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sinkingfeeling

(56,537 posts)
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 05:33 PM Oct 4

Just experienced my first earthquake ever.

Very brief (10 seconds) 4.3 hit Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica at 3:08 PM.

Spilled my cup of coffee and knocked over some plant cuttings in water. The howler monkeys got shaken awake and are still complaining.

29 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Just experienced my first earthquake ever. (Original Post) sinkingfeeling Oct 4 OP
Get accustomed to them malaise Oct 4 #1
I've been through a lot of little shakers & was on the edge of a big one, but never with howler monkeys! Hekate Oct 4 #2
Many folks don't swim on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica because of sea currents as a result malaise Oct 4 #4
. truddy777 Oct 4 #3
I lived in California hen I was a kid, 4-6 yrs MiniMe Oct 4 #5
I managed to sleep through the only PoindexterOglethorpe Oct 4 #6
Good choice. nt eppur_se_muova Oct 4 #12
It was an aftershock of the Northridge earthquake in 1994. PoindexterOglethorpe Oct 4 #24
One of the reasons I left California Javaman Oct 4 #7
My sister lived in Northridge at the time and it really did do a lot of damage in her neighborhood. flying_wahini Oct 5 #27
I was working on a movie in el segundo ata drive in thaterin theater Javaman Oct 5 #28
4.3 isn't so bad. Grumpy Old Guy Oct 4 #8
We haven't had many at all this year malaise Oct 4 #13
Our nearest fault line is only about five miles away. Grumpy Old Guy Oct 4 #21
Building codes are different - that helps! moonscape Oct 5 #29
welcome to the club. AllaN01Bear Oct 4 #9
They're amazingly primal haryn Oct 4 #10
I felt one in 1980 in Phila of all places. BigmanPigman Oct 4 #11
We've felt a couple in central Vermont... GiqueCee Oct 4 #14
Keep this handy malaise Oct 4 #15
Thanks so much. sinkingfeeling Oct 4 #18
You've had several small ones today malaise Oct 4 #19
Was in a 7.0 montanacowboy Oct 4 #16
Holy Shit malaise Oct 4 #20
We missed it by that much Oeditpus Rex Oct 4 #22
We haven't had a big one in 120 years malaise Oct 5 #25
I've been through so many I can judge the Demobrat Oct 4 #17
We had quake pools Oeditpus Rex Oct 4 #23
Living in the PNW from the early 1980's mwmisses4289 Oct 5 #26

Hekate

(99,779 posts)
2. I've been through a lot of little shakers & was on the edge of a big one, but never with howler monkeys!
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 06:27 PM
Oct 4

Stay safe.

malaise

(290,058 posts)
4. Many folks don't swim on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica because of sea currents as a result
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 07:12 PM
Oct 4

terrible underwater currents as a result of quake induced shelf instability.
Lots of earthquakes in Costa Rica.

truddy777

(52 posts)
3. .
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 06:30 PM
Oct 4

That first one always gets your heart racing. 4.3 isn’t huge, but when everything shakes and the animals freak out, it feels massive for those few seconds. Glad it was minor though.

MiniMe

(21,858 posts)
5. I lived in California hen I was a kid, 4-6 yrs
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 07:41 PM
Oct 4

They always started with the dishes rattling on the shelves. We had one on the East Coast 10 or 15 years ago

PoindexterOglethorpe

(28,146 posts)
24. It was an aftershock of the Northridge earthquake in 1994.
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 10:48 PM
Oct 4

Again, I slept through it.

Among the reasons I moved to New Mexico in 2008: No earthquakes. No volcanoes. No tornadoes, although shortly after I moved here in 2008 the Earthquake Gods were clearly looking for me, as a couple of minor quakes happened in the southwest portion of this state (next to Texas) but nothing within a couple of hundred mile of me.

Javaman

(64,637 posts)
7. One of the reasons I left California
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 07:47 PM
Oct 4

I went through the northridge quake. That was enough for me. I was there for 6 years, experienced all kinds of shakes, but after that one, I left a year later

flying_wahini

(8,207 posts)
27. My sister lived in Northridge at the time and it really did do a lot of damage in her neighborhood.
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 08:35 AM
Oct 5

Some of the VERY deep cracks in peoples yards and homes was quite scary.her neighbor next door
Had his whole garage broken off and was several inches away from the house afterwards. It
Broke off like a KitKat bar.

Javaman

(64,637 posts)
28. I was working on a movie in el segundo ata drive in thaterin theater
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 08:42 AM
Oct 5

when it hit. We were a least 30 miles from the epicenter. It was the most surreal frightening experience I have had to this day.

My friend, whom I was working with at the time, his wife was at home at their house in Northridge. She later said that it sounded like explosions going off under the house.

