I was about to use a power tool to cut tile when all of a sudden I felt reaallly dizzy. I immediately thought "Cool, an earthquake!" (I actually like them when they don't do dammage, kinda trippy)

Felt like the entire house was a boat moving on waves back and forth very slowly. I was 45 miles from the epicenter and the quake was rated at 5.6 (http://earthquakes.usgs.gov (http://earthquakes.usgs.gov/) )

Any other local feel it? btw, this was the Hayward fault going. That fault is really creepy (literally, if you know what that means) and it's the one that's supposed to cause 'the big one'. Also, historically it is said to have a huge quake every 140 years on average. A couple weeks ago we celebrated 139 years since the last one. A 5.6 is pretty small, though the largest we've had in the 10 years I've been here. In comparison, a 6.6 is 10 times more powerful and a 7.6 is 100 times more powerful. Then it wouldn't be so trippy

Holy crap that's scary. I'm so glad I'm in GA. Did it break anything in your home?

Holy crap that's scary. I'm so glad I'm in GA. Did it break anything in your home?
No, 5.6 won't do much. The whole house moved as a single unit, as if it was floating on wavy water. Only objects that were suspended or liquid moved independently of everything else. People's concepts of earthquakes is totally different than how they really happen. Of the earthquakes I've felt, those where I was very close (within 10 miles) to the epicenter felt like a sudden jerk, those where I've been far felt wavy and made me sea-sick.

When I first came to CA 10 years ago, I purchased a newspaper and it said that this week we've had a record low of 17 earthquakes in the Bay Area. I thought "Jeesh, they meant record high!" But it wasn't a typo. We get a lot of quakes here (most are unfelt)

Now here's something freaky... 3 years ago we had a 4.7 that was widely felt. It occurred early in the day so the news stations had a lot of time to round up videos about earthquakes and what not. Well, they ran a documentary that night about the Hayward Fault, and they had a helicopter follow the fault and the cities that just built right on top. Well, as the helicopter went by, I saw my apartment! I did some research and I lived on the fault. Now that scared me!

Cool, I'm jealous. Earthquakes sound like fun when they don't do lots of damage. What did your dog make of it?

Hey thats freaky ay...did anything break or did anyone get hurt?
yuss one of my hyperfocused subjects!! i love to read up about earthquakes and find out which ones have hit the country lately and the world too
Here in NZ, two tectonic plates run through the country, the Pacific and the Australian. We have on average around 14000 earthquakes each year. Around 200 are actually felt
About a month ago there was a 7.1 earthquake in the south island. thank God it was in the middle of the wop wops. It was widely felt tho. They even had tidal wave warnings up in australia and surounding islands.
The last great earthquake to hit was in Napier in 1931 which was a 7.8 and killed 258 people.
A 3.4 hit the king country about 4 or 5 hours ago, not a biggie or anything.
http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html thats a list of the last 30 earthquakes to hit nz all within the last 2 weeks.

Also lots of volcanoes.
Mt Ruapehu erupted a month or two ago. It has erupted around 50 times since 1860. There are lots of volcanoes here that havent blown for hundreds of years. There are 53 in auckland city alone.

I LOVE THIS SUBJECT!!!!!!!!

In 1855, there was a huge earthquake on the north island of NZ, in the city of Wellington. It was 8.2. they say within the next 20 years there will be another big one in wellington.. they said that like 20 years ago....its freaky cuz its one of the larger cities and the capital

The old man was in Salinas, I believe...I wonder how an 18-wheeler acts in an earthquake?

i have never been in an earthquake but I was visiting my grandmother in SC and there was a hurricaine and she was like "oh another hurricaine" and I was having a panic attack.

i have never been in an earthquake but I was visiting my grandmother in SC and there was a hurricaine and she was like "oh another hurricaine" and I was having a panic attack.That's really how it is here, Matt. We are all so blase' "Gee another hurricane"...as long as there is no threat of tornados, anyway :eek:...the cloud busters sound like gunfire though...me no likey!

ive been in a erthquake its sum scarey ****e ay.