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Question for anyone who has experienced an earthquake


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I've been having many discussions with folks over the last week or so about the East Coast earthquake - we're all sharing our "Where were you?" stories. These people are all Virginians who live within about 75 miles of the epicenter so they all felt the shaking. What I find interesting is that many of them say they heard the earthquake and they describe it as being extremely loud. Dd18 was in the same room with me when we felt it and she said the thundering noise scared her more than the shaking. I, otoh, don't remember hearing anything. I mean, I heard some china tinkling in the china cabinet - that sort of thing - but no thunder.

 

My question is how common or usual is it to hear that thunderous noise or not hear it? I am racking my brain and I simply do not have any memory of loud noise. All I remember is feeling the shaking, running to the door frame and just standing there waiting for the shaking to stop. No noise.

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I grew up in the SF Bay Area. I'm now in southern VA, about 120 miles from the epicenter of the quake. Small earthquakes were commonplace in CA. I do not recall hearing noises. We would feel a slight movement and usually confirm by looking up to see if the lights were swaying.

 

Earthquakes in VA are slightly different though. I was in the car and did not hear any noise. I felt the car moving, and I've never felt an earthquake in a car before. But there are fewer locations here for the energy to be absorbed (fault lines), and that's why it was felt from MI to GA. I wonder if that has something to do with the noise some people heard?

 

There was another earthquake in my area a year or two ago, close to the center of my city. It was only felt in the immediate area, but it was big enough to jolt those who felt it. Just musing out loud.

 

:bigear:

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Also grew up in L.A. and the big one we had in early 70s was early in the morning and I was in bed - thought my sister was shaking my bed. We did have lots of aftershocks and I remember them as a shaking - no clear memory of the sound. I think they happen so quickly that it would easy to not remember noise.

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Lived in CA and was in Monterey during the 89 quake. I actually had time to get to the door during that one and then outside for the aftershocks where I saw the ground roll. Pretty neat (nothing to fall on us outside, so safer than inside).

 

I never heard a noise. The closest was the first quake there when I thought it was a semi going past (very mild one).

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I was sitting in the dining room working on schoolwork with dd when the east coast quake happened. I think there may have been some noise, but mostly i noticed the shaking. My first thought was "what is maintenance doing outside?" We live in a rental community and it felt (sounded) like they were doing something right outside my wall on the grassy hill that is there, like maybe using a jackhammer. Then it got worse and I realized it was an earthquake.

 

I had never been in one before. They say it only lasted about 30 seconds, but it felt like sooooo much longer.

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I was asleep on the sofa and thought it was a truck at first too. We live on a gravel/dirt road so when the UPS guy or a dump truck goes by it is rather noisy and really huge trucks do shake us. But within about 5 seconds the shaking got much more violent and I realized then it was an earthquake. Still, it was the shaking I remember, not noise. Oh, think it felt much longer than 30 seconds as well - more like a minute.

 

Thanks for the replies - it's helpful and fascinating to hear what others have experienced.

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CA here. I have heard earthquakes before I felt them. It is usually a sound like a truck driving up the street, low and rumbling. It is not that way with all earthquakes, but some are like that. I wonder if it depends on the depth and whether it is a shaking jolt or a rolling earthquake. Now that I think about it, it might be that I heard the the noise before rolling earthquakes.

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I live in Southern California, so unfortunately I'm familiar with earthquakes.

 

If it's a sizable quake, I absolutely hear them first if I'm inside. The house creaks and rumbles, then I feel the movement - it builds as it comes. For smaller quakes, sometimes it's just a "whoosh" as the house sways, and sometimes not much noise at all. But all the noise is house and objects moving, not the earth.

 

The quakes I've felt outside or in a car have had no noise with them at all. Just motion.

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I grew up in S. California and felt many earthquakes - but the loudest was also the weakest (but we turned out to be only 9 miles from the epicenter - I was NEVER that close to any on S. Ca.), a 3.something (I forget) in Northern Illinois last year! It hit in the middle of the night and was LOUD! And forceful - we all felt like a semi-truck had crashed into the house!

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I have been through several minor earthquakes. The recent one in the NE was the first I did not hear coming. Usually I hear a rumble like a big truck going by only it gets louder and louder and then the earth starts to shake while the rumble continues.

 

This one freaked me out because I did not hear it.

