Anyone Else Experienced an Earthquake?

Double Espresso

Sorry for the flippant topic title, but we were seriously shaken up this morning here in Malmö, Sweden! I'm sure Japanese, Pakistani and Californian members (and maybe everyone else too) will dismiss an earthquake registering 4.7 on the the MMS/Richter Scale as barely newsworthy, but at 6:20am it was bloody terrifying, I thought our apartment building was collapsing! Strongest earthquake in Sweden since 1904.

http://www.thelocal.se/16390/20081216/

Bizarrely we were on holiday in Kobe, Japan just a few weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to visit the Kobe Earthquake Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution (yes that's it's real name).
Anyone had similar or worse experiences? Would be interesting to hear about them.

Glad you are ok. I've been through two biggies in Los Angeles when I was a kid. I remember getting tossed out of bed and when I looked down at the pool the water was swirling like a blender. My sister lost everything in the big one in 1998. You could walk through the openings in walls between rooms.
DE

Wo3Dan

My earthquake experience dates from 1994, Rethimnon / Crete (25-05-’94)
My wife and I where still in bed, early in the morning when there was this earthquake, 6.4R
It felt like being in the back of a truck on a bumpy road. (hé, I’m talking about an earthquake now!) The lamp hanging from the ceiling started swinging. That made me conscious of what was going on. It all may have lasted only a few seconds. We jumped out of bed and ran outside. But I seriously doubt that we would have been in time if anything would have happened to the building. Fortunately there was hardly any damage on the island.

todd burch

1964 Earthquake that hit Anchorage, Alaska. I was 1 1/2 years old, and I remember it. That was bad.

Jackson

Simon,
I knew about the 2002 earthquake that shook Manchester, but before much Googling yesterday I had no idea the north of England has been experiencing so many over the last few years. Being from Edinburgh (where I don't think there's been even a minor tremor in many decades) I always thought that that the UK was blessed with stable geology and that earthquakes were something that happened in "exotic" parts of the world, but perhaps times are changing.

Alan,
Maybe the next time you're holidaying in earthquake zones you should stick to vodka martinis!

DE,
I hope your sister was uninjured? I've always wondered, does home insurance pay out for earthquakes? News programmes usually seem to imply that they do, but I thought all insurance policies had the force majeure get-out clause? I guess home insurance is much more expensive in earthquake zones?

Wo3Dan,
It's funny you mention running outside- they say you shouldn't do it, but that was exactly our instinct. I tried to think rationally, first: "we should get under a table!", but both our coffee table and dining table have one central leg so that seemed a bit pointless, then second: "we should go to the basement" (I know that sounds crazy, but all apartment buildings built in Sweden between the 1930s and the '1960s have huge basements which were built as bomb shelters, most are still complete with "bomb proof" metal sealed doors), but I am pretty claustraphobic and whenever I've seen earthquake or landslide victims being rescued on TV I always thought that given the choice of being buried alive for a few days (or even hours) or dying outright I would honestly choose the latter. Irrational I know, but that's exactly what crossed my mind yesterday- if the building was going to collapse I hoped I would die immediately. I know all this is very melodramatic, but I just think it's fascinating what goes through your mind when you think you're in great danger, regardless of the actual risk.

Todd,
You're an Alaskan? I always just assumed you were Texas born and bred. Wow, you can remember an earthquake from 1½ years old? Do you remember the actual event or is it more the aftermath? I hope you and your family were ok.

linea

Simon,

I felt the same one in East Yorkshire, no damage done but scary enough.

Gaieus

I experienced a 5.2 in 1985 but the epicentre was about 150 kms away so for us it was not that bad. It happened early in the morning and although the ceiling lamp was swinging hard and the bookshelves were also moving, I just turned on my other side and went back to sleep. It took only a few seconds.

Alan Fraser

All joking apart, the worst one I have felt was sitting in my own home watching TV last February. It hit most of the UK, but was centred in N. Lincolnshire, near Grimsby. I guess most people missed it because it was at nearly 1 a.m. Just when you tend to be most soundly asleep. I thought a truck had collided with the house next door. It's funny what flashes through your mind before you decide "No, it's an earthquake."

cymro

Does any UK members remember the Earthquake in July 1984.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Lleyn_Peninsula_earthquake

I lived about 15 miles from the epicentre and I remember waking up with the whole house shaking, Pretty damn scary when you have no idea what the hell is happening. There were aftershocks for months.

idraft

We get them every day in NewZealand somewhere the earth moves for one of us.
http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

I actually quite enjoy them as i know im safe working form home but nearly s--- myself if im around any large buildings in the city. Still we build close to or over fault lines so we can prove how tough we are.

todd burch

The earthquake is my earliest memory. I've hi-lighted in red what I specifically remember.

