Did the earth move for you?

Post by **joette** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:20 pm

I was working on my computer(ok playing a game) around 1a.m. when the walls & the windows started to shake & vibrate.
I held onto the computer which was dancing around the table.Peeked out of the window expecting to see smoke as I thought it was an explosion.
Then I thought that was just like that time in California.Was that an earthquake?
It was indeedy with a 5.3 on the Richter Scale & the epicentre in West Yorkshire I believe. Quite a distance from there to Middlesex-scarey stuff!
Anybody else feel it?Hope nobody injured or with damage to their property.

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:29 pm

Hi Joette,

In May of 2004, just before 4 am, I heard a hugh noise outside. I thought maybe a natural gas pipeline down in the valley had ruptured so I looked out the window for a glow in the sky. Instead the noise became a roar that washed over our house and on like a wave. We had very little shaking and no damage, but the noise was a surprise. I called my neighbors and my friend said it was just an earthquake. "Just!!!?" He had lived in California for several years. I had no idea that earthquakes made such a loud noise since I had only seen the results on television and not been through one myself.

That can be a once in a lifetime experience as far as I'm concerned!

Carol

Post by **SarahND** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:45 pm

Hi Carol,
It's true that you get blasé about anything that happens too often... I grew up in California, and would probably say "just" an earthquake also

Once I was teaching a class on the second floor of a building when a 5.7 earthquake hit just under us (the fault ran right through the town where we were). The huge clock that was on the wall came crashing down, just missing the head of one of the students. Someone finally said, "Shouldn't we be under the table?" So we all dutifully went under... I have it all on tape since I was recording the class as we were interviewing a speaker of Malay to learn something about the language.

For weeks afterward we had smaller aftershocks and my son, about 6 months old at the time, would just roll his eyes as if to say, "another one!" as his high chair went teetering across the room

Regards,
Sarah

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:24 pm

Sarah,

I can picture your son grinning and giggling and mashed peas flying everywhere....!

Carol

Post by **SarahND** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:36 pm

speleobat2 wrote:I can picture your son grinning and giggling and mashed peas flying everywhere....!

That's where having a dog to clean up the floor was a real advantage!

Post by **Ina** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:08 pm

Hi Joette,

Living here in California we think nothing of earthquakes. Best place to be during an earthquake is to brace yourself between a doorway.

A 5.3 must have been quite a jolt. I'm surprised there wasn't a lot of damage, since I don't believe the houses in England are built to stand earthquakes. Houses here in the desert just seem to roll through the quakes.

I live 5 miles from the San Andreas fault, and we don't mind all the small earthquakes. We've been told that as long as we have the small quakes it relieves the pressure on the fault and will prevent the BIG one. Let's hope so.

Ina

sheilajim · Post by **sheilajim** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:04 pm

Hi All

I live in California and I will never get used to earthquakes. They are scary. 8-[
I would rather be in an earthquake in Britain than in California. I understand that the difference is in the geology of where you are living. A 5.3 earthquake in California would have much more damage than in Britain. The soil here is sandy and not the sturdy rock that there is in Britain.

Regards

Post by **emanday** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:54 am

Sorry - slept through the whole thing

But then I also slept through the whole storm in Glasgow that brought down chimneys and lifted roofs off buildings when I was in my early 20's

(I'm 60 now!)

As my mother always said - I don't go to sleep at night - I die and am reincarnated every morning

Chris Paton · Post by **Chris Paton** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:16 am

Sadly it was not felt in Largs. I say sadly, because not much really happens in Largs - it would have made a nice change!

Chris

Post by **joette** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:11 pm

Oh Mary I too slept through that same storm I think it was 1967 & I was so cross it was during the Easter Hols I think so we didn't even get a day of school.In fact I was at the dentist looking at all the damage & thinking.
"I didn't hear that chimney crash into the garden last night"
I like you am a very heavy sleeper-I have had armed police in my bedroom searching under my bed in cupboards etc & I slept on!
The only thing that wakes me is a crying child or baby.
Chris but Largs is such a nice place!

I hope that was my last experience of an earthquake.
I believe that our earthquakes happen at a deeper level than the Californian ones too.The nearer the surface the greater the damage.
Still there has been millions of pounds worth of damage so far but no loss of life.
Sarah dogs are nature's vacuum cleaners.