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CA here. I have heard earthquakes before I felt them. It is usually a sound like a truck driving up the street, low and rumbling. It is not that way with all earthquakes, but some are like that. I wonder if it depends on the depth and whether it is a shaking jolt or a rolling earthquake. Now that I think about it, it might be that I heard the the noise before rolling earthquakes.

 

I would agree.

 

It depends on the wave - I believe there are P and S waves? As a native CA'er, I went thru numerous earthquakes in my life. '71 Sylmar quake was the worst. Landers quake hit and we were 40 miles from the epicenter in the Mojave Desert. That one we saw the earth rolling towards us in waves and it was quite cool to witness it outdoors. The Northridge quake had small tremors for us in the Mojave Desert near Wrightwood, CA.

 

I recall some small tremors sounding like a jackhammer or semi truck, but it really depends how close to the epicenter you are and the wave (P or S). Most earthquakes have no sound except for the clamor of walls, falling plates, or such making noise. Many times it happens so quick you do not have time to react and duck/cover.

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Oh, yeah, there's definitely noise. I heard the noise before I felt the tremor in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

 

LOL

 

Hubby and I were married back then living in Irvine and I recall waking up early to shower before college class. As I got out of the shower, the earthquake hit. Hubby was sleeping in our waterbed (old fashioned w/ no baffles). I made the mistake of jumping into bed while the room was shaking -- it made for a fun tsunami like ride! :D

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I heard a lot of noise -- like a truck driving by, or someone stomping around on the floor above -- before the shaking started in a couple of WA quakes. But in a couple of other quakes, I didn't hear anything prior.

 

Dh said he didn't hear any noise before the shaking started in the Loma Prieta quake.

Edited by TrixieB
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The mystery for me is how Dd18 and I both experienced the same earthquake in the same room and had such different accounts. She said the sound was deafening - I didn't hear anything. Weird. I'm think it has something to do with what a previous poster said about hearing lower frequencies. Maybe I'm just not hearing those low frequencies.

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Noise is definitely something that can go with earthquakes, but depending on where you are in relation to the true epicenter (depth and distance), you might not notice it. Many people will say that they've "been through XYZ quake" when in reality they were hundreds of miles away from it. It doesn't mean that they didn't experience some shaking that went with it (and sometimes even strong shaking), but they didn't truly feel all the strength that that quake had to offer and would definitely not experience the same thing that someone would who is right near the epicenter.

 

I grew up in Coalinga, CA - home of the 1983 6.7 Coalinga earthquake, and just a short distance from Parkfield, CA - known as the earthquake capital of the world LOL. Parkfield has the San Andreas fault run right through their town and for at least a century or so, their earthquakes were actually pretty darn predictable. They would come approx every 22 yrs...until the Coalinga Earthquake. Apparently ours threw the predictions out the window LOL. The one that was to happen in 1993, didn't actually happen until 2004. With that being said, Parkfield has been the home of many, many researchers, and scientific equipment to test earthquakes.

 

Anyway, I have a fascination for earthquakes. One thing I've learned is that people can experience the same earthquake absolutely differently. Sometimes it's just the personal way that people experience something, sometimes it's the difference in location, but no matter what, it has about the same accuracy as eyewitness accounts, which we know can be highly off LOL.

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The smaller aftershocks we've been having are sometimes accompanied by noise and sometimes not. The big ones were most definitely very loud - can't make yourself heard over them kind of loud. Sometimes we hear a shake coming and brace to see whether it's going to be a big one or not... usually not :001_smile:

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Noise is definitely something that can go with earthquakes, but depending on where you are in relation to the true epicenter (depth and distance), you might not notice it. Many people will say that they've "been through XYZ quake" when in reality they were hundreds of miles away from it. It doesn't mean that they didn't experience some shaking that went with it (and sometimes even strong shaking), but they didn't truly feel all the strength that that quake had to offer and would definitely not experience the same thing that someone would who is right near the epicenter.

 

I grew up in Coalinga, CA - home of the 1983 6.7 Coalinga earthquake, and just a short distance from Parkfield, CA - known as the earthquake capital of the world LOL. Parkfield has the San Andreas fault run right through their town and for at least a century or so, their earthquakes were actually pretty darn predictable. They would come approx every 22 yrs...until the Coalinga Earthquake. Apparently ours threw the predictions out the window LOL. The one that was to happen in 1993, didn't actually happen until 2004. With that being said, Parkfield has been the home of many, many researchers, and scientific equipment to test earthquakes.