I remember laying on the floor in front of the TV. I remember the shaking. My mom tells me the TV fell on it's face and all the dishes started falling out of the cupboards. We had some of those moveable wall partitions (that work like a shower rod, but between the floor and ceiling) between the family room and the kitchen and they fell down. Dad wasn't home from work yet. She picked me up in one arm and my older sister in the other. She tried to open the front door to get out of the house, but the house had shifted and she couldn't get it open. I remember being under her arm and seeing the door. Finally, she got it open, and going outside, she slid down the stairs because it was icy and everything was still shaking. With us underarm, she went to the neighbor's house. Sometime while going towards the house next door, the shaking stopped. I remember the aftershocks as well, while standing in our neighbors living room.

It was a pretty devastating quake. There was a brand new subdivision on the coast near Turnagain Arms. From what I understand, several houses were washed away after their landmass broke off and went underwater. We had a pretty steep driveway that we found was completely cracked up when the snow and ice melted later that spring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake

Tobobo

I thought the recent one in Yorkshire was a washing machine next door.

idraft

@unknownuser said:

1964 Earthquake that hit Anchorage, Alaska. I was 1 1/2 years old, and I remember it. That was bad."

My brother remembers coming home from Hospital when he was born, but he doesnt remember his 21st.

idraft

Todd, ive just seen and clicked on your link, and now I believe you. Wow a 9.2 magnatude, no wonder you remember it. You have to see the pics if you havent.

Gaieus

@idraft said:

My brother remembers coming home from Hospital when he was born, but he doesnt remember his 21st.

I can imagine that!

Simon B

The UK can certainly oscillate wildly from time to time:

Recorded UK epicentres from '74: http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/macroseismics/macroseismic_surveys.htm

@tobobo said:

I thought the recent one in Yorkshire was a washing machine next door.

That's so funny. My immediate thought was it must have been a tornado as there had been a few touchdowns in the UK the year before.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7010172.stm

david_h

I was a baby in the 59 quake that struck Yellowstone Park. I was in Idaho. My mom told me the chandeliers were banging against the ceiling. I slept thru that one. Hebgen Lake In Yellowstone sank on one side and created Quake Lake. A lot of folks were killed in that one. A whole side of a mountain came down.

I was in LA during the 91 quake(s). The first hit about 4 in the morning. I was with my wife, kids and parents at Disneyland. We got to our Hotel at 2 am. The quake hit at 4 or so. IT was a rough shaking type. Cracked the stucco around the building and sloshed a lot of water out of the pool. It was about a 6 pointer as I remember. There was a second quake. .. not an aftershock. . .a different quake--different epicenter . .a rolling type at about 8 am that morning. We were on an overpass in our car. Made us nauseous.

We were on our way home back to Salt Lake that day and stopped in Las Vegas for the night. A small quake struck Vegas about 2 that morning. Shook us out of bed. No damage--but we thought. . .these quakes are following us home!!! Weird Huh?

todd burch

When I was older, maybe around 9 or 10, one summer day in Anchorage I was staring out our big plate glass front window on the top story of our split level. Since we faced north, on a clear day, and it was clear that day, I could see Mt. McKinley about 400 miles north. We were kinda sorta on a hill, but not really a hill, but higher than many of the surrounding houses. I could see our street out front going off to the left for about 250-300 yards, and to the right about 150 years, plus all the houses. It was a fairly new neighborhood, and the trees weren't so big then.

To the left, the street went downhill for maybe 120 yards, then back up hill and curved left and right around some houses. To the right, it was a straight shot and went uphill to a cul-de-sac.

Anyway, I heard this loud sound that I had never heard before. It sounded at first like a train. I heard it from the left, so I looked left. What I saw I'll never forget. A rolling earthquake was coming, and it looked like someone was waving the earth like you would wave a bed sheet up and down, giving it a rolling effect. It was the ground that was rolling!! I could see the houses and the roads and the cars and light poles and everything else raise up, then come down, then raise up, then come down, then I WAS RAISING UP, AND COMING DOWN, and again, and again. I think 3 times. Then, I looked to the right, and saw the rolling travel out of sight. It was staggering - a life changing experience to not only HEAR an earthquake coming, but to SEE it coming, then BE IN IT, and then to SEE and HEAR it leaving. It probably lasted 5 seconds. I never would have fathomed that concrete roads would flex like that. I guess the rolls were about 100 yards long, and probably about 2-4 feet high at the max. It was just like the portrayed examples of dropping a rock in a pond. The ripples rolling out from the center, then calm. It was amazing to see it, and be humbled by its power, and then to come to the realization that you have absolutely no say, whatsoever, in your continued existence, and life could be taken away so fast you don't know what hit you!!

Frederik

@alan fraser said:

I thought a truck had collided with the house next door. It's funny what flashes through your mind before you decide"No, it's an earthquake."

Well put, Alan..!

Being from Denmark, I experienced the earthquake Tuesday morning at the Copenhagen Airport, waiting for a plane to take me to Stockholm...
Our first thoughts was...... roll of drums
.....that an airplane had crashed, or something similar to 911...

Well, well... It was an odd experience somehow, since we're not use to earthquakes here in our part of the world...