This is topic I survived my first earthquake! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 04-19-2008, 09:06 PM:
 
You may have heard that the midwest had an earthquake on Friday. I was woken up at around 4:30am to my bed lightly shaking. I honestly thought my house was haunted and a ghost was shaking my bed! Then a bigger jolt happened and the whole damn house was vibrating. I knew it was an earthquake when I heard my picture frames rattling. I couldn't go back to sleep for about two hours because I was a wee bit freaked out. Not to mention I was on edge all of Friday, expecting a bigger one to happen.

So to all of you out in California, are you use to it by now? Do you have a 'game plan' if a big one hits? The Madrid Fault is not to far from here, and I'm not about to go psycho and take out earthquake insurance or anything like that. But I can safely say that it scared the crap out of me!
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-19-2008, 09:58 PM:
 
Yea, that can be scary esp. when you get woke up by one ..

I remember back in 1983 when C.Idaho got hit by an earthquake and my hometown was 80 miles away. I got woke up with the chandelier in my bedroom swaying pretty good and felt like I was been shook almost out of my bed...and watching cracks appear from where the chandelier was to the edges of the room on the ceiling (luckilly, I was living in an apartment.. on the main floor), and you don't think that was freaky as can be...
 

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Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 04-19-2008, 10:33 PM:
 
I had just fallen asleep when it happened, and it was basically over by the time I was fully awake. I thought it was probably my cat jumping around the room, since he's usually the cause of strange noises in the middle of the night, and I got up and started to look for him. But then my roommate came over and said, "Hey, did you feel that?"

So then I started freaking out, not because I thought it was an earthquake, but because the house that I live in is fairly run down and seems like it's about to cave in at any moment on its own. Luckily, the house is okay. It's just the continent that's fracked up.

P.S. Allison, I got another one of your robots a couple weeks ago.
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-19-2008, 11:51 PM:
 
Yes, I heard about that, Allison. They can be disorienting. Glad to hear you made it out relatively unscathed.

I remember one we had in Kentucky in the early 80s. It was a Sunday afternoon and I was running the booth at the Kentucky Theatre in Lexington. The floor and walls started shaking, and I thought the 1922-vintage theatre was collapsing. I headed for the booth door and the stairs, but I recall it was very hard to run on the floor because it seemed to be twisting. Later, after it was all over, the manager told me some grumpy old man came out of the auditorium during the quake, looked up towards the booth and groaned, "What's he DOING up there?!"

A buddy of mine was working the booth at another theatre and I asked him what he did when the quake hit. He told me the first thing he did was shut the show down (these were the single-screen and carbon arc days) and start shutting the equipment off. I told him I said to heck with the show, that was the last thing on my mind. I left everything running and hit the door! I figured if the building was going to come down, it wouldn't matter the least little bit if the equipment was running or not when it did.

I remember another quake when I lived in Boston, about 2002... early morning about 7, and I was sleeping. The walls started vibrating and I just thought the neighbors were running an impact drill or something on their side of the duplex, so I pounded on the wall. It stopped, so I didn't think anything else about it until I heard on the news that day there'd been an earthquake.
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 04-20-2008, 12:28 AM:
 
I've been through a few small ones back in Seattle. Most of them we hardly felt at all. But the freakiest was when I was sitting in my room watching a basketball game and I hear what sounds like a huge thunder (which wasn't unexpected as we had bad weather that day). But then I see the picture on the TV and the whole thing itself was vibrating up and down. It was so surreal.

But I think the highest we ever had was a 6.5-6.7 on the Richter (though that one destroyed some older brick stuff in downtown). Though the whole area is quite overdue for both a massive earthquake (like 9-10 on the Richter) AND Mt Ranier is overdue for blowing its top (mountain climber friends had noted the distinct sulfur smell of an active volcano ).
 

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Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 04-20-2008, 12:37 AM:
 
Well, Allison, I'll never get used to those Earthquakes. Always freaks me out each and everytime it happens. The main thing for me, when not working, I just have to find a safe place in my house until the shaking stops and take it from there. But, when at work, if it does happen, I just follow company procedures.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-20-2008, 12:49 AM:
 
Earthquakes are pretty unnerving.

The first one I remember experiencing was one when my family lived in Yuma, AZ in the late 1970s. Pretty minor, but enough to get attention.

We witnessed worse ones at my father's next duty station in Iwakuni, Japan. Luckily me and my brother were away at Boy Scout summer camp near Tokyo when the worst one hit near Iwakuni. My mother laughed about how my dad had his whole body thrown up against the expensive rack mount stereo system he just bought.

