The earth moved and I slept through it

[Dub_James]

Hehe, bet that was spooky. My Mother said my brothers' crib shuddered across the floor. With him in it We were at Mosney at the time.

Mosney, now there's a name I haven't heard in ages! I still remember it as "Butlin's". We used to spend our family summers in Skerries, and a day trip to Butlin's / Mosney was always part of the programme.

Those were the days.

That they were. I'm old enough to remember when it was Butlin's. I was there in the mid 70's, some of my earliest memories.

[Netpackrat]

pshaw.

[Denis]

pshaw.

No pshaw'ing Butlins! The candy-floss was frightening. I swear there were mid-sized animals nesting in it... Probably bears, even.

[Dub_James]

Too right. And their stewards could be downright scary. And that was just the women!

[308Mike]

A lot of what you feel depends on the kind of ground you're on at the time as well as the rock type underneath you. If you check many of the widely-felt earthquakes on this list, you'll see there are frequently places near the epicenter that don't feel the earthquake nearly as powerfully as some places further away, and much of it has to do with the bedrock and how efficiently the shaking is transmitted.

Here's one (a 5.4) from northern California, and a mag 4.1 in SoCal. Here's one, a widely-felt 3.4 in the San Fransicko bay area. Of course, the depth of the earthquake epicenter also makes a big difference in how its perceived.

Here's:
Loma Prieta - 6.9
Northridge - 6.7
Landers - 7.3

Keep in mind these maps are compiled only from people who have Internet access and know where to report their experiences.

[Netpackrat]

It was a decade before my time, but several members of my mother's family lived through this one, and one of them didn't. Strongest quake that I have personally experienced was in the fall of 2002. That was a very strong quake, that would have had a far more severe impact, except it happened in the middle of nowhere. Even in Anchorage it was quite strong. I spose it would have been funny to watch, as Mrs. Netpackrat and I just kind of looked at each other, grabbed our respective cats off of our laps, got out of our chairs, and crawled under our desks almost in unison, each holding an annoyed , formerly comfy puddy tat. I have heard that animals are supposed to be able to predict that sort of thing, but they both proved totally worthless in that regard.

[308Mike]

I have heard that animals are supposed to be able to predict that sort of thing, but they both proved totally worthless in that regard.

In my experience, animals can only give up to several seconds warning, but you don't realize what they're fussing about until the earthquake hits.

[Combat Controller]

I had a lot of fun in the bay area in 89. Boy howdy!

[Netpackrat]

I have heard that animals are supposed to be able to predict that sort of thing, but they both proved totally worthless in that regard.

In my experience, animals can only give up to several seconds warning, but you don't realize what they're fussing about until the earthquake hits.

Well, the cat sitting on my lap at the time the quake started gave no indication that she was interested in anything but sleeping. That's kind of her M.O. anyway.