Earthquakes: How strong to feel it?

[Silent1CB]

Saw the thread that Illinois had a 4.3 earthquake this morning. That made me wonder at what strength do people report feeling them. I know it depends on how close you are to them too.

 

[Judy from Boise]

just personal experience a 3 or above I usually felt if in the appropriate vicinity.

 

[KathyTX]

There's a helpful scale here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

A 4.0 - 4.9 has noticable shaking, and there are 6,200 of them each year!

 

[jlmarr]

For me it has to be 4+ or I'm not likely to notice. Anything over 5 is an attention getter. The strongest I've been through were a 6.7 (Northridge -1994) and a 6.6 (Sylmar - 1971).

 

[Silent1CB]

There's a helpful scale here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

A 4.0 - 4.9 has noticable shaking, and there are 6,200 of them each year!

Thanks. That was helpful and interesting.

 

[OK!]

There was one in Kentucky (I think) in 2002-2003 that I felt, sitting at my desk at work in North St. Louis County. I felt the desk kind of shaking very slightly (I was leaning forward with my elbows on it and my chin in my hands at the time). I looked around and none of my coworkers said anything or reacted, so I thought maybe I'd imagined it or suddenly had the DTs or something ; the desk was very subtly undulating under my elbows. Maybe an hour later, one of my bosses came out of his office and announced that there'd been an earthquake.

One that I REALLY felt was on April 18, 2008 (just found an article on it--that's how I know the date ). I was studying for exams at the time and my cat, who normally sat on his cat tree right behind my chair most of the time while I was studying, had just jumped down and torn into the bedroom. I didn't think anything of it at the time and looked back at my computer screen, which was a glossy, non-matte screen and which normally reflected the window that was behind me. Therefore, it was incredibly obvious when the reflection suddenly started vibrating like hell. I sat back from the table and took my hands off of it in case I was the one causing it, but it just kept shaking. Scared the heck out of me, and it was only the aftershock that I felt, not the initial earthquake.

 

[LvsTnk]

Definately felt the one this morning.. we were all laughing at what we thought woke us up.

We have train tracks close by, so my neighbors husband thought a train went off the track

My DH thought the deck was falling off the back of the house, then when that was fine he checked the furnace?? haha

I thought the snow was getting so heavy the skylights in my kitchen were cracking (I sleep in the living room DH snores)

 

[RangerPooh]

Having grown up in California I agree that it needs ot be over a 4 to really get noticed. Anoything less and you think that a big truck drove through your neighborhood or there must be a bad wind storm.

 

[jlima]

When we still lived in California, I felt a gentle jolt once and though it was the cat pushing from her back legs and jumping onto the floor . . . but she wasn't in the room. The LA Times had a Long Beach section once a week and the following week, there was a short article that mentioned there had been a 2.5 earthquake on the day I felt the jolt and the coordinates were near the intersection of street X and street Y - which was practically where we lived. So that was RIGHT under our house.

The Northridge earthquake was miles and miles away, and it was frightening to the point that I really thought the house might collapse.

 

[cjb71870]

My friend who lives in Illinois just posted that he slept through an earthquake lasnight!!

 

[DisnyMama]

Where I lived in Chatsworth, CA during the 94' Northridge quake was only 3 miles from the epicenter so what we felt was quite violent, constant shaking that seemed to last forever. I was sleeping in a waterbed that felt like "The Perfect Storm" during the quake but what I remember most was praying that the building would not cave in-we were in a tri-level townhome. My ex-husband was just about to head down the stairs to leave for work when it hit but it knocked him to the ground, literally, and he spent the entire quake crawling on his hands and knees in the dark to our 3 year old sons room, who happened to sleep through the whole thing bless his little heart. As far as damage goes, we were very, very fortunate. Just some cracked drywall but it all had to be replaced, some chipped tile in the kitchenm broken dishes and glasses, broken picture frame glass and dented/scratched furniture. Mostly worn and frayed nerves due to the aftershocks. In my opinion those were worse than the actual quake itself because they were so frequent and constant for months after.

 

[momrek06]

I have lived in SoCal since July '08. Three weeks after getting here SoCal had that 5.6 earthquake....YIKES!!! That was intense IMHO as I had never experienced anything like it before. Then there were the aftershocks. I will say, I think really it would have to be a 4 or more to feel it. Oh and I can definitely see sleeping through earthquakes that are under 4. My DS lives in south San Diego, he has slept through plenty of earthquakes. He will listen to the radio, tv, hear on the news there was a minor earthquake in his area and never felt a thing.

The study of earthquakes or seismology is absolutely amazing. My DH is a civil engineer and since we are now going to stay in CA, he is currently studying to take his CA PE and the preparation for the PE on the seismology portion of the exam is incredibly intense. There is just so much that goes on prior, during and after an earthquake.