Grumpy Old Guy

(4,099 posts)
8. 4.3 isn't so bad.
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 07:56 PM
Oct 4

Here in L.A. we usually don't start heading for the door frames unless it's at least a 5.0.

😮😉🙂

malaise

(290,058 posts)
13. We haven't had many at all this year
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 08:34 PM
Oct 4

Still after that one in the sea early this year, I started keeping an igloo full of water, drinks and snacks just in case I’m stuck in here after one.

I love this website

https://earthquakelist.org/jamaica/

Grumpy Old Guy

(4,099 posts)
21. Our nearest fault line is only about five miles away.
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 10:08 PM
Oct 4

The Newport - Inglewood fault runs right through the city. It keeps things interesting.

haryn

(25 posts)
10. They're amazingly primal
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 07:57 PM
Oct 4

I grew up with them in San Francisco and STIL, so many decades later, associate sirens with earthquakes - and I don't even live in an area where they are prevalent anymore!

BigmanPigman

(54,039 posts)
11. I felt one in 1980 in Phila of all places.
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 07:59 PM
Oct 4

"In Pennsylvania, Montgomery County experienced a series of quakes during three months in 1980, the largest centered in Abington at magnitude 3.7 on March 11. The quakes—located around the Huntington Valley fault, running through Glenside, Abington, and Jenkintown—began on March 2, 1980. Because of the fault’s proximity to the Montgomery-Philadelphia county line, the city felt the larger quakes. The activity prompted Penn State University and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University to place monitoring stations around the area. After the sequence ended, Temple University students distributed surveys to local residents to help determine the perceived intensity of the quakes".

I was in ceramics class and it was a sunny day in the Phila suburb and I thought I heard thunder. No one else did. It turned out to be one of a series.

I moved to San Diego and in 1987 there were 2 big enough to wake me up. The trees and phone wires were swaying. I slept with a pair of jeans and sneakers by the apt door for many months.

GiqueCee

(2,896 posts)
14. We've felt a couple in central Vermont...
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 08:38 PM
Oct 4

... nothing big, but it rattled the glassware. I think I slept through one, too. But when I lived in Santa Barbara, well that was a whole 'nother story. A quake out there definitely got your attention.

montanacowboy

(6,611 posts)
16. Was in a 7.0
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 08:40 PM
Oct 4

while working on the 25th floor of a Seattle high rise. lots of sway and damage in the Pioneer Square section. That was one to remember. When I got home all the pictures were on the floor and the dogs were really rattled. I keep waiting for the really big one and that would be scary as shit.

Oeditpus Rex

(42,912 posts)
22. We missed it by that much
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 10:09 PM
Oct 4

Loma Prieta quake (17 October 1989, 5:04 p.m.); first reported as a 7.1, then downgraded to 7.0 and finally to 6.9.

We were about 30 miles from the epicenter. Now we're right around six.

I do not want to do that again. But, if I live long enough, the Hayward Fault (East SF Bay) quake that's been predicted for about the last 25 years will be significantly worse. It could happen 10 seconds or 10 years from now, but it'll happen.

malaise

(290,058 posts)
25. We haven't had a big one in 120 years
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 06:25 AM
Oct 5

but given that January 14, 1907 Kingston quake and the 1692Port Royal quake and tsunami , we are always aware that another biggie can happen.
https://jamaicaportroyal.com/1692.html

Demobrat

(10,218 posts)
17. I've been through so many I can judge the
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 08:44 PM
Oct 4

strength almost exactly from how it feels.
Biggest was the Loma Prieta in San Francisco in ‘89. 7.1.
Second biggest was in Costa Rica. Roads were blocked by landslides for a few days.
4.1 is big enough to feel, but not enough to do much damage.

Oeditpus Rex

(42,912 posts)
23. We had quake pools
Sat Oct 4, 2025, 10:23 PM
Oct 4

when I was at the newspaper in Hollister (literally two blocks east of the San Andreas Fault). I'd call everybody's name in the newsroom, they'd give me their guess and I'd write it on the white board. I and another guy who'd been there awhile usually cane within 0.5.

We had three or four per year, but most were only in the 3's. I remember only one that rated a story on A1.

mwmisses4289

(2,404 posts)
26. Living in the PNW from the early 1980's
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 07:59 AM
Oct 5

through the mid 2000s, it was amazing how quickly we got used to quakes. Anything less than 5.0 never really registered except for the occasional dish rattle. The oddest one we went through we had just moved into a house, still had boxes stacked everywhere, and we noticed our dog eos staring at the floor. I heard what I thought was a big truck rumbling past the house, then looked up and saw our dining room chandelier swinging from side to side. The odd thing was that none of the stacked boxes tumbled to the floor. Quake was later rated a 5.2.
The scariest was the Nisqually Quake. That was a 7.2 or 3, if I remember correctly. Lots of brick facade buildings facade came down, office buildings had broken glass falling to streets below...yikes.

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