I've concluded that Californians are liars

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Everything Offends Me
I have never experienced an earthquake. Believe it or not, I was present for one on the east coast but because I was driving, somehow I totally missed it...

I go to California on average, every other week, usually for a week at a time. I spend my time in El Segundo, and have done this for about 2 years now. Never experienced an earthquake.

So I have determined - either I have extraordinary bad luck and just always miss them in the one week I am not there, or they don't really happen and Californians are lying.

I think its the latter. Liars.
 
It's not that we're liars, we're just self centered and don't want to share our earthquakes with you people.
 
I have experienced two, both in California. Neither were huge, but one seemed bigger than it was seeing as though I was in the 14th floor of the hotel..
 
Honestly, I've lived in California for almost 25 years and I can count the number of earthquakes I've felt on one hand.
 
What you want to do is come visit Irving Texas.
 
I have experience earthquakes in CA. And I'm not Californian, so you can believe me.
 
Oddly, we had a VP from Philadelphia at our plant in the early 90's and got a nice little slow roller, ~4.7 while he was addressing about 40 people.

We all got up and headed out the emergency door and he was like, uh, what?

We told him it was an earthquake and he said "are you sh$#@ me?"
 
I've been through two major quakes (1971 and 1989), and a whole bunch of smaller ones.

If it's under 5, you won't notice it unless it's centered under your left butt cheek.

They happen, but they aren't fun. Big quakes happen with no notice and destroy things you depend on. It sucks to try to get over the mountains when all the roads are closed by slides. And of course all the inbound groceries have to come that way, too.

Little quakes are ignored by everyone. You might have felt one and not known it.

You're not missing anything.
 
how is it we had a 3.5 last week that shook the whole town?
Maybe because it was so shallow (3 miles) ?
 
MAKG1 said:
I've been through two major quakes (1971 and 1989), and a whole bunch of smaller ones.

If it's under 5, you won't notice it unless it's centered under your left butt cheek.
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As I said I was in two, both were in the 4 point somethings..
One I was on the 14th floor. It seemed a lot more than it was due to the height, but the people downstairs didn't even feel it.
 
I lived for about 4 years in California and I spend time there every couple months. I can only remember feeling two earthquakes, both at night while I was in bed. Or maybe I was dreaming.
 
I've been here my whole life. San Diego is a little better off than LA and SF parts of California , being further away from the larger faults, though.

I can remember feeling about three or four true quakes in my lifetime. The '89 quake I didn't feel but that affected LA for years, getting those freeways back together.

The most recent quake I felt was just a few years ago and was probably the largest I've felt. It's the first time since a kid where I ran under a door and I opened the front door to see the car in the driveway rocking back and forth.

Funny enough, my roommate was a CA newbie from Oregon and he didn't flinch. I called at him to get to a doorway. After he asked what the big deal was and I explained that was the hardest quake I've felt in 30 years. He just shrugged, "Oh, well, this is CA so I just assumed those happened all the time."
 
I know native Californians that have never felt one either their whole life. Anything under a 4.0 you could easily miss and not know the difference between an earthquake and a truck passing. Anything under a 6 is a non event except for media sensationalism. 6 is where minor damage starts and those can be a decade between.

Look at the USGS map, there are gazillions of small tremors every week...most are undetectable

Even with the "Big One" looming I will take earthquakes any day over living in tornado alley. When an earthquake hits all you gotta go it get outside and you are relatively safe...in a tornado, that is the LAST thing you can do!
 
MAKG1 said:
I've been through two major quakes (1971 and 1989), and a whole bunch of smaller ones.

If it's under 5, you won't notice it unless it's centered under your left butt cheek.

They happen, but they aren't fun. Big quakes happen with no notice and destroy things you depend on. It sucks to try to get over the mountains when all the roads are closed by slides. And of course all the inbound groceries have to come that way, too.

Little quakes are ignored by everyone. You might have felt one and not known it.

You're not missing anything.
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It also depends on where you are, and the underlying strata. There was a 4.2 a bit south of here a few weeks ago and it was felt hundreds of miles in every direction due to most of the midwest being on solid piece of bedrock. Out in CA you guys have enough jumbled up underlying rock that it deadens the quake as you get away from the epicenter.
 
