The Official Earthquake Thread ...

[NorthStar]

Few honorable members here @ WBF live in the Seattle, California areas, west coast of Canada, Vancouver Island, near Victoria, ...the entire North American west coast.

There are several monitoring earthquake websites that record all world earthquakes as they happen live second by second. ...Or from our area.
? http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/

Alright, last night @ exactly 11:39 PM (my time) I was watching a movie when suddenly the TV moved! ...Then the windows and doors moved too!
...Then the entire mansion moved with the roof too! Then I moved too and my couch too! ...I heard a buffalo stampede across the entire roof and with it all the walls shifted from one side to the other.
? http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/earthquake-bc-south-coast-1.3384066
?? http://earthquaketrack.com/quakes/2015-12-30-07-39-29-utc-4-8-52

Anyway, it was truly something else. Words can't describe, you would have to be inside my own body and inside my own mansion and doing what I was peacefully doing to fully understand the experience. It was like a force from above trying to open the roof of your house and grab you by the balls and lift you up unto their spaceship from another galaxy. ...It's not easy to describe so please bear with me. The shock wave, measured @ 4.8, was intense enough to notice. The epicenter was only few miles from here. ...Say between ten and twenty.

I wrote down the time of when exactly it happened, I went outside and look on the roof. I opened the door first with caution, in case terrestrials were waiting on the other side. I came back after ten minutes or so, it was just below zero degree, and I noticed the couch has been lifted and still suspended in mid-air! ...Ok, this last one is a slight exaggeration...just to put you in the ambiance of what it was like.

I don't usually post about earthquakes, but this time around, because of the magnitude and proximity of the epicenter, yes.

Now, I know some of you live in the Seattle area, and others in California. Your turn to share your own experience, and in particular last night @ 11:39 PM (Pacific Time). I'm sure that the people from Los Angeles area have felt some much stronger than 4.8 before, and closer to their epicenters. So if you're one of them share that too right here if you feel compelled. ...This is the Official Earthquake thread, and you can even show pictures of your gear (cracked walls and fallen roofs) and overall setup in your room (blown up speakers and destroyed headquarters).

Anything goes when it comes to earthquakes, and late last night was real spooky here. ...Many thoughts goes through your mind, and your actions too are out of routine. I was also thinking about Amir, Mike (Lavigne), Mike (the other one who just moved recently to the Seattle area), Gary (Genesis) and Steve (doc) who lives in California and must have been through some unusual tremors in the past.

This thread is for all of us...from Europe to France to New York to California to Alaska to Canada to all the coasts of the world all across the oceans' floors and under the volcanoes. Earthquakes sharing experiences, voila.

And besides, variety is good for the mind, in the cold of the winter, along with the "analogue warmth" of our cozy sounding sound systems, with tubes, or not.
...Shaken but not stirred.

 

[TBone]

North, I've been thru 2 minor quakes. The first one, decades ago, working, 12th floor open office, ~7pm. All employees had left, me alone, w/the lights dimmed, banging away at the computer. I was sitting in a chair, and all of a sudden it started traveling, with me in it, rolling 6 feet away from my desk, the windows, plants and objects seemed to shimmering. It last all of 10 seconds, and I had no idea what had just happened. Thinking perhaps some ghost was playing a cruel joke on my sensibilities, I quickly packed and went home, not mentioning anything to anyone. The next day, news of the minor earth-quack revealed I was not going crazy.

I can't imagine the horror of being in a major quack.

 

[audioguy]

I spent the first 18 years of my life in Southern California. I know all about earthquakes. And then after watching the movie San Andreas, I was once again convinced moving away was a brilliant idea !!!

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I know heaven and earth moved on several occasions for me, but I don't remember all of their names.

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

Born and raised in Southern California and have ridden them all since 1962 and have many stories. I felt the one last night in Seattle and the wife felt the one in California.
I have also experienced tornadoes first hand and I will take the EQ hands down everytime.

 

[amirm]

I have been through them in California, Seattle, and twice in Tokyo. The big ones are very unsettling. The 1989 bay area one haunted me for a year. Every vibration in the floor from traffic and such would send shivers into my spine. One of the ones in Tokyo was when I was in a high-rise hotel in one of the top floors. Oh that was scary looking out the window and see the entire building swing.

The one in Seattle lasted a while when I was working at Microsoft. Unlike California, it was so foreign to everyone that they had no idea what to do. When we bought our house a few years prior here, I asked for auto-shut off for the gas prior to purchase and strapping of the water heater and people looked at me like, "this crazy Californian; we don't have this kind of problem here." I think now it is code/requirement to strap water heaters.

Hope no one has to live through the big ones.

 

[TBone]

The very scary Fukushima_Daiichi event(s) was/is of great interest to me, amazing true story of ingenuity, danger and containment, plus the cultural impacts. NOVA did a special not long ago.

 

[astrotoy]

I've been in California for 48 years, since coming out here for grad school. Living in the Bay Area we have lots of earthquakes, the biggest so far was Loma Prieta in 1989. I was home early to watch the World Series (A's vs Giants) and the house shook more and longer than any previous or since. Caused the collapse of a major freeway near us, and of course, a big chunk of the upper level of the Bay Bridge.

