Why do I hate earthquakes? Because you never see them coming, you have very little warning and as they hit, they don't hit all at once.
They start out small or medium in intensity then build up to whatever level of destruction they are going to achieve. In other words, you wonder when it will stop getting stronger through the duration of the event.
You can hear an earthquake coming though, but it's about a 5 to 15 second warning at best. It's a low frequency buzz that comes at you through all your walls at once. No fun. I once had a low-rider car go by with it's base turned "up" and as he drove by, my walls vibrated so bad I thought this was going to be the ONE that ends it all. Once he drove by and my personal heart attack ended, it was almost a relief, yet I was somewhat ticked at that driver... THANKS BUDDY!
On the bright side, once the energy of an earthquake hits around 6 to 6.5, it's no longer a matter of how much harder it's going to hit you, but rather a time issue. For me the whole scale is just a time issue.
The smaller ones don't last that long, the bigger ones do. IE: The big one in Alaska: 9.2, on March 27th, 1964. (source) Official reports say it lasted 4 minutes, others say 10 minutes. (It probably felt like 10 minutes.). It moved a whole town 47 feet south. (Seward). Nuts.
The surprising part about living around earthquake faults is just how active they really are. I live a few miles from the San Andreas and we get bumped around with little ones a lot. It feels like Godzilla stomped on something a few miles away and that's that.
If you've ever wondered just exactly where the San Andreas fault is, check out this link at geology.com. And if you have the chance, go look at it, if you can find it. There are spots that it's evident in a visually small sense, but then there are other spots that just look like a nice little glacial valley that lots of people have settled in at, but it's really the result of all the activity of the San Andreas making it's own mini mountains.
Eesh!
They start out small or medium in intensity then build up to whatever level of destruction they are going to achieve. In other words, you wonder when it will stop getting stronger through the duration of the event.
You can hear an earthquake coming though, but it's about a 5 to 15 second warning at best. It's a low frequency buzz that comes at you through all your walls at once. No fun. I once had a low-rider car go by with it's base turned "up" and as he drove by, my walls vibrated so bad I thought this was going to be the ONE that ends it all. Once he drove by and my personal heart attack ended, it was almost a relief, yet I was somewhat ticked at that driver... THANKS BUDDY!
On the bright side, once the energy of an earthquake hits around 6 to 6.5, it's no longer a matter of how much harder it's going to hit you, but rather a time issue. For me the whole scale is just a time issue.
The smaller ones don't last that long, the bigger ones do. IE: The big one in Alaska: 9.2, on March 27th, 1964. (source) Official reports say it lasted 4 minutes, others say 10 minutes. (It probably felt like 10 minutes.). It moved a whole town 47 feet south. (Seward). Nuts.
The surprising part about living around earthquake faults is just how active they really are. I live a few miles from the San Andreas and we get bumped around with little ones a lot. It feels like Godzilla stomped on something a few miles away and that's that.
If you've ever wondered just exactly where the San Andreas fault is, check out this link at geology.com. And if you have the chance, go look at it, if you can find it. There are spots that it's evident in a visually small sense, but then there are other spots that just look like a nice little glacial valley that lots of people have settled in at, but it's really the result of all the activity of the San Andreas making it's own mini mountains.
Eesh!
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