Earthquake: Caution, watch for falling objects! (1 Viewer)

[Mark C.]

I'm not sure where to post this, so I guess I'll try here.

We had a good-sized quake last night, 5.2 on the Richter. We live very close to the epicenter, and our house shook violently, but only for a brief time.

Apart from pictures and vases falling, we came out OK; just a lot of jangled nerves. Nevertheless, our son's high school graduation photo (framed, of course) tipped off the fireplace mantel and fell on one of my B&W CDM1SE's that I use for HT mains. Small nick, ouch!

My son's DVD rack, however, didn't fare too well. It tipped. He has a project now for the rest of the week: Putting those DVDs back in place and in alphbetical order.

I sure am glad I decided to put shot in my HT stands. I'm sure the added weight prevented a toppling speaker or two.

Everyone might want to check their HTs to see if there are heavy objects which could fall and damage expensive equipment. After all, earthquakes aren't a California exclusive anymore.

 

[John Garcia]

I was watching the Sharks game when it happend. It was a pretty good one, strongest I've felt since '89. I was not close to the epicenter, so no damage, but it definitely got the heart pounding.

 

[Frank_S]

I was playing a record at the time on my turntable and felt my couch move up & down pretty good. I walked over to my audio rack and lifted the needle off the record and held onto the rack, it was moving quite a bit. The record did'nt even skip with all the movement.
Lately I've been thinking about quakes for some reason. We really have'nt had a good one for about 12 years, let's hope it stays that way.

 

[Grant B]

I was watching the Sharks game when it happend.

So was I; and the announcer said something about the quake ... and I thought to myself that's strange I don't feel a .....JOLT....

About a 3 second difference from San Jose arena to San Francisco where I live.

So it was:

(70 miles/3 secs) x (60 sec/minutes) x(60 minutes/hour)

=~8400 miles per hour for the seismic wave

(guess you need to subtrack the time it takes the speed of light to get to my TV but that would be pretty minor)

It gave me a good clue what direction it came from

I reinforced all our walls with plywood on the inside which adds sheer strength. I felt one quick jolt and my wife didn't even feel it so I guess I did a good job