Earthquake on the water

[Giggitoni]

I've lived in California all my life and experienced numerous earthquakes. However, this morning was the first while floating.

My SO and I were in our marina sleeping when the earthquake occured. We think it was about 03:20 hours and lasted about 15 to 20 seconds. The sound and feel in the boat was a loud shaking. Almost like a team of pranksters were shaking the boat. I jumped out of bed and looked out a window to see the water looking like a washing machine with ripples and wavelets all over.

We lost our ac power in the marina for about an hour or so.

I didn't imagine that we would feel the quake on the water like we did. I assumed the water would have cushioned the effects of the seismic activity. Assumed....

 

[CPseudonym]

That was a pretty good little jolt this morning, slept right through it myself but surprisingly spoke with several that awoke similar to you. Have often wondered the affect myself.

 

[Giggitoni]

USGS is calling the strength 6.0 on the Richter scale. My daughter felt it in Sacramento, but not her dog...so much for the big, bad guard dog.

Rather than a jolting action, I assumed that the motion would be more of a gentle roll on the water. Oh well, check that one off my bucket list!

 

[CPseudonym]

Our dog was whining perhaps about that time, told her to hush and rolled over and back to sleep for me

 

[markpierce]

Woke up at home in Martinez and felt the last two to three seconds of mild back-and-forth motions. ... Once I get on top of an upper-respiratory infection, I'll return the Coot from Richmond to Vallejo. ... Thankfully, no tsunami! ... There was no damage to Perla's Vallejo house, but heard there was chimney damage at the former navy officers' Victorian homes on Mare Island.

 

[SCOTTEDAVIS]

Good to hear from you folks, now stay ok, ya hear.

 

[MyBad]

Woke up to a rolling feeling here at the house...

 

[ben2go]

The biggest I been in was a 3.4 that was a good ways away from us.That was the scariest thing I ever experienced, beside a tornado,from nature.At first I thought the rock quarry behind us had an accident underground involving explosives.I know this may sound crazy,er maybe not,but I swear I could see ripples come across the ground, from the direction the earthquake came from.

 

[Giggitoni]

Many quakes are very disorienting and can give the feeling of wave forms traveling across the ground. Tsunamis are just water versions of what is taking place in the ground. Same energy. The Sylmar quake in 1971 (6.6 on the Richter scale) was the one I'll always remember. It occurred in the morning when folks were getting ready for work; high school, in my case. My dad and I had to use each side of the hallway in the house to keep us upright! It was quite violent.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
We are docked within 100 yds of a rail line. When a heavily laden train passes (infrequently-maybe 1 a week) the vibrations of the heavy cars can be felt aboard and we're not tied hard to the dock. Never noticed any movement in the water though.

 

[Giggitoni]

RT, didn't notice much water movement, just a hard jolting and shaking like I've experienced on land. When I looked out the boat window, the water surface looked like a kajillion sardines were feeding and schooling just below the surface. You've all seen it. Sort of looked like a huge vibration making the water all jumbled.

 

[Peter B]

Did thoughts of a possible tsunami cross your mind..? If not they should have, as until you know there isn't, there is, in my view. Fortunately, I would expect in your part of the world there would be tsunami buoys out off the coast and local radio would be informed pretty quickly by the authorities, so I hope you tuned in.

As to the effects of a biggie. The Napier earthquake in NZ in 1931, which virtually totally destroyed the city, was 7.8 on the scale, and my mother remembers standing at her gate 160 miles north in Gisborne, and literally seeing the ground rise and fall like actual waves through the ground.

6. The 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake – Historic earthquakes – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

I was reminded just how destructive they can be as I was just across the ditch, as we call the Tasman Sea in Christchurch, NZ for my brother's birthday, and he took me for a tour of that city, now 3 years after the biggie of 2011. I was staggered at the fact the CBD is basically just gone…but even mores at the large numbers of houses, (whole streets of them), just sitting vacant as they have either been condemned, are still waiting to be repaired, or are in an area that 'went down' so much with the earth's upheaval they are too flood prone to be safe.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708024

I sincerely hope there is not a biggie still to follow over there in California.
Be safe people.

 

[CPseudonym]

No expert here Peter but believe our biggest tsunami threats come from the other side of the ocean and those are largely localized events reaching landfall here. California fault lines are predominantly on shore and the general logic for tsunami seems to be deep water to sudden transition to shallow water is the damage maker.