We had done some significant earthquake proofing of the house which we built in 1976 (and still live in). The frame of the house had been bolted to the foundation when we built it and the foundation was built on a large number of piers sunk into the hillside where we live. There are shutoff valves for the natural gas lines and the water heater is anchored to the wall studs. We also installed wooden sheathing across the studs in the lower part of the house to increase stability. I also have all my record cases anchored to the walls (with 15K records, that is a lot of anchors), earthquake locks on all the cabinets, and earthquake straps across all the record and bookcases, to prevent them from falling out. All our pictures hanging on the walls have earthquake mounts, so the pictures don't jump off their mounts. A few years ago we installed an emergency generator which can supply 17kw of power to the house, using natural gas (or propane if necessary), in case the power goes off.

We learned from some experts that the major cause of injury is things falling from shelves and hitting you or breaking and cutting you.

I think the probability of a big earthquake in the Bay Area on the Hayward Fault is pretty close to 50-50 within the next 20-30 years. Since I am now 70, making it through to the next 20 years looks like similar odds for me!

Larry

 

[NorthStar]

I'm reading slowly what you guys experienced in the past and I can decipher a common pattern here; one of inquietude, uncertainty, insecurity ... to the point of being scared and @ proximity of imminent danger.

4.8 is not big, but if you are close to it you can see your full house moving, and that shock wave moving from one end of your roof to the other.
@ first I was slow to react (first three or four seconds), then you're right in the middle of it...moving along with everything else that moved. ...Like a roller coaster ride.
I'm not used to that, and I admit it, for a second I was scared of this unknown force...and instinctively I locked my door! ...No kidding, only for six-seven seconds...but still I locked my door! I never lock my doors, ever. ...Or unless I'm gone for a month or two.
But please don't tell anyone about that; they'll think I'm weak...and I don't want people thinking that I'm weak.

Sure sure sure, all together it only lasted roughly thirteen seconds. ...Just enough time to react out of our usual routine...and locked my door for six-seven seconds! Lol

I didn't know that you can google and have seismic activity monitored @ all times, even in the now. It took me only few minutes to discover that. ...Everywhere in the world, not just in your area. If you wrote down the earthquakes you experienced in your lifetime, or that you remember the date and time and place, you can find out exactly their magnitude and epicenters.

Nature is much more powerful than humanity, and humanity can also contribute to the destruction of humankind. ...Pollution, global warming, oil leaks, natural wildlife destroyed, environment screwed up for hundred of years (oil), and all that human jazz of control, power, money and vice. ...It's like human evil working in tandem with volcanoes' eruptions and hurricanes and tornadoes and tsunamis and typhoons and ice storms and snow blizzards and earthquakes and you see the best and the worst in humanity in face of the greatest natural challenges. ...Maybe there was a reason why the Egyptians built the great pyramids, why the Chinese people built the great wall, why the flying saucers landed on USA soil in the desert, why the atomic bomb still have and will have devastating effects for the next couple billion years!

Before man and woman were created and populated our planet, the dinosaurs rumbled the globe peacefully, and then Bang! ...A major collide and from it sparkles of stars fell on Earth and robbing each other...till a new form of life was naturally invented; the ape.

Well, earthquakes and lightning strikes can do that sometimes; you don't know where they come from and when they're going to hit us next.
Yeah, humanity was created from a major natural disaster...and all those little aftershocks are just a logical/mathematical reminder.

But seriously, this is deadly stuff. And it is also new reborn stuff, because forest fires that happened million years ago are under the most majestic mountains of our planet.
Others are under the sand of the deserts, and some under the nicest world jungles...Amazonian carpet and the black forest.

I literally moved from left to right last night, while the couch I was sitting on moved from right to left! ...Now, that was real spooky.

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

Mother nature always wins, every time when she needs to.

All you Bay area folk remember Buck Helms? We all rooted for his survival.

I remember watching those people drive that Ford Granada off that section of the collapsed bridge live and could not believe my eyes.

I felt that one in So Cal 600 miles away, just happened to be sitting on the toilet at the time.

Whittier Narrows Quake I was 10-15 miles from epicenter, I watched a 16 inch diameter ram of a car lift flex with a 4-door Cadillac at full extension and it didn't fall off. As I was exiting the building I watched the seismic waves going down the sides of the building making solid concrete look like rubber. I watched as the cars and the road went up and down in waves and people getting out of their cars in panic. That was the one where the 3 story apartment building became a two story apartment building killing a bunch of sleeping people. I remember the ruptured gas lines burning uncontrolled.

Big Bear Landers quakes, that was fun, two in one day. After the first one I was out in the front yard trying to calm my children with activities and I felt the second one start I called the kids to me and we sat there and watched as the seismic waves rolled down the street lifting and dropping entire houses in a very organized order.

We had one a couple years ago and it was much smaller than the others but we were on the epicenter and it did more damage than all the other ones. The funny thing about that one was when I went home all the food from the refrigerator was on the kitchen floor but the fridge door was shut. Door open food flew out, door shut, not a drop spilled in the fridge. We cleaned up about 25lbs of broken dishes at my moms place that day.