 

Anyway, I have a fascination for earthquakes. One thing I've learned is that people can experience the same earthquake absolutely differently. Sometimes it's just the personal way that people experience something, sometimes it's the difference in location, but no matter what, it has about the same accuracy as eyewitness accounts, which we know can be highly off LOL.

 

My dh has developed an interest in earthquakes since the one earlier this year in Japan. He predicts the next large earthquake (7.0 or above or thereabouts) will happen somewhere around Valentine's Day next year. I'll be so impressed if he's right, but I don't really want it to happen ever! (Not realistic, I know.)

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What I find interesting is that many of them say they heard the earthquake and they describe it as being extremely loud. My question is how common or usual is it to hear that thunderous noise or not hear it? I am racking my brain and I simply do not have any memory of loud noise. .

 

It depends upon where you are in relation to the direction of the wave. What acoustics are around you, what the geology is, etc.

 

For one, I remember lying down resting and hearing what sounded like a very large, and loud, truck rumbling down our hill, just before the shaking started. there was no truck. I've been in three others I did not hear.

 

(though the biggest, a 6.9, I'm not sure if we heard a noise or not. I was at a school 'thing' with many parents and students. there was something that made all of us just "stop" and start looking around as the shaking started and gradually increased. (fortunately, where I was it wasn't uber violent for very long - just alot of shaking) It seems like there was a "pop". but I'm not sure.)

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He predicts the next large earthquake (7.0 or above or thereabouts) will happen somewhere around Valentine's Day next year. I'll be so impressed if he's right, but I don't really want it to happen ever! (Not realistic, I know.)

 

The aluetian islands just had one. had a baby tsunami too.

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The aluetian islands just had one. had a baby tsunami too.

 

Yes, he predicted that one. He's got some sort of database thing on his computer where he's imported all these numbers and dates and noticed a trend over the last several decades - basically the strong ones are getting closer together. So he figured the next one should happen around Feb. 14, 2012. He is no mathematician or statistician so I'll be surprised if he's right, but he's having fun so, whatever.:)

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The mystery for me is how Dd18 and I both experienced the same earthquake in the same room and had such different accounts. She said the sound was deafening - I didn't hear anything. Weird. I'm think it has something to do with what a previous poster said about hearing lower frequencies. Maybe I'm just not hearing those low frequencies.

 

there are "ring tones" specifically geared towards teens because adults can't hear the frequency.

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There is actually a low rumbling sound that comes before the shaking, but it took experiencing (literally) hundreds of aftershocks from the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 to realize that there really was a noise.

 

But I don't think this is what you're referring to.

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I grew up in S. CA I remember most of the earthquakes I went through sounded like a loud semi truck at first. There was one time that I remember thinking (irrationally) that my mom must have been stomping through the house. There was an initial "boom, boom, boom," then it sped up into the normal rumbling and I started to feel the ground moving. Ugh. I hate earthquakes.

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I live in CA and experienced several smaller quakes. Never did I hear a sound. As someone else mentioned it has to do with the type of waves, but also with the amount of fault lines present. Waves travel super fast in the Bay Area because of the many fault lines, hence feeling the unexpected quake before you hear it.

 

Many years ago, when still lived in Europe, I felt 2 small earthquakes. Both produced a rumbling sound, kind of like a heavy truck driving by.

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We were about about 30 minutes from the epicenter in Va and heard the rumbling. My husband was in fact napping with my boys when he heard the rumbling and thought it was a tornado and threw the boys in the bathroom. There was an aftershock in the middle of the night and that definately rumbled as well. Maybe it depends on location or type??

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Fascinating question. I'm in WA, and have felt two. One sounded like a fighter jet, then just the plates (in restaurant) rattling. The 3rd one was the only big one (6.8) and I remember it as being LOUD and SCARY. I don't even know what all the noise WAS--earth, buildings, both, who knows. I was inside a building at the time. It didn't start off loud, though--it was just shaking, then the noise, so maybe it was just the building?

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I grew up in Wellington, NZ where earthquakes were a regular occurrence. Many had a rumbling sound that came before them.

 

Lived in CA and was in Monterey during the 89 quake. I actually had time to get to the door during that one and then outside for the aftershocks where I saw the ground roll. Pretty neat (nothing to fall on us outside, so safer than inside).