We have experienced them in the past but those always seemed to originate from quakes elsewhere to my understanding.

 

[Giggitoni]

I'm a geologist but not a seismologist so I know enough about catastrophic earth movement to be dangerous!

The quakes we have in California are strike slip faults. We used to call them left or right lateral faults. It's where the land sheers laterally and we end up with horizontal displacement of each side of the fault. That's why it's jokingly said that Los Angeles will be alongside San Francisco in the distant future (way in the future!!!). Tsunamis are born from compressional faulting where one block rides up on another. We refer to the parts as Horsts and Grabens. The sudden vertical movement is what generally causes tsunamis. And like Craig said, it's better (or worse...) if this phenomenon occurs under the oceans rather that on land. The sudden transfer of energy is much more effective for the formation of tsunamis in water.

 

[Moonstruck]

My SO and I were in our marina sleeping when the earthquake occured. We think it was about 03:20 hours and lasted about 15 to 20 seconds. The sound and feel in the boat was a loud shaking. Almost like a team of pranksters were shaking the boat. I jumped out of bed and looked out a window to see the water looking like a washing machine with ripples and wavelets all over.

.

So Ray, as a geologist would you describe it as shaken----not stirred.

 

[Rambler]

Anyway, take a pan full of water and tap the side of the pan and watch the water move. then tap the pan multiple times and you can create the effect you saw in the marina. Dancing water.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

I don't know if it was related (probably not) but the Admiral and I were awaken by a strong straight wind on the Columbia at the same time the quake happened. Lasted about 10 seconds or so......

 

[markpierce]

Looking at a photo where the earthquake rip was across a highway, there appeared to be about a one-foot lateral movement.

 

[Giggitoni]

So Ray, as a geologist would you describe it as shaken----not stirred.

Ha! The first thing I checked was my bottle of Crown Royal!

 

[Giggitoni]

Anyway, take a pan full of water and tap the side of the pan and watch the water move. then tap the pan multiple times and you can create the effect you saw in the marina. Dancing water.

That's the word I was grappling for, dancing water. That's exactly what it looked like. Thanks.

 

[Northern Spy]

Been through a handful of earthquakes while on a ship in port. Mainly in Japan. Fantastic rumblings. Up and down and side to side. Dancing is a good word.

 

[Rambler]

Hey, I've seen a mosh pit once or twice in my life.

 

[markpierce]

So Ray, as a geologist would you describe it as shaken----not stirred.

This is stirred:

 

[RT Firefly]

This is shaken...

 

[ben2go]

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[windmill29130]

I've lived in California all my life and experienced numerous earthquakes. However, this morning was the first while floating.

My SO and I were in our marina sleeping when the earthquake occured. We think it was about 03:20 hours and lasted about 15 to 20 seconds. The sound and feel in the boat was a loud shaking. Almost like a team of pranksters were shaking the boat. I jumped out of bed and looked out a window to see the water looking like a washing machine with ripples and wavelets all over.

We lost our ac power in the marina for about an hour or so.

I didn't imagine that we would feel the quake on the water like we did. I assumed the water would have cushioned the effects of the seismic activity. Assumed....

You couldn't pay me to live in California. Taxes, illegal aliens, libs, hollywood, government regs, wild fires, and earthquakes to name a few reasons.

 

[Nsail]

You couldn't pay me to live in California. Taxes, illegal aliens, libs, hollywood, government regs, wild fires, and earthquakes to name a few reasons.

Don't forget the lack of bugs, lack of humidity, lack of tornadoes and lack of hurricanes!

And then top it off with the best climate, the most things to do, and also being one of the most spectacular and beautiful states in the country.

How could anyone in their right mind possibly want to live in a place like that?

Poor Californians, it must be horrible.

 

[Lollygag]

I know I suffer.

 

[Giggitoni]

You couldn't pay me to live in California. Taxes, illegal aliens, libs, hollywood, government regs, wild fires, and earthquakes to name a few reasons.

I wish at least 30 million out of the 37 million that call this state home thought the same way! Life would be back to the way I remember it a long time ago...

 

[markpierce]

CA used to have first-class highways and tuition-free colleges. But taxes have increased at least two-fold and much more than the increase now goes to unproductive, government-dependent citizens.