Here in Lawton we get a few minor tremblers from the Meers fault running through the Wichita Mountains. The Meers Store (which makes great hamburgers from Texas Longhorn beef and Bison) has an earthquake monitoring station that is a legitimate part of the US government's effort at monitoring geological activity.
 

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Posted by Christos Mitsakis (Member # 143) on 04-20-2008, 04:13 AM:
 
Being in the most earthquake active area of Europe (where the plates of Europe, Asia and Africa meet and collide, we do have many medium and few higher magnitude quakes per year (getting more frequent the last few years). Even if you are used to it, each experience is disturbing, first hearing the rumble and then waiting for the shake.

C.
 

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Posted by Ray Faultless (Member # 903) on 04-20-2008, 04:20 AM:
 
We have had a couple in England in the last few years.Nothing like you get in the states but strong enough to show that we aint in control of things.
 

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Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 04-20-2008, 05:59 AM:
 
I just had to point out how funny it is (to me, at least) that Mr. Faultless posted in an earthquake thread!!!
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-20-2008, 07:59 AM:
 
Allison... that was just a small shaker... a warning to everyone as to what may come. There was a magnitude 4.8 shaker that occured in the same general vicinity back in the late 60's that could be felt in the Chicago burbs. I noticed it happen because it made the hanging lamp over our kitchen table sway. The last really huge quake in that area in the early 1800's or there abouts changed tthe course of both the Mississipi and Ohio rivers... The next big one is bound to change the shape of both the St. Louis and Chicago skylines! I hope the Arch has earthquake reinforcement ...

Of course we have them out here too... The Wasatch mountains are juust a half mile east of me... They shift alot generating hundreds of small quakes a year... 99% of them are never felt and no one knows. They say we are going to have a big one here too and that both Yellowstone and Craters Of The Moon Parks are going to be blown off the face of the earth by a huge volcanic eruption any day now and most of it will land back over in Utah. Ha... that'll be mighty impressive when it happens, I'll be sure to get pictures .

Watching a show last night on History Channel that told about how 200 million years from now the coast of Africa and the US will eventually collide due to the motion of plate tectonics and New York City... the entire East Coast actually... will be at the top of a new mountain range. That high priced East Coast real estate of course will have been long gone at that point in time... mowed over by at least another two dozen different Ice Ages. It was interesting to note as they said that man has happened, built civilazition and built advanced cities in just a blink of time.

Mark
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-20-2008, 10:31 AM:
 

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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200 million years from now the coast of Africa and the US will eventually collide

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Yes, and no one will be around to prove them wrong. These kinds of predictions are very egocentric. They want you to believe the continents are floating on the water, when it's the water that's pooled on the earth. The gulleys might change shape, but I seriously doubt a continent will come ambling over on top of ground that's already there. "Hey, how ya doin'!"
 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 04-20-2008, 10:38 AM:
 
Woke me up! Felt like someone was bumping the side of the matress. No casualties except one (of three) cats that hid in the linen closet all day and refused to come out. The other two cats didn't care, but the 13 month old was seriosuly traumatized for 36 hours; he's OK now.

I was in Derby, UK for their recent small quake. Others in the hotel sent the night in the hallway... I went back to sleep after watching Skynews for awhile. Louis
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 04-20-2008, 10:51 AM:
 
Mark,

There even was a small Earthquake a few years ago in South America (believe it was in Brazil) that was felt in Iowa and even in Toronto. Apparently the fact that the plate movement happened many, many miles beneath the surface helped the wave propagate easier.

Tim,
While it's not entirely valid to imply, as you have, that continents move "on top of the ground" (if they move at all it would be on top of the semi-liquid mess that is beneath the crust/ground, I definitely concur that these kinds of predictions are pretty meaningless.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-20-2008, 10:59 AM:
 

quote: Louis Bornwasser

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Woke me up! Felt like someone was bumping the side of the matress.

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Are you sre it wasn't?????

You guys don't have a clue... any of you know what the Lithosphere is? I think you need to go spend 5 minutes and study Plate Tectonics. As long as the Earth's core is molten the earth's crust or Lithosphere which is the Crust and the upper part of the mantle keep moving.

NOW take ten seconds and stop and think... why do we find marine life fossils 10 to 20 thousand feet up in some mountain ranges...? BUZZZZZZST Times up.... If you were thinking thats because that mountaintop used to be at the bottom of an ancient sea you are correct.

Tim... be sure not to get yur foot caught between those there continents when Africa comes a slidin in .
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-20-2008, 12:54 PM:
 

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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If you were thinking thats because that mountaintop used to be at the bottom of an ancient sea you are correct.

