Author needs assistance, mentions stuff, gets back to work...

[kinzel]

Hands up now:

How many of you have experienced earthquakes? If no, go to section 2.

How many can recall *sounds* from the earthquake -- actually sounds *of* the earthquake? I don't mean the sound of cans of beans falling in the aisles, but a sound made by the earth/earthquake itself? I've been in a GRAND TOTAL of one small earthquake of noticeable proportions, but we're talking * v small* ... and I'm needing information on big hummers of earthquakes, particularly quakes with significant duration.

How many have experienced earthquakes while already outdoors -- camping, in a park, on a farm, someplace away from ordinary sounds of a city? Talk to me about your recall of the motion of shrubs, bushes, small trees big trees. What about the response of wildlife -- birds, larger wildlife, squirrels?

How about experiencing an earthquake while at a beach or on the water ... do tell!

Thank You in Advance.

Section 2a: Before Labor Day

Boskone is approaching. We'll be there. We're hoping for a Friends of Liad breakfast. We may ask some locals to help supply uncon food and supplies since the hotel is sort of in the midst of nowhere, IIRC.

Details:
February 15-17, 2008, Westin Waterfront, Boston, Massachusetts.

Guest of Honor: David Weber Official Artist: Dean Morrissey
Special Guest: Bruce Coville
Featured Filker: Seanan McGuire

info:http://www.nesfa.org/Boskone/

The hotel/conference center is ... really nifty. Except there's not much to walk to.
We've already bought train tickets.

*Amended to note that we have hotel reservations in house, too.

Section 2b:



OK ... we got our memberships for Denvention and Sharon actually has enough time off for us to get from the wilds of Maine to urban Denver and back traveling by train, which most of you know is our preferred mode of long distance transport. If you're going to the con as well and considering traveling by train, will you be using the Lake Shore to California Zephyr route? Maybe we can plan lunch in Chicago before the Zephyr zooms us off. The "party hotel" has a lot of suites -- will we have enough members of Friends of Liad there to put together an FoL suite? I think hotel reservations are not yet being taken. We should certainly have an FoL breakfast there. Trips like this are what the Trip Jar are for .... http://www.korval.com/tripjar.html

*Amended to say ... no hotel reservations yet, nor train tickets. We're still debating our arrival date.

Part 3: After Labor Day

In case you didn't hear: we'll be at AlbaCon. Who else will be there?
Guest of Honor: Anne McCaffrey and Guest of Honor: Todd McCaffrey

That's http://www.albacon.org/ ... and we're hoping for a Friends of Liad breakfast there. Still lots of time to plan for this, I betcha.

*Amended to note that we have room reservations for AlbaCon in house, now. Plan ahead -- this con will fill the hotel quickly!

v1.5

Comments

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

My wife and I would be glad to help at Boskone.

Contact information is on my profile.

I gotta tell you that the filk guest -- Seanan McGuire -- is amazing. Her LJ is at cadhla.

I know AlbaCon is a long way away, but we will be there, too, and would be willing to help.

Liam

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

LLT used to live in California - she's been in more than 50 of them. She says that it sounds like the earth cracks. It's a rumble y noise that is almost inaudible. It's more of a feeling of vibration that you feel in your eardrums.

She's usually been inside - in a car or a house. The dogs will give you a half a second warning before you feel it - the ears perk up like an intruder alert kind of response.

I'm no help, the farthest west I've ever been is Chicago.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

The one big earthquake I was in (a 5.5) I was inside a big concrete building (in chem lab). I suppose you aren't interested in hearing about that experience? Between the rumble of the building sounding like it was taking steps and all the glassware rattling on the shelves (not to mention the movement of the earth beneath my feet) I was right freaked out.

The only earthquakes I experienced outside were small jolts, nothing sustained.

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

BTW, can I hurt you now? There is NO way I can afford to go to AlbaCon. It's 2 weeks before another Con that I'll be volunteering at and I can't afford to go to two Cons in one month...but you guys AND the McCaffreys make it very tempting to try.