I was at Presidio Monterey for the 1989 loma prieta earthquake. It felt pretty real. But for other reasons, I agree with your conclusions about Californians.
 
I was in my hotel room in LA (Anaheim maybe?) for this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Whittier_Narrows_earthquake

I was just about to leave for a training class and had the clock radio turned on. The station faded out, and I heard the rumble of a jet flying low overhead, then the rumble got louder and I thought it was a truck driving by instead. Then the room started swaying side to side. I was on the top floor, might have been the third floor, so I expected something big to fall through from the roof. I moved over to the door frame, but by the time I got there it was over. The strangest thing: the radio station was still off the air, so everything was quiet - except for the sound of water still sloshing around in the toilet. Things you don't think about until it happens.

A few seconds later the radio station came back, and I turned on the TV to watch the local news crews dive underneath their desks every time they felt an aftershock.

I went ahead and drove to the training class. It ended up cancelled because of power outages and ceiling tiles and light fixtures that had fallen. I still got my donuts, though.

One of the other guys in the class had been driving when it hit. He said he thought he had a flat tire because of the way his car started to shimmy. He pulled over to check it out, couldn't see anything wrong, then noticed a whole lot of other people doing the same thing.

I still have the newspaper from it, somewhere. One of the fatalities was at a parking garage. I think she was a college student, early 20's. She might have felt the quake, and run outside to get out of the garage. But a large (maybe 8'x10') piece of concrete from the outside of the structure fell on her. The picture in the paper showed a cop staring at a flat piece of concrete with a purse sticking out out from underneath.

I lived in Ft Lewis, WA when I was very young, and still remember getting quakes there now and then. Just enough to rattle the dishes.
 
I was in El Segundo for work during 2 quakes. Small but noticible.
 
Hi.
You may not have experienced / felt them, but they were there. Check the day you were there at this site.
http://service.scedc.caltech.edu/ftp/catalogs/SCSN/2015.catalog
There are worse things you can call them, but not earthquake liars, but I suppose CO is now nr. 1 on everything? TV

SkyHog said:
So I have determined - either I have extraordinary bad luck and just always miss them in the one week I am not there, or they don't really happen and Californians are lying.

I think its the latter. Liars.
Click to expand...
 
I live in one of the towns that are next to Mugu, I have felt my share.
 
They say we had an earthquake today, near noon, about 5.4? I did not feel it, but others in different parts of the city did. Caused some expansion joints in the highway bridge to pop some rubber seals that closed them for a while for inspection.
 
Matthew said:
I was in my hotel room in LA (Anaheim maybe?) for this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Whittier_Narrows_earthquake

I was just about to leave for a training class and had the clock radio turned on. The station faded out, and I heard the rumble of a jet flying low overhead, then the rumble got louder and I thought it was a truck driving by instead. Then the room started swaying side to side. I was on the top floor, might have been the third floor, so I expected something big to fall through from the roof. I moved over to the door frame, but by the time I got there it was over. The strangest thing: the radio station was still off the air, so everything was quiet - except for the sound of water still sloshing around in the toilet. Things you don't think about until it happens.

A few seconds later the radio station came back, and I turned on the TV to watch the local news crews dive underneath their desks every time they felt an aftershock.

I went ahead and drove to the training class. It ended up cancelled because of power outages and ceiling tiles and light fixtures that had fallen. I still got my donuts, though.

One of the other guys in the class had been driving when it hit. He said he thought he had a flat tire because of the way his car started to shimmy. He pulled over to check it out, couldn't see anything wrong, then noticed a whole lot of other people doing the same thing.

I still have the newspaper from it, somewhere. One of the fatalities was at a parking garage. I think she was a college student, early 20's. She might have felt the quake, and run outside to get out of the garage. But a large (maybe 8'x10') piece of concrete from the outside of the structure fell on her. The picture in the paper showed a cop staring at a flat piece of concrete with a purse sticking out out from underneath.

I lived in Ft Lewis, WA when I was very young, and still remember getting quakes there now and then. Just enough to rattle the dishes.
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Heh.

I was in the shower in my house in Fullerton for that one. It was a very sharp jolt (almost fell down), and a great deal of rumbling. When it stopped, could hear dogs barking and car alarms. That was the liveliest one we had while I lived there, but there were others I felt.