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quote: Tim Reed

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Ummm, it wouldn't have anything to do with the Earth being covered with water?

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Nope. You do understand how mountains are formed.... right? They're definately not formed by rising earth masses... Earth masses don't just rise all on their own. Plate Tectonics causes earth masses to rise... also Plate Tectonics are the cause of ALL earthquakes.

Here... you will appreciate this ANIMATION of the results of plate tectonics... Also note that Africa USED to be at our east coast many millions of years ago... Its comming back again but in about another 200 million years.
 

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Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 04-20-2008, 01:57 PM:
 
I'm not too familiar with how this stuff works, but isn't it a fairly well-established scientific theory that at one point the continents were unified, and slowly over time they moved apart? Why is it hard to believe that over hundreds of millions of years they will move back together?
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-20-2008, 02:00 PM:
 
Mike, You're correct! Computer modeling of the Earth's Plate Tectonics shows thats more or less whats going to happen although things will be arranged slightly differently that it was originally.
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 04-20-2008, 02:37 PM:
 
...and all this time I bet ya'll thought "Ring of Fire" was referring to one's anal sphincter after eating Mexican food.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-20-2008, 03:36 PM:
 
Phil... Thats a hoot man... how true of some things we eat!
 

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Posted by Paul H. Rayton (Member # 1817) on 04-20-2008, 04:44 PM:
 
I'll just chime in here, on a serious note (and as a survivor of several of these little "wake up calls from mother nature"), with a couple of comments about getting through such events safely.

My first was a lollapalooza, in Feb. 1971, here in Los Angeles. And, like the recent one in Missouri, it was a "waker-upper", i.e. at a most inconvenient time in the wee hours. (Ours was at a more customer-friendly 6AM). Could look out the window, from a hillside home, and see wierd flashings off in the distance in the sky, from local power lines swinging together here and there, creating arcing flashes in the night (while we lost our power completely).

Anyway, survival: physical: move away from any large glass buildings or windows (assuming you can stand up at all). Nasty things can happen near glass. And try to get into a doorway or (oddly enough) a bathroom area (but away from the mirror), where the additional structural support of the pipes and door bracing(s) will possibly help shield you if the building collapses. Under a table is also recommended, and again, try to shield your face.

Emotional survival -- this will sound totally wierd, but I've put it into action a few times, and it works. It comes from "experts", though I can't remember now who was the original source. The trick: get "mad" at the earthquake. Talk to it. Tell it, "Damn it, I don't have time for this stuff now! I have a busy day coming up, and you have a LOT OF NERVE to be creating all this chaos now. You stop this RIGHT AWAY! I simply don't have time for this". Words to this effect. Carry on as long as the shaking goes on. And what's the purpose of this? By so doing, you displace the naturally-occurring "fear" with "anger". So you don't get quite so traumatized.

Believe me, that 6AM wakeup call in 1971 was about as traumatizing an event as one can have (65 people were killed), and, like I say, I've utilized this little "get mad" ploy a few times recently, and it sure has helped me keep my heart rate in check. (One of the side factors that kills people, besides buildings falling down, is heart attacks.)

My hints for the day. Now I'll go back to my nice safe projection room...
 

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Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 04-20-2008, 05:20 PM:
 
A co-worker of mine asked me if I felt it here in Cleveland. He told me it woke him up at 4:30am too and his bed was shaking. I sleep so hard that I couldn't hear a freight train going through my room with it's whistle blowing.
 

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Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 04-20-2008, 05:29 PM:
 
Paul,
I remember than quake like it was yesterday....I was in a apartment on Melrose Avenue and I thought I was having a stroke...until I looked out of the window and saw electric power poles dancing. In the pre-cell phone era, the available pay phones where swamped with long lines.....that was my decision point, later that year, to return to Florida and and endure predictable hurricanes...
 

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Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 04-20-2008, 05:41 PM:
 

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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we find marine life fossils 10 to 20 thousand feet up in some mountain

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quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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You guys don't have a clue... any of you know what the Lithosphere is? I think you need to go spend 5 minutes and study Plate Tectonics. As long as the Earth's core is molten the earth's crust or Lithosphere which is the Crust and the upper part of the mantle keep moving.

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quote: Mike Schindler

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P.S. Allison, I got another one of your robots a couple weeks ago

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quote: Mark Gulbrandsen

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Any idea of how a glacier might upheave something?

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Mark,

I was thinking about the rubble pile pushed in front of a galcier contributing to uplift as it scours the ancient seabed. Most uplift to my knowledge is caused by plate tectonics as you stated earlier.

