everyone's heart racing.
My last tweet after a recent earthquake even made the local news!
7-Stuff rarely falls over during an earthquake. Like I said there are a lot of little earthquakes all of the time and things rarely fall over. Even with our recent 4.2 with the epicenter only 5 miles away, only a few pictures went askew.
8-No matter how many earthquakes I experience, they will always make my heart race, plus my tear ducts start working. Something about that jolt makes my heart skip a beat and a few tears slide down my cheek, it seems almost automatic for me.
Even the thought of them freaks me out. I'd probably react the same way as you do, every time. I hope you NEVER experience a big one!!!!!! (Times a hundred more exclamation points.)
ReplyDeleteSeriously! I don't ever want to experience it either
DeleteEarthquakes really don't freak me out, but then I've lived in California my whole life. I've been through some REALLY big and awful ones. Luckily I've never been close enough to the epicenter to have any real damage. But I do still check Twitter whenever I think we've had one. Totally guilty there!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think if I lived here my whole life they might not scare me- just like midwest thunderstorms and tornados don’t really, just something new :)
DeleteOnly experienced one--in Seattle in high school. It was a 6 or 7 but apparently it was 'deep' so it didn't do much damage. My first illogical thought was that someone was shaking the building. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh yes:)) Three years in Japan. But what's interesting, I don't remember them being loud ever, different kinds of earthquakes maybe?:) I had a picture wall in my living room and I would have to fix our pictures alignment every week or so as the house was trembling often:) In that big one of 2011, we were about 300 km from Sendai (epicenter was off shore), but still our houses were well shaken. And we all know what came next.
ReplyDeleteYes, you have experienced some crazy ones. And probably the way the plates are moving totally changes what they feel/sound like
DeleteMark and I slept through one that shook our house that happened in Oklahoma a couple years ago. We were exhausted but our friends and parents said it was extremely noticeable. They say a huge one will occur in Eastern MO, the last time it did, it moved a bell on the east coast... We've actually had a few more happen in Oklahoma and they say it has something to do with drilling in Oklahoma. I've still never felt one though.
ReplyDeleteWell don’t be in any rush to feel one ;)
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