CAdreaming

Oh OO!!! First earthquake today - Northern CA - about 31 miles north of Eureka
5-5
Was sitting in coffee shop having coffee and suddenly table rocked and DH looked at me and said Oh we are having a little earthquake!
Lasted for what seemed like 5 seconds and was just like a bit of turbulence on a plane!!! (was more like 20 seconds)

Everyone said it was a big one tho!!! In the coffee shop noone stopped drinking and eating!!
Must say my heart was hammering and now im waiting for more!!!
If thats all it is I can manage it!!
Hmm why couldnt DH live in North West london!!!

Mummy in the foothills

the first one always gets you I don't feel much of anything, I usually get home and find out there was one off the news all I felt was my usual dizziness, they have to jolt me out of bed or rattle the windows to get my attention.

CAdreaming

There was no damage that ive heard of thank goodness but people nearer the epicenter said it was a real doozy!!! Blimey!!

Michael

Back in the 1980's, Livermore had several 5-6 earthquakes in a row and then for the next 9 months, had aftershocks daily.

The aftershocks (even though they were small) is what eventually got to a lot of people in the Livermore valley. Eventually your mind starts to take over fearing even the very small ones if they continue for too long.

Oh by the way, welcome to California.

Sally Redux

Apparently the San Andreas fault is moving faster than the one in Haiti...yes, welcome to California

CAdreaming

Im sort of waiting now for it to happen again! I have been burying my head in the sand pretending they wont happen but now reality has set in (been here since last march and its the first one ive felt -tho DH said theres probably been load of smaller ones) and I need to get an earthquake kit together - torch, candles etc
Hmm not sure I like this!!!!

CAdreaming

Decided I like good old Blighty - a bit of snow - bit of rain bit of sun and no earthquakes!!!

Sally Redux

Englishmum

My husband experienced one on Saturday night at about 10.45pm......in Switzerland! He thought it was like a car slamming into the building - twice. He then got a text from a colleague living a mile away who was wondering if he'd experienced it too, then a Swiss guy confirmed that it was an earthquake.

The epicentre was about 15 miles north of our apartment ie. between Zug and Zurich. It was 4.2 on the Richter scale.

http://www.englishforum.ch/daily-lif...arthquake.html

http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/index_EN

There was one in northern Italy too.

I know that in CA everyone is aware that 'the big one' will happen one day....but I hope it won't be anything like the poor Japanese endured almost a year ago

Mummy in the foothills

So I might have beach front property after all

Steerpike

Recent earthquakes over magnitude 5:
1984 - 5.4 magnitude: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Ll...ula_earthquake

1990 - 5.1 magnitude: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Bi...tle_earthquake

2008 - 5.2 magnitude: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Li...ire_earthquake

One thing to keep in mind - the architecture in CA is designed for earthquakes. The 'flimsy' wood-frame houses that people complain about are designed to bend and sway in the earthquakes.

Jan Alaska

If you check out this website http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/recenteqs/ Honshu Japan has been having earthquakes over 5.0 just about every day since the big one. Alaska has tremors all day every day but lately nothing remarkable.

N1cky

There's been quite a few quakes in England in the last couple of years.

Only felt one quake in No Cal, but felt loads in So Cal. I seemed to get tuned in to them, I'd sit on the couch and say 'quake' to my hubby, he would look at me gone out, look it up on the quake website and sure enough there would have been one.

Some people say its good to have lots of small ones as it reduces the risk of big ones, others say its bad to have lots of small ones as it means the big ones coming.

CAdreaming

And I am very happy for the wood houses now! It was most odd to feel the earth sway under my feet!

CAdreaming

Someone said to me yesterday that lots of small ones relieve the pressure but then again who really knows! As far as my first one was concerned it wasnt too bad!