There was an earthquake in California this morning. That's not really the news, it was 5.6.

But it's this quote in The Mirror I had to chukle over. "Many residents of the area received an alert on their phones from the Myshake app, alerting them to the earthquake."

We need phones and technology to advise us of an f'ing earthquake. I mean you'd think you'd notice the earth shaking before your phone?

Link

quote:

Originally posted by mjlennon:
you'd think you'd notice the earth shaking before your phone?

Isn't that one of the standard ring tones?

I got the MyShake warning this morning. Never felt anything, thank goodness.

The idea behind quake warning is that the system immediately detects the initial phase of the quake, i.e. so-called P-waves, which travel faster than the more destructive S-waves (secondary waves).

Then it's a race against time. The warning goes out at literally the speed of light, hopefully providing people a few seconds time to duck-and-cover before the main phase of shaking hits.

I got the warning too.

Didn’t feel a thing.

I didn't feel it either and I'm about 100 miles southwest of the site. I ran to see if my neighbor's pool was washing out water. We got the notices on our phones and we all ran to the hallway looking at each other....

In the 1989 Loma Prieta EQ, my parents' pool was sloshing back and forth and lost quite a bit of water. We were well over 100 miles from that one.

I've received the warnings before SoCal earthquakes.

The reality is that you get the alarm on your phone and you ask, "What's that?" the moment they hit. I mean it's mere seconds between the alarm and the event. There was never time to hide or duck.

I just got back from a 2 week visit to SF and my friend has the app on her phone. She said it gives her about 3-4 sec warning. She said that, at best, it takes the edge off of the surprise if she hears the app's unique notification sound.

I think even 2 seconds is better than nothing. About 5 seconds before the '89 Loma Prieta quake hit, I heard the P-waves and told myself a bad shaker is about to hit. I scrunched down into a stable stance in just enough time to ride it out. Had I not been prepared, I'm pretty sure I'd have been thrown to the sidewalk.

The app is supposed to tell you before the earthquake occurs. Nice idea, I guess.

I've lived in the SF East Bay my entire life.

In 1989, I was a kid in my parents' living room about to watch the World Series game. Our family dog went under the kitchen table and started frantically squeaking (not normal for her...she probably felt the P-waves). About ten seconds later, maybe a little less, Loma Prieta hit. Best early warning ever.

For the Napa Quake (about 3:20 am in 2014), I was at work standing in the back lot of our police department talking to a bunch of co-workers. I watched a whole line of PG&E power poles start dancing, swaying back and forth in sequence, and then a few seconds later we started feeling the shaking. It was one of the trippiest things I've ever witnessed.

Having experienced dozens of earthquakes in my life, most of them quite small, I'm not sure what good having a few seconds of warning actually gives you. Most are fairly quick then over. I guess you might have time to get to a doorway, but probably not depending on where you are in a building.

I didn't feel today's quake.

quote:

Myshake

You sure that doesn't go with this:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
I got the MyShake warning this morning. Never felt anything, thank goodness.

The idea behind quake warning is that the system immediately detects the initial phase of the quake, i.e. so-called P-waves, which travel faster than the more destructive S-waves (secondary waves).

Then it's a race against time. The warning goes out at literally the speed of light, hopefully providing people a few seconds time to duck-and-cover before the main phase of shaking hits.

And there are many quakes detectors in California. It’s likely that one of them is much nearer the epicenter than I am. I’d get the warning before I felt ANY shaking.

Sounds like they could've used that app in Venezuela today. 7.5er hit down there. Possibly thousands dead. Big one in Japan too.

The California app also shows the earthquake strength around the world.