So....Let's talk about earthquakes.....................real ones.

[cody6766]

I felt a few good shakers, boomers and rollers in OKC, but I just got a taste of the Ring of Fire that didn't involve Thai food.

There I was, minding my own business, drinking a beer and filling my 120g reef tank with new water. I made the responsible renter's decision to not put about 150g of water, rock and sand on the second story of a house I don't own (the main living floor). Instead, I put it in the basement, on concrete.

A nice, bad ass roller/rocker earthquake started shaking the house around. I'm sitting on the floor, right next to the tank, riding along and enjoying myself. As soon as it started to die off, it came back with vengeance. It rocked enough that I stood up to hold the tank, trying in vain to minimize the water sloshed on to the floor. I bet 2 gallons of water were sloshed out of the top of the tank in a couple of seconds. It was one of the coolest things I've felt. I went upstairs to see what broke, and I was lucky. I almost had to clean up a shot glass, but it didn't make it off the counter top. My birds were awefully pissed and my wife was spooked, but nothing else was wrong.

That quake was a 7.1, by the most recent report. I'm about 160mi from the epicenter and it was awesome. I can only imagine what it was like at the source.



Oh, I also killed off a bucket list item a few days ago. The northern lights were visible from Anchorage, so I got a quick light show the other night.


I blame Bush, honestly.

 

[Okey-Dokey]

Biggest quake I've felt was a tiny 5.8 that was 30 miles away and it rocked us. I don't want to be around for anything north than a 6.5. Like you said, they're kinda fun....until the real power hits and you realize what death might feel like.

 

[Hobbes]

128 km deep.
If it had been 3 km deep your experience would have differed greatly.

 

[yukonjack]

I miss being in Anchorage. 7.1 is a real quake. Makes you wonder why the Okies whine so much about the baby quakes.

http://m.ktuu.com/news/strong-earthquake-with-initial-magnitude-of-about-71-hits-south-alaska/37610068

 

[Dale00]

Having grown up in southern California, I've experienced some large ones. Fortunately I've never been in one where things collapsed in my immediate area. I recall one in which literally the surface of the land moved in ripples. The trees rocked in sequence as each ripple passed. People have told me this is impossible but I know what I saw.

 

[IndVet]

I was deployed to Incirlik Turkey with AWACS in 1998. Mid afternoon we had a 6.3 (thereabouts) hit. I was scheduled to leave later that day to return home. We were in the alert facility and realized what was happening, also realized we had two foot of concrete over our heads and hoofed it outside pretty quick. Telephone poles were swaying, line almost touching the ground, then snapping tight and sounding like a bullwhip.

It bounced a couple planes on the runway so hard their landing gear got damaged. Our plane out of there was in the air at the time inbound from Italy, they made it turn around and we were pissed. They sent another after they did a FOD walk and saw the runway was undamaged. An aftershock hit with our jet about an hour out, but they let it proceed. We got out of there around midnight.

Not very stringent building codes in Turkey. 145 people were killed within a couple miles of the base. Mostly collapsed balconies and walls.

 

[cody6766]

128 km deep.
If it had been 3 km deep your experience would have differed greatly.

I bet. This one was also a good distance away. Apparently it was felt up near Fairbanks, so I bet it really rocked at the epicenter. I don't think there are a lot of people out where it happened, so I'm sure the impact was minimal.

I miss being in Anchorage. 7.1 is a real quake. Makes you wonder why the Okies whine so much about the baby quakes.

I love it up here. It was definitely MUCH more potent than anything I felt in OKC, but I expected that. We had a 4.5'ish on the other day that was a good ride too, but not nearly as long or as strong as this one. Im sure there will be more fun in the future

 

[Hobbes]

Let's hope you don't ever experience anything like the one they had in 64. OO

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake

 

[Okey-Dokey]

I've felt more earthquakes in OK in a few months than I did a decade in California. They're also man-induced so I get the bitching. Also, if a bigger one hits OK, the devastation in OK will be huge compared to CA because outside the Devon tower I doubt any building or bridge in this state could withstand a 6 or greater. A 7 in OK would probably be so bad I doubt there'd be much rebuilding simply because no infrastructure is built to withstand it....it'd probably all be flattened.

Same worries exist in the Inland Empire in SoCal. Row upon row of houses that aren't built to withstand a sizable quake. Many of the homes in that area are very low income and a lot of houses hold multiple families so when the San Andreas decides to roll out a 7.8, that area will be toast with high death count while the richer areas should withstand it simply because they're built better.

I miss being in Anchorage. 7.1 is a real quake. Makes you wonder why the Okies whine so much about the baby quakes.

http://m.ktuu.com/news/strong-earth...nitude-of-about-71-hits-south-alaska/37610068