 

 

Not necessarily safer, in fact if the area liquifies it can be incredibly dangerous. It's been drilled into my head never to go outside in an earthquake and in Christchurch you really saw how bad the liquifaction can get.

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I lived in CA as a child and well remember the noise. Just a low rumbling. I heard it again 17 years ago when we moved to PA. I was lying on the couch and we all felt a little shaking and heard the noise. Dh thought was a helicopter. Nope. It was an earthquake...the last one to be felt here until the one recently (and I missed it!!! I was on a cruise).

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Funny you should I ask. . . I was just talking to my neighbor who said she was in a parking lot when the shaking started -- and that the rumble noise was terrifying to her.

 

She even said, "I'm getting goosebumps right now just thinking about it."

 

I was inside and, like you, only felt shaking.

 

Alley

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I grew up in Wellington, NZ where earthquakes were a regular occurrence. Many had a rumbling sound that came before them.

 

 

Not necessarily safer, in fact if the area liquifies it can be incredibly dangerous. It's been drilled into my head never to go outside in an earthquake and in Christchurch you really saw how bad the liquifaction can get.

 

The Mission district in SF liquified during the '89 quake. Lots of damage because of it. the Seattle, WA waterfront, and renton tideflates are fill, so in a big quake, they will also have liquifaction. (a contributing reason to the increased damage in the pioneer square area in the 2001 quake)

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Oh, yeah, there's definitely noise. I heard the noise before I felt the tremor in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

 

 

I clearly remember this earthquake, very vivid in my mind. I was actually working at Stanford University in their child care center and I had a child on the toilet. :tongue_smilie: I don't remember any sound and that was the biggest quake for me although I have been part of many. I had to stay at the school for a long time that day until all the kids had been picked up and I remember driving home on the El Camino and it being so quiet. The only other time I have experienced such emptiness was driving home from Sac after the Twin Towers and I felt like I was the only one on the highway. I don't remember any noises, I remember the quiet after it was over.

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Earthquakes really are strange. I've never been in or near a big one, but I was only 40-something miles from one with a magnitude of 4.6 in NE Alabama (I live in NW Georgia). It was felt in Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida, etc., yet I didn't feel or hear it at all. My nephew, who lives another 30 miles east of me, was shaken awake, yet he can generally sleep through a tornado. Our house is basically sitting on solid rock, so we assume that that was the reason we didn't feel it.

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We had another little after shock tonight (4.4) - it was a silent one. I asked my DH about this and he remembers the noise in the 7.1 (September) quake, but not the 6.3 (February) one. We both heard it in the June 6.0 and 6.3 wobbles. I wonder if it has to do with where you are at the time... I was outside (in the car) for Feb and didn't hear it coming, but the Sept and June ones we were inside and it was LOUD. Or maybe Feb was different and didn't make a sound. I'm going to have to ask more people now!

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I felt the one in VA last week (first one I've felt since I was about 10 in MD) and the first thing I heard was the sound of the washing machine severely unbalanced. We were not doing laundry at the time.

 

I have had numerous conversations over the past week or so and about 80% of those who felt the earthquake said that they thought their washing machine was unbalanced.

 

I thought it was interesting that so many people heard the same thing at the same time.

 

I have been trying to figure out of the "unbalanced washing machine" sound was the sound the earth made during the quake or a result of the house shaking.

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I felt the one in VA last week (first one I've felt since I was about 10 in MD) and the first thing I heard was the sound of the washing machine severely unbalanced. We were not doing laundry at the time.

I have had numerous conversations over the past week or so and about 80% of those who felt the earthquake said that they thought their washing machine was unbalanced.

 

I thought it was interesting that so many people heard the same thing at the same time.

 

I have been trying to figure out of the "unbalanced washing machine" sound was the sound the earth made during the quake or a result of the house shaking.

 

Yes, I've heard this numerous times, too. Funny that we didn't think that because our washing machine does that a lot. My kids thought we were being bombed by terrorists. I wonder what other young people around here thought. Terrorists never entered my mind.

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I lived in So. Cal. and have experienced several earthquakes, 2 of which were deafeningly loud. Now I live in No. Nevada and we had a period where we had several hundred (yes, really) earthquakes in a 2 month period and not one of them created a loud rumbling sound.

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