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chrsig | 5 months ago

From someone that grew up in New England, but experienced a 4.x in california: I assure you it does not feel small.

The revelation that the ground does not stay where I left it was quite disturbing.

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kalleboo|5 months ago

As someone who lives in Japan and has a lot of experience with earthquakes, the magnitude tells you not a lot, the depth and location/geology can easily change it from something you don't even feel to something quite big.

This is why I use every chance I can to espouse a scale like Japanese Shindo which actually measures the surface shaking (what matters to civilians) rather than the Magnitude scale that just measures the energy of the earthquake (more interesting to seismologists). Japanese news always focuses on the maximum observed Shindo which immediately tells you had bad it felt/affected people living nearby.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_se...

xkcd-sucks|5 months ago

New England is seismically active :) If you're not aware of it, the tremors can feel like a large passing truck or something like that

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=40.31872...

dekhn|5 months ago

I grew up near a town called "Moodus" in Connecticut which constantly made noises and had small quakes.

But it didn't prepare me for the few small quakes I experienced in the bay area (typically a bunch of car alarms go off and dogs bark, there's a thud, and then a gentle rocking).

dboreham|5 months ago

There are even earthquakes you can feel in "Old England". Not often, but I've experienced one. Lived in the BA for a few years and felt many small quakes. Lived in a very seismically active part of Montana for 25 years and felt nothing. YMMV.

sharksauce|5 months ago

Indeed -- Mount Desert Island (home of Acadia NP) had a small one just this weekend!

And we had a M4.2 one there about twenty years ago when I was living there.

prmoustache|5 months ago

What previous commenter meant is there are part of the world like in Chiappas,MX where 4.x earthquakes are occuring several times a day and people get along with their lives just fine.