Earthquake? Whut?

[eponymous_rose]

Yikes! An earthquake in England? Now that's unexpected. The articles I've read say nobody was injured, thankfully, and I hope nobody got too shaken up!

I've never experienced an earthquake - nor would I like to! - despite having lived in Japan for a while, there (though there were a bunch of funky rolls and breaks in the sidewalks all around town from a recent quake). I currently live pretty far from any faults, and any seismic activity we get around here is totally anthropocentric (oil and gas industries doing crazy drilling, yes). Anyone have any interesting earthquake-related stories to share?

Comments

[settiai]

Not really interesting, but it always surprises me how many we get in Tennessee. I mean, when you think of earthquakes, the Deep South isn't exactly the first place to pop into mind, but we definitely get our fair share.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Some years ago, when I was living in Minnesota (not known for earthquakes) the house started to shake one night. Not violently, but very noticeably, and it went on for thirty seconds or so.

The interesting thing, as I read in the newspaper the next day, was that the earthquake's epicenter was actually in South America somewhere. But the quake happened so deep underground that the vibrations traveled enormously far, and it was felt for thousands of miles. Even in Minnesota.

ETA: An article about the quake, just in case I sound like a crazy person: here.

[northern_magic]

Anthropocentric seismic activity story:
I went out to some geological survey some ways west of Calgary in grade ten (via the Seismic in Motion programme- have you heard of it?) Great fun, even though it was cold and wet and the only heat source out past the trailers were outdoor radiators. The final presentation involved gathering all 500 or so of us kids on one side of a field and planting/detonating explosives deep in the middle...hehehe. Sitting on grass and solid ground, couldn't hear much because of the earplugs, but somewhere deep down in the soil you could feel the repercussions of the blasts...
Free (good) food, a bag of free stuff and getting to watch things explode. It was worth it.

[hms-surrender.livejournal.com]

Being in California, everyone (outside of California, that is) expects us all to fall into the centre of the earth due to the amazingly horrible and awful earthquakes we have. But at least the past three earthquakes (that I'm aware of) we've supposedly had here in San Diego I had no idea happened until someone said to me, 'OMG did you feel the earthquake?!!'

Relatives in Kentucky wonder how we can possibly live in a place about to become it's own island, but we wonder how anyone can possibly live in a place with tornadoes and drastic .

[wheresmycow.livejournal.com]

I live along a fault line that's been quiet of late but back in the 90s was pretty rumbly. I remember the big earthquake (7.something) here in the Philippines back in 1990 -- I'd just come home from grade school and my mum and I were sitting in the dining room watching the pictures and china cabinets rattle violently. And then we saw a dripping wet naked guy rush out of the condo next door.

My older sister had stayed late at our school -- which was on a hill right beside the fault line -- that day and she said that the ground was rolling.

[heidi-wiggin.livejournal.com]

I was five during the San Andreas quake of '89. I was watching Sesame Street and the tv bliped off of it's own accord. The whole house shook for what seemed like forever; food fell out of our fridge and smashed, pots and pans and spices fell into the smashed food, my parents were running around frantically looking for my little brother (he was on the computer, and fine). I crawled under the rocking chair I was sitting on, which was a bad idea, as you might have guessed, since it rocked.

We had a china cabinet that moved a foot away from the wall. it was quite amazing that it didn't fall over and smash our dining room table and chandelier.

I was freaked out of my mind and spent the next few hours sniffling and running to my Mom after every aftershock.

My elementary school suffered damage so for the next two weeks we had school at our local junior high.

Pretty crazy!

[paranoidangel]

There's actually been a few earthquakes in this country, but they always seem to be overnight and I always sleep through them, even when I've not been that far from the epicentre.

Last night's woke me up, so even though I didn't know what it was at the time, I'm quite excited about it now.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

I was at work when we had one this fall. The tools shook on their hooks but didn't actually fall off and my customer grabbed my arm. livii said it was worse in her part of Northern California.

[rainshaded]

Earthquake here? Huh?

The nearest I've ever got to an earthquake is the thing in one of London's museums, with a shaking floor.

[paranoidangel]

Oh, I've been there, it's in the Natural History Museum, and is very cool. But a much better way to experience an earthquake, I suspect, when you know it's going to happen.

[rainshaded]

Oh, yes, that was it! My brother and I always spent our holidays in primary school being taken around the museums. The Natural History Museum was my favourite, although the robot dinosaurs scared me. The earthquake experience also used to scare me somewhat, but in the 'Let's do that again' way which is unusual for me.