earthquakes, what's the biggest for you?

[daver 0]

so as it has been suggested in another thread to start the topic, here we go;

 

what is the biggest earthquake you have been involved in? or, what has been the worst scenerio you have found yourself in during an earthquake? how did it turn out? (i hope for the best)

 

for me it was last year during the big sendai quake; it was a 7.8 i believe and not too far from the coast. i was on the train almost 50km from the epicenter. it lasted for nearly two minutes, i was sure that the train was going to derail. thankfully it did not, and as it turns out we stopped in possible the safest place, the rice field plains between the city and the sea. that spot i suppose would have been terrible if the quake had caused a sizable tsunami but thankfully it did not.

[sanjo 2]

Magnitude doesn't really mean much to us bods on the ground. What matters, as I found out, is the 震度 shindo level which tells you exactly how much movement is going on.

 

Of course the biggest for me was the Niigata Chuetsu 20 months ago. Scared the shit out of me as you probably know. It was shindo 6 chaku that I experienced. Not quite enough to have buildings falling on top of you, but borderline. 30km away they were being destroyed.

 

As anyone will tell you one of the real horrors of that quake was the fact that the aftershocks just kept coming and coming for literally months. There were something like over 1300 of the things. That was extremely stressful.

[giggsy 0]

Luckily none. I'm interested to read about other experiences though, sounds like an experience I don't want.

[Davo 1]

Hanshin earthquake whatever that measured in central Osaka, scary stuff indeed...

[joshnii 2]

Chuetsu here as well.

The worst thing about Japan.

[@tokyo 14]

The strongest I have probably experienced is a shindo 4 here in Tokyo. I was on the 14th floor of a building and so it felt pretty strong and was a very strange sensation. Not one I'm keen to repeat.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Davo:
Hanshin earthquake whatever that measured in central Osaka, scary stuff indeed...

you were HERE then? Geeze, you must be an old geezer

[bong 0]

Quite a few strongish ones here, though nothing on that scale. i seem to live in an area of lots of activity.

[Davo 1]

No arguing with that Creek Boy. I am indeed an old geezer.

[scouser 4]

How old is old?

 

I'm lucky enough not to have experienced anything too scary - though even smallish ones sure aren't fun to experience.

[akibun 0]

Biggest I feel was recently in Chiba - it was on news I think shido 5.　　こわかった

[muikabochi 208]

Of course the Niigata one.

 

I'll tell you something else as well, they have a long term effect on you. I don't trust the ground now. Never used to think about it, but now always think it could happen again and quite often when a truck goes past or some other rumbling noise I almost instantly get into "on alert" mode.

 

I've been damaged!

[eskimobasecamp 0]

The Niigata one - my grandmother almost passed out as i announced to her in the middle of our telephone conversation that we were having an earthquake. Sketched me out properly, couldn't sleep properly for ages after that.

[muikabochi 208]

Was it strong over there in Hakuba as well? Perhaps shindo 3?

 

Imagine that but much much stronger.

 

[eskimobasecamp 0]

Well it scared the shit out of me - don't know how to categorise it, but extremely noticeable!!

[slow 0]

Is it only my area or my apartment? I can tell the earthquake coming these days. I hear the earth sounds from the bottom, outside or somewhere. I never had this experience before moving to Tokyo...

[joshnii 2]

Yep. And as muikabochi said, I often hear ones that are really earthquakes. They do have a very distinctive and menacing sound though. The sound of my house moving (even slightly) is also very unnerving.