[debmats.livejournal.com]

I've been through many earthquakes - the largest one was the Loma Prieta of 1989. Length was a very LONG 15 seconds. It started out as a side to side (oh yeah no big deal) and then moved onto an up down jolt (oh no!) and then more side to side...

I don't remember the actual sounds OF the earthquake - I was inside, sitting on my bed. I just heard stuff like my big bookshelf in the living crashing over (lladros and books oh no!) and the dresser mirror knocking the bedroom door off its hinges. After that, just lots of car alarms going off.

I'll be at Denvention and would be willing to assist at a lounge.

Any plans for BaltiCon???

earthquakes

[(Anonymous)]

This is second hand: A college friend was in a very bad one in Chile years ago. She said that they noticed the silence of all the natural noises just before it struck.. That gave them just enough time to take shelter under the door frame. (That being a load bearing wall it was deemed one of the safer places in the house.)
lso a family friend who was in the Yokohama Quake ha din th e adrenaline of the moment snatched two cut glass decanters and for some reason put them in the fireplace in his rush out of the house to safety. When they returned after the subsequent fires were done, all that was left of the house was the fireplace and chimney - with the decanters still in one piece.

[argentla.livejournal.com]

I've been through several earthquakes here, including the '94 Northridge quake, and most of the sounds were creaking of the house and stuff in it. The house I was in at the time suffered some very minor internal damage (splitting plaster on certain inner walls), as well as stuff shaking loose and falling over. The house next door had its newly constructed chimney knocked loose, and all the bricks ended up in the driveway with a crash. So, basically, my experiences have always been of secondary sounds, not the earthquake itself.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Gah, wrong Albacon! I was hoping it would be a revival of the ones in Glasgow, Scotland.

If you (plural) were invited as guests, all expenses paid (travel, hotel, food etc.), would it be possible for you to make it to the right side of the Pond? Or does the time it takes make that out of the question? Not that I'm on a concom at the moment, but my statement "I'll never run a con again" is an Official Denial and we all know what those mean...

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Been in a couple of small ones, nothing major enough to have a name. One was indoors, a single shock, no duration, no aftershock. Felt--and sounded--like a truck hit the house, kind of a whumping/crunching noise. The house wasn't damaged--nothing was damaged except a glass that fell off a counter--so the noise was probably the earth, not the house.

The other one, possibly more useful to you, I was outside--ten to twenty feet up a tree. *grin* That was thirty years ago, but as I recall I didn't notice sounds so much as the lack of sound. The tree swayed like it was in a high wind, but there was no wind, no sound of the wind. I think it was very quiet, but this is a well-polished memory, so I don't know how much of it is accurate any more--vivid, yes, accurate, who knows. This was on Guam in 1977 or 1978, and might have been the 5.2 quake in January of 1978 (or might have been one of the eleven less quakes in 1977). There were ample dogs and chickens around (and very few cars) so if they had been making a commotion I probably would have heard and remembered it.

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

I've been in many earthquakes (having lived in southern California more or less continuously from age 2 to 23), but no sounds come to mind. Sorry.

My wife and I will be at Denvention.

I expect to be at Albacon. Probably Boskone as well.

I'm in Aruba at the moment, but I'm still hoping to sit down and have an email conversation with you shortly into the new year, ideally with an aim toward the 2008 Worldcon.

Minor Earthquake

[adamek.livejournal.com]

The minor 2.8 earthquake I was in sounded like a sonic boom, but went on for about 45 seconds.

Denvention

[saruby.livejournal.com]

I live in the Denver area, so I'm not planning to get a room, but I will be there. I can help with logistics (rides, food, etc.). I've never done the big conventions before, so someone else will have to coach me on party planning, etc. Or just consider me a gofer (parties are really NOT my thing).

Earthquake sounds

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I have been through a number of earthquakes in Tokyo, but the sounds that I remember are falling odds and ends, not from the earthquake itself.

Over here http://www.oyo.co.jp/service/taisyou/jisin/oto/oto00.html there is a page in Japanese which talks about the sound of the earthquake itself. It says the frequency is down about 10 hertz, while human hearing only goes down to about 20 hertz. They have several actual recordings of earthquakes there, shifted up slightly to make them easier to hear.