I have been a caver since the 1970s. Today I'm more or less the armchair variety. but I still maintain my NSS membership. My last spelunking trip was several years ago when I led a group of Boy Scouts through a cave in the WV panhandle.

On topic, I experienced a minor quake in LA while attending a meeting. It sounded like a truck hit the building and there was a pronounced jolt. The west coast folks didn't think anything of it, but I didn't feel safe until my return flight lifted off several days later.
 

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 04-21-2008, 09:56 AM:
 
Not an earthquake but...

About two years ago maybe a chemical plant in Danvers, Ma had an explosion at about 3:00 am. I was in bed sleeping when I woke up in MID AIR! I was sleeping on my side facing the wall I ended up on the floor next to my bed facing the complete other direction. There was video and pictures taken of pretty big "mushroom clouds" of fire from secondary explosions in the plant. All of the houses and businesses in the immediate area were leveled. I live maybe a mile from the plant and businesses near me had windows blown out, and houses have cracks in the foundations. The explosion was felt as far away as New Hampshire, and maine. There was a bakery next door to the chemical plant and luckily right before the explosion the employess all went outside to smoke or something. The bakery was completely levelled. Amazingly no one was killed. The chemical plant was empty and because it was so late all the people in the nearby houses were in thier bedrooms sleeping which saved thier lives.

After an investigation it was found that this plant which manufactured industrial ink did not have the required safety systems or automatic venting systems. There was a large vat of chemicals, and an employee had shut off the vents before he left for the night. When the automatic mixing motor started after the unvented chemical vapors had built up all night it caused a spark which ignited the chemicals. The whole place was full of explosive chemicals and there was many many secondary explosions. It was crazy. I thought I was dreaming at first but I went downstairs and outside and the whole sky was red. It was freaky! It was a miracle though that no one was killed. If this had happened during the day it would have been a different story I think, I think a lot of people would have been killed or seriously injured!
 

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Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 04-21-2008, 02:23 PM:
 
We have had the most bizarre explosions and disasters within a mile of where I work in the past few years.

The first was about five years ago when a train derailed right nearby spilling toxic chemicals. Then we had a transformer on a telephone pole out front arcing and blowing sparks everywhere into the busy street.

One year a building around the corner exploded. There was a trucking company leasing the back 10% of it's building to another company. They had a large pile of magnesium powder on the floor that caught on fire from a spark. It sent mushroom clouds and fireballs into the air for hours as well as heating up the windows of businesses across the street hundreds of yards away. The firefighters had to let it burn because they couldn't even get close to it. It would shake the ground everytime it went off. Fire

The next year I was sitting at my desk with my back to the front window on a friday afternoon. I was the last one left in the office and I heard a huge thud. The company across the street does smelting and an oven overheated and blew up. I turned just in time to see all of the factory windows blow out into the street and catch the median grass on fire because of the burning coals.

The last scare was just a few months ago in January. I had just left for a doctor's appointment when the office manager called. The people leasing the space next to us in the same building run a landscape and construction service. He was digging for a new water line out back and he hit a gas line. Our warehouse guy was sharpening cutters on a surface grinder which was throwing sparks. The gas leak was just feet from where he was just on the other side of the garage door. The gas was venting uncontrollably. The cops came in and screamed at everyone to get the heck out. It took hours before we were allowed back in and they got the gas turned off. This could have been a big disaster. Good thing no one was injured.

I am starting to think it's not safe to work here anymore.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-21-2008, 02:24 PM:
 

quote:

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I survived my first earthquake!

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Congratulations! Hopefully it is the first of many.
 

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 04-21-2008, 02:44 PM:
 
Ive seen a big Transformer on a pole explode before and I thought it was kinda cool, lol. It made everything turn blue for a split second it was wild! I have also blown up my fair share of stuff. The speed control card for a christie make-up table exploding was kind of cool
 

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Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 04-21-2008, 02:53 PM:
 
That's funny, a friend and I just blew up one of those Christie make-up table speed control cards too. We thought we knew what was wrong with it and tried jumping two terminals and ka-blewy.
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 04-21-2008, 04:13 PM:
 

quote:

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Ive seen a big Transformer on a pole explode before and I thought it was kinda cool, lol. It made everything turn blue for a split second it was wild! I have also blown up my fair share of stuff. The speed control card for a christie make-up table exploding was kind of cool [Roll Eyes]

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I still remember being at work at my old theater during a thunderstorm (odd for Seattle area) and a transformer across the street blew up and lit up the sky with some green. The building shook a bit but all of our guests in the lobby looked like they thought it was a actually terrorist attack. Yeah, a small yuppy mall is really high on Al Qaeda's list.
 

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