Google search any of these EQ names and look at the pictures and videos.

The crazy videos are from the tops of the Japanese skyscrapers where the EQ has been over for 10 minutes and the tops of the buildings are still moving like 30 feet back and forth. They have their sky scraper tech down over there to literally roll with it.

P.S. When Mother Nature is done with Human Beings, she will obliterate them in one fell swoop. Like everything else on this planet/universe, it all cycles and there is not much we can do about it except ride along.

 

[Ronm1]

The Northeast, New England actually has its share of faults, but nothing like the west coast as its not near a plate boundary. Early morn little ambient noise, no music playing reading, pets new it msecs before I did. Would never have noticed it any other time of day.
TMK worst quake in the US was in MI mid 1800's. Changed the course of the Missisippi River for a time, till it eventually corrected itself. Glad I wasn't there for that one. Talk about moving some earth.

 

[NorthStar]

Mother nature always wins, every time when she needs to.

All you Bay area folk remember Buck Helms? We all rooted for his survival.

I remember watching those people drive that Ford Granada off that section of the collapsed bridge live and could not believe my eyes.

I felt that one in So Cal 600 miles away, just happened to be sitting on the toilet at the time.

Whittier Narrows Quake I was 10-15 miles from epicenter, I watched a 16 inch diameter ram of a car lift flex with a 4-door Cadillac at full extension and it didn't fall off. As I was exiting the building I watched the seismic waves going down the sides of the building making solid concrete look like rubber. I watched as the cars and the road went up and down in waves and people getting out of their cars in panic. That was the one where the 3 story apartment building became a two story apartment building killing a bunch of sleeping people. I remember the ruptured gas lines burning uncontrolled.

Big Bear Landers quakes, that was fun, two in one day. After the first one I was out in the front yard trying to calm my children with activities and I felt the second one start I called the kids to me and we sat there and watched as the seismic waves rolled down the street lifting and dropping entire houses in a very organized order.

We had one a couple years ago and it was much smaller than the others but we were on the epicenter and it did more damage than all the other ones. The funny thing about that one was when I went home all the food from the refrigerator was on the kitchen floor but the fridge door was shut. Door open food flew out, door shut, not a drop spilled in the fridge. We cleaned up about 25lbs of broken dishes at my moms place that day.

Google search any of these EQ names and look at the pictures and videos.

The crazy videos are from the tops of the Japanese skyscrapers where the EQ has been over for 10 minutes and the tops of the buildings are still moving like 30 feet back and forth. They have their sky scraper tech down over there to literally roll with it,

WoW ... WoW ... WoW!

I think that when a person goes through all of this, is when he becomes a real man/woman.
They just don't teach us that kind of stuff @ school, or in the sport section of Fortune magazine....Or @ the public swimming pool.

That 4.8 earthquake from last night, while watching 'Drag me to Hell' on Blu-ray; they consider it as a "significant" one. ...Like an important one.
And for me it was certainly that!

 

[FrantzM]

As a person whose country was devastated by an earthquake for which we were (and continue to be) completely unprepared, I find most of the posts somewhat amusing. When in less than 15 minutes half a million people loses their lives, cities entirely destroyed and at least 10 millions lives irremediably transformed ... You come with a new appreciation of Life, understand the fragility of Human Life and how powerful nature is. You come with a renewed appreciation of each day as a gift.

 

[NorthStar]

As a person whose country was devastated by an earthquake for which we were (and continue to be) completely unprepared, I find most of the posts somewhat amusing. When in less than 15 minutes half a million people loses their lives, cities entirely destroyed and at least 10 millions lives irremediably transformed ... You come with a new appreciation of Life, understand the fragility of Human Life and how powerful nature is. You come with a renewed appreciation of each day as a gift.

Exactemente. ...And that is the point of this thread, why I started it, and why everyone understand it. ...It has many conjunctions related to it. ...Parallels.
...World/humanity's vulnerability and fragility.

We don't forget, ever, and we don't forgive as nature itself doesn't. ...Unforgiven.

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

As a person whose country was devastated by an earthquake for which we were (and continue to be) completely unprepared, I find most of the posts somewhat amusing. When in less than 15 minutes half a million people loses their lives, cities entirely destroyed and at least 10 millions lives irremediably transformed ... You come with a new appreciation of Life, understand the fragility of Human Life and how powerful nature is. You come with a renewed appreciation of each day as a gift.

I agree with you 100% on your statement, it's the "and continue to be" part that concerns me.
The reason there has not been more deaths here is because of preparing for the inevitable through stricter building codes and the very fortunate fact we have never had a devastating tidal surge that kills 100's of thousands of people.
Also part of the reason I always live on a hill.
I do not ever want to be a flood/tidal surge victim. At my current home in Ca the entire LA, OC, San Bernardino counties would be at least 1k feet under water before my front door got wet.
The Japan EQ and the Thailand surges continue to boggle my mind with the pure physics of it as well as the overwhelming sadness if it.
If you live in an area where this is a possibility you need to be prepared or better yet position your self to live out of harms way.