Hope that helps.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Thanks crew! Lots of answers and some helpful pointers. As usual, results of this question will turn up somewhere sometime in a story...

earthquakes

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

I was living in Denver - sound asleep. I don't remember any particular sound, what woke me was furniture (bed) moving all over the place.
Lorna

Earthquakes

[(Anonymous)]

The biggest earthquake I've been in was the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. I was 12 years old, and at soccer practice. As far as sound goes, I remember a dull rumble, not extremely loud. The ground moved side to side then up-and-down, and the up-and-down played hell with the visuals; it's hard to keep looking in one direction while the ground is moving up and down, which tilts your head down and up.

I was one of the few who stayed standing; most people duck-and-covered, which I considered a bit silly; we were in the middle of a soccer field! I'd guess that standing increases the sense of motion quite a bit, since you balance on your legs, and feel the ground moving beneath your feet.

The trees were shacking and moving around as if in a strong wind, but back and forth (as opposed to in one direction). They stopped moments after the quake did. Don't remember anything about animals.

Earthquakes (oops)

[(Anonymous)]

I forgot to sign that; I'm Jonathan Adams, long-time lurker and fan of your books.

Eathquake sounds

[masgramondou.livejournal.com]

Apart from one earthquake here on the Riviera, which was a short sharp jolt and which I definitely heard as a kind of gunshot like crack, all of the Earthquakes I've been in have been pretty long wobbly things with no obvious sound. I've heard people describe them as very low rumbling, kind of like a heavy truck driving past on a road nearby but I've never heard that myself, maybe my ears don't hear low sounds properly.

One of my wife's friends who survived the Kobe earthquake (the TV fell off its cabinet and hit where she normally slept but wasn't for some reason that night) said that the most strange thing was the absence of noise immediately after everything that was going to fall had done so.

Because the power went off and the fact that no one was driving, for a few minutes all the noises in the city just stopped. Then of course the noises of sirens, fires, dogs barking etc. started up but a minute or so there was almost total silence.

One more on earthquakes

[(Anonymous)]

I don't remember the details personally, but I was in Anchorage AK in '64, the house ended up in the tide flats. In more recent years a friend who was there too recalled that the ground moved like water, as if you were standing on the beach watching gentle swells moving toward shore. I have experienced a similar sensation (much smaller) here in Seattle but more felt than seen. I also remember one where we thought a very large truck was going by the building, noisy, but didn't feel a thing, then noticed things swaying.

Earth Quakes

[baggette.livejournal.com]

I am surprised that no one else seems to have interpreted the sound of an earth quake as something like a freight train. I have experienced several earth quakes here in Maine. We have a large fault line here, but I forget what is is called.

My experience has been to notice a low rumbling first; like a heavily loaded freight train. Then the ground shakes a bit or if I am indoors, the furnishings seem to sway. Last October, a large clock fell off the wall and broke. Usually they are over about the time one starts to get worried; which leaves one to wonder if it was just her imagination.

The one time I was outdoors during a quake, I was near a lake in the woods. I did notice a moment of silence (no birds or insects) just before the shaking began. The lake acted as if there had been a motor boat close to shore, with wake waves. And then a tree that formerly looked pretty stable, just broke about 15 feet about the ground and fell over. It was a large white pine- 3 feet in diameter with a twisted rip pattern in the break. Really interesting, because it looked more like tornado damage than the effect a quake might have had. Glad I had not taken shelter there!

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

There's a small fault line 8 or 10 miles from where I live. The only quake I've actually felt happened several months ago and I didn't hear a thing that time. The house just made a very weird rolling/shaking motion. The other quakes I've experienced have just consisted of a long. low rumbling noise sort of like thunder.

Earthquake sounds...

[deb-krol.livejournal.com]

Our old ranch straddled the San Andreas, so I do know a bit about quakes. :)

there is a definite rumbling, if you're not too busy looking out for things that fall on you that is. Depends on how big the shake is, how close to the epicenter, are you out or in, etc. I've wondered if sometimes the sound isn't the sound of the building shaking and not necessarily the ground. Can't recall being in the fault out at the ranch during a shake or I'd be of more service.