EARTHQUAKE!!

[propita]

People have to remember that the local geology affects how an earthquake is felt in a particular area. A 4.5 may cause minor chalking in some areas, but the ground is other areas might result in enough vibration to knock a person, or an un-reinforced house, down.

Hubby was in Loma Prieta for the races when that quake hit. For all I knew, he was on the Nimitz Freeway! I was very worried. As it happens, he was by Coit Tower, great view of the shaking and geologically one of the sounder places there, being hard rock. His hotel was cracked a bit and tourists from the UK were understandably freaked, this being new to them and all.

 

[Nerys Myk]

People have to remember that the local geology affects how an earthquake is felt in a particular area. A 4.5 may cause minor chalking in some areas, but the ground is other areas might result in enough vibration to knock a person, or an un-reinforced house, down.

Hubby was in Loma Prieta for the races when that quake hit. For all I knew, he was on the Nimitz Freeway! I was very worried. As it happens, he was by Coit Tower, great view of the shaking and geologically one of the sounder places there, being hard rock. His hotel was cracked a bit and tourists from the UK were understandably freaked, this being new to them and all.

Yep. When Loma Prieta hit where I worked and lived lost power,my TV took a header and a bottle of soy sauce broke. Trying to cross an expressway without traffic lights is tricky. A few miles away in Los Gatos the damage was more severe with buildings knocked off their foundations, collapsed walls and town was shut down. I had to sign a waiver to go in and help clean up. This is a picture of the bookstore a friend of mine worked at in Los Gatos.. That's actually a pretty mild shot of the damage. Some of the fixtures further back went over like dominoes. My friend pulled a pregnant woman out from under them. She has no idea how she did it. Adrenaline I guess.

 

[M'Sharak]

Last year, a 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit my area as well. It was night and I was sitting on my bed listening to music and felt the bed shake. I was like: what the hell?! It was an earthquake. It happened because about 25 miles away from my house, they were drilling for oil wells.

Would that be Oklahoma or Arkansas?

If the latter, the chance of the quake being related in any way to oil drilling is just about zero. If the former, the chances of drilling triggering anything approaching a 4.7 really wouldn't be much higher; most drilling-related quakes are of such low magnitude that it's doubtful anyone would even notice unless they were within a mile or two of the epicenter and using sensitive instruments.

 

[comsol]

I was on the road with my college jazz band when Loma Prieta went down. We all sat there in our hotel rooms watching the coverage for a fair whack of time.

We noticed this mainly because some whackjob had predicted that a quake would hit right in the middle of Missouri (where we were) about the same time. It never happened.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBVW_fqqJuM[/yt]

Iben Browning was the guy's name. I remember how worked up some people got over that "prediction". There was a statewide group that was going to meet in the auditorium of the library that I work (in suburban St. Louis) at that day, which had to cancel because to many of their people were afraid to travel , we had a good laugh about it though.

 

[LeadHead]

Hello! That was a good one in the SF bay area!

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Been through quite a few earthquakes over the years while living in Alaska....as well as two volcanoes blowing up that scattered ash on Anchorage - one heavily enough to make the daylight into what seemed like night as the sun was obliterated by ash cloud. Been through quite a few hurricanes while growing up in South Florida. Been through a few tornadoes coming fairly near my neighborhood (though not hitting it) in Georgia. Seen a bit of what mother nature can do.

Been through a ton of quakes that were strong enough to feel. But only one was strong enough to knock me off a kitchen chair onto the floor...and another strong enough to dislodge my TV set from an entertainment center. Most of the time, they are just freaky little rides.

Actually...I'm more afraid of the tornadoes.