My first earthquake! (1 Viewer)

[John Garcia]

I thought that I had blown a tire or something because controlling the car was a bit difficult.

It's interesting that you say that. I was on the road, sitting at a light, just about to get onto 880 in San Jose. My first clue was that people were pulling over and looking at their tires thinking they had flats, but then I noticed the traffic lights swaying violently, and there was a large building with all mirrored glass exterior that was literally undulating with waves, like water. Scary stuff.

 

[Rob Willey]

I got a nice forewarning about Monday's quake about five seconds before I felt it. The announcer on the Sharks game said, "We're having an earthquake!" and then I felt it. Since I live north of San Jose, I knew the quake was centered to the south (turned out to be Gilroy).
My worst was Loma Prieta in '89. I was sitting watching the World Series pre-game when it hit. I felt the first jolt and stood up and the next thing I knew, I was "living-room surfing".
Just a note on the shaking of earthquakes, usually two distinct kinds of shaking can be felt: a sharp up-and-down motion (P-waves) followed by a side-to-side rolling sensation (S-waves). Waves eminate from the epicenter (actually the hypocenter under ground) and P waves travel faster than the S waves. If you feel both kinds of movement distinctly (as I did in '89), you can estimate how far away the center of the quake is. It works much the same way as judging the distance of a thunder storm by the delay between the flash of lightning and the crash of the thunder.
Rob
"Subduction leads to orogeny."