Have you ever experienced an earthquake or earth tremor?

[TheTecknician]

I appreciate that this may be a sensitive subject for some, given the often dangerous and destructive nature of seismic activity. Thankfully, my one and only exposure was on the mild side. I don't remember much about it except that it occurred one night in the last 25 years or so and it woke me up as my home shivered and trembled for a few seconds. I think the epicentre might have been in Lincolnshire. That's all!

I experienced the 2021 “Arkochori” earthquake in Crete - magnitude 6.

i felt the whole hotel move really significantly. But 1000s of bulkdings in the old town were damaged and there was a fatality.

The hotel building itself was fine but the staff were all in shock and worried even though they are used to multiple earthquakes - so that really worried me.

the weirdest and most disconcerting thing was the hundreds of after shocks (some 4.5) we felt during the week after. I wouldn’t feel them as much in the day but really felt them at night.

i couldn’t sleep and kept looking at this site which registers seismic activity globally

https://m.emsc.eu

https://m.emsc.eu

this is so interesting. They are so frequent

Theres about 300 a year in the UK only a few are actually felt by humans.

Yes, the one in the 1980s in Manchester. Just eating my toast before school and watching TV. I remember the sofa moving about and my mum.saying it was a tremor, then everyone talking about it at school (and exaggerating!) then it was on the news later.

When I was on honeymoon in Palm Springs in 2010 we experienced an earthquake. It was 7.2 at the epicentre which I think was in Mexico. We’d been at an all you could drink champagne brunch so we were a bit worse for wear and laying by the pool when suddenly the man serving at the pool bar shut the serving hatch and then ran out of his hut. Then people started running out of the hotel. We had no idea what was happening, I just became increasingly aware that the water was sloshing out of the pool and it felt like my sun lounger was moving. It didn’t feel like how I’d imagine an earthquake to feel at all. I would have imagined it to feel a shaking feeling but it didn’t, it felt more like a rocking or sliding back and forth motion. It was a very odd feeling. It was also weird because even though there were hoards of us on sun loungers around the pool and people were running out of the hotel everyone was completely silent whilst it happened.

I think other factors, like the depth of it, make a difference? It was a good shake but not much damage.

Yes I live on Vancouver Island. I'd say In the last 10 yrs there have been maybe 4 that have actually shaken me awake and quite a few smaller quakes. Is quite unsettling when it happens and you think Oh shit is this the big one?. You usually hear them before you feel them, sounds like a big truck just drove by. We really should update our earthquake kit.

I apparently slept right through a fairly large one in NZ. I've never decided if I'm glad I slept through or sorry to have missed it.

Yes, when i was about 19 or 20. I was in bed about to get up, and it felt like a dog had jumped onto the bed and was shaking himself.

It was an earthquake that struck Wales - the Menai quake iirc. I was in Dublin.

Yes, twice. Once in London, lying in bed early morning. First time was in Guatemala.

Yes, in Malta 20+ years ago. DP and I were in a hotel room that shook but, although that was alarming, we were lucky that there was no real damage where we were.

From memory, the epicentre was some miles away in the Med. I don't remember the magnitude, but I think some houses on the island (in a different area from where we were) were damaged and some people were injured, though as I recall no one was seriously hurt.

I’ve experienced a few in Italy. Some were tremors and one was major.
Also, two in Tokyo.

Yes, in Peru while we were in a guest house near the Colca Canyon. We felt the building shake and were a bit worried so went to reception and asked if it had been an earthquake.

They said, "si, el seísmo" and shrugged! It was a pretty normal experience for them as it's on a fault line. Minor tremors like that were just a part of life, it seemed!

Yes in Istanbul in 1993 or so. 5.4 on the Richter scale. Quite scary watching things move indoors albeit momentary.

Twice.

Once in Bali, I was in bed and I woke up with my bed shaking like something from The Exorcist.

The second one I was also in bed, in Wolverhampton.

Yes. I used to live in another European country which had an earthquake in about 1990. I was about 30 miles from the epicentre. In the village at the epicentre, there was a lot of damage. I got a lot of cracks in my flat and a book fell off the shelf.

I also used to live in Central America and there were constant tremors.

Yes market rasen. The roaring noise was so strange!

Not personally, but my daughter did last month in the Philippines. She said it was a really weird sensation, like the ground was moving side to side but odd as you knew you were on solid ground.

Thankfully she came home before the awful typhoon they just had.

About 3 tremors. Only one I remember the time was in Sept 2002 in Leeds. Got woken about midnight. Was about 4.7 and epicentre was Dudley.

The 80s one when I was living in the midlands and then the 2008 one when I was living in London and thought it was a tube train beneath me despite not living anywhere near a tube line and it being the middle of the night when no tubes were running.

Also lots of small ones in Chile and Argentina when there for work. I was in a high-rise hotel and noticed the lampshade swinging.

Yes, many in Japan, as I lived and worked in Tokyo for 10 years. Largest was the 11.3.11 earthquake (and the tsunami that damaged the Fukushima power plant).

The one I remember most was early on, working on the 27th floor of Japan’s oldest skyscraper, and seeing the long straight road below moving around as the building swayed (as it was designed to do) to dissipate the energy from the quake.

Lots in Iceland. The buildings are very strong here and designed to withstand earthquakes well, so they are not frightening really, but they are surprising.

The most dangerous thing is objects falling off shelves. You know your house isn't going to collapse, especially where we are, but it's weird to feel and hear your glasses clinking in the cupboard, see your light fittings swinging, and when you're in bed it's like someone jumped on the bed so it wakes you up. There's a droning sound.

Before the eruption in 2021 there was a prolonged period of frequent earthquakes and it did start to grate on your nerves after a while.

Ooh yes back in around 2007/8 living in the NE of England. Woke up in the middle of the night, thought I was dreaming or hallucinating as the walls of the bedroom were literally moving from side to side! Most bizarre thing ever and a few seconds later I wondered if I’d imagined the whole thing. On the news the next morning there had been a small earthquake, the epicentre was somewhere in Lincolnshire.

Yes, a few. It just felt like the building was swaying side to side (in a tall building) and when I’ve been more ground level, like a loud truck rumbled past. I’ve never been in anything major though (maybe 4.9/5.0).

I still sometimes think I feel them (it IS literally a truck rumbling past) and I’ve lived in the UK for 15 years now.

I remember the 2008 one as we live in Lincolnshire, it woke us and the wardrobe doors rattled and the bed shook. In September we were in Kefalonia and had daily / nightly tremors, the highest was 4.6