The little jugglers we're getting in north Texas are more heard than felt, but I have noticed them. They are not hazardous and, unless three works out to be a substantial undiscovered fault line, will never be.
 
Sac Arrow said:
It's not that we're liars, we're just self centered and don't want to share our earthquakes with you people.
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He's right. They even have influence over other geographical locations. I used to live in Ottawa for many years. In 2010 I made my first trip to California and stayed for a week (hoping to experience an earthquake :) ). Guess what happened. An earthquake hit Ottawa and made damages to the foundations of many homes (luckily not ours). Darn, the Californians made me miss even our own earthquake. Selfish people. :)
 
Mammoth Lakes almost became a ghost town in the early 80s, there was a sign at the highway that said 'last one leaving town turn out the lights'

We had hundreds and a number above 6.0. If you are on a mountain slope or ridge with a view and you see it coming you can see the wave move across the forest until you are in the wave and feel the quake and then watch it continue.

We saw all the skiers on Mammoth Mountain sit down during a 6+ quake, we were suspended from the gondola cable and couldn't feel it.
 
SkyHog said:
I have never experienced an earthquake. Believe it or not, I was present for one on the east coast but because I was driving, somehow I totally missed it...

I go to California on average, every other week, usually for a week at a time. I spend my time in El Segundo, and have done this for about 2 years now. Never experienced an earthquake.

So I have determined - either I have extraordinary bad luck and just always miss them in the one week I am not there, or they don't really happen and Californians are lying.

I think its the latter. Liars.
Click to expand...

We have am anti-earthquake device installed at LAX - it's cheaper than replacing all those ceiling tiles..

I can however arrange for a power failure which will encompass El Segundo if that would make you feel better.
 
I used to never notice the small ones, but I've learned to recognize them because my house will creak once, and then if I pay close attention, I can feel a slight swaying motion.
 
We had a 5.2 quake in Upstate NY (near Keeseville) in '02. The furniture was dancing, the china and glassware were rattling pretty good and we're ~30 miles away. The dog (whose scratching can set off the rattling but to a lesser extent) was huddled in the corner with a "It's not me!" look on her face.

Later that day I was diving in Lake Champlain when I heard and felt a loud, deep rumbling like a big ship was passing overhead. (Note: No big ships in Lake Champlain) Didn't think any more about it until I heard on the news there was an aftershock at the time I was diving.
 
I was there for the Landers quake and in an area that was rocked quite a bit by it. Didn't like it. Not at all.
 
I was there for Loma Prieta, Big Bear, Northridge, and a bunch of small shakers.
 
And I was there for Sylmar ('71), Whittier ('87), Northridge ('94), and all of them inbetween.

When the power came back on after the Northridge quake we were treated to TV interviews with scientists grinning like kids with a new toy. "Boy, we sure learned a lot from this one," they gushed. "We didn't even know that fault was there. Why," they'd say, barely containing their excitement, "this might just be a foreshock of an even bigger one!!!"

And it wasn't just the "main" quake ... it was the thousands of aftershocks that went on for months after that drove us nuts. And each time a new quiver started, we'd remember the scientists and their anticipation of the "bigger" one.

The Northridge quake was particularly bad because the shift was, geologically speaking, just below the surface, not dozens of miles down, as in many others. Also, the sandy coastal soil carried destructive shocks long distances, such as to Santa Monica.

Come along and share some memories of 1994 ...

Earthquake-940117-01028.jpg


Earthquake-940117-01044.jpg


Earthquake-940117-01048.jpg



The slanted apartment building in the background below was the Northridge Meadows Apartments. Before the quake it was three stories high. After it was two. The quake's highest concentration of fatalities (16 of the total 57) was in the collapsed ground floor of that one building.

Earthquake-940117-01049.jpg


Earthquake-940117-01032.jpg



This was taken from my office window during an aftershock. With every aftershock dust would rise from nearby canyons, looking like someone had slapped a dusty sofa. Our swimming pool was our seismograph -- M5.0 or better, water sloshed out over the sides.

Earthquake-940117-01018.jpg



We moved out of Southern California a year later, though not directly because of the quake. So now we live 40 miles from an active volcano. :D
 
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