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@catsalad
I was living in Seattle years ago. There was a 6.8 or so. I remember running out of the house and standing on the street. Two things i remember.
Looking down the street, the road surface was rolling like waves in the ocean. The second was that I was standing still, but I was moving back and forth.

@catsalad I've only ever noticed one and it was fairly minor. It woke me up in the hotel I was in at the time, but I thought it was just loud drunk people being annoying and so went back to sleep. Woke up next morning to see quite a few messages from people who knew I was travelling asking me about it...

@catsalad unpleasant. I’ve been through quite a few here in NZ - including two large ones - one of those being the M7.8 2016 one.

Our house moved a lot, the force was enough to buckle our metal fencing in places and went on for around two minutes! Happened after midnight so was asleep… we still have unusable building in the capital due to that one - which happened in 2016… the cats however are generally unfazed by them, they can however tell they are coming somehow as they’ll all wake up and sit bolt upright then just go back to sleep after it passes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Kaik%C5%8Dura_earthquake

@catsalad I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if a cat reacted like "bloody hell, what's going on? anyway, feed me "

@catsalad it can be like having a large truck driving near your building. Everything is vibrating.
It was a small one (no damage to building but strong enough to be noticed by people)

@catsalad our cat ignores them. our dogs gets confused - what is that rumbling and why did the wine bottles tip themselves over? as an adult only one has made me concerned enough to do something. i was at the theater with my ~9yo daughter. at first i thought someone bumped into the projector then realized "earthquake. big." picked up my daughter and started to the exit. the quake stopped by the time we got to the exit door. everyone kinda stood there for a beat then went back and sat down. they rewound a few minutes back and the show went on. my daughter remembers the movie (burton's alice in wonderland) but not the earthquake.

@catsalad it depends a lot on where you are and of the strength of the tremor. You can hear a rumble (not if you’re higher up in a building). You can feel the ground shifting. Once, in a 5th floor flat, I could feel the whole building swaying slightly and all the roof beams were making cracking noises. Not my best memory 😬

@catsalad when there was an earthquake in Seattle, (Very rare) our Maine Coon Raiden did not seem to care. Raiden also did not care about fireworks ect.

@catsalad

cats fall from trees during earthquakes, much like Florida lizards during freezes

@catsalad Only felt one, on the Isle of Man at the end of the 1980s.

A few weeks earlier I'd looked out of the office window and was deeply astonished to see a steam train go past, as I was a long way from the line and out of sight. It was on the back of a truck, and it was so heavy, the entire building rumbled slightly.

A month or so later, it happened again, slightly more so... but this time, there was no truck. It was the ground. It just rumbled like a very long 100 tonne truck drove past slowly.

@catsalad Small ones, you only notice the chandelier swinging. Big ones are like being on a ship on a stormy sea, noticable rocking/shaking, glasses clinking, cabinets opening, objects falling down, the noise can resemble thunder. Earthquakes also cause disembarkment syndrome, even months later. (The strongest one I experienced was 6.2 ML.)

@catsalad

Depends. I live about 100 yards from an active fault. Little ones are like somebody bumping into a wall or a truck going by. You can sleep through those. Big ones feel like a giant picked up the house and is shaking it.

My dogs do not care for the earthquakes and sometimes start howling after a big one.

@catsalad I was in a mold one in midwest united states and it was fine. It just felt like someone just shook my bed to wake me up.

Our cats seemed to be fine. This happen over 15 years ago though. Big earthquakes are rare where I live.

@catsalad I live in PH which recently got hit with 6.3Magnitude + Aftershocks that gets to 4.2-5.0Magnitude💔😢 I ddnt notice my cat jury behaving unusual as the earthquake struck,Found him in the study table after the 6.3 hit, I noticed his behaviour whenver Aftershocks will happen either its subtle or a bit shaky, Jury would be very vocal & then "High Alert" mode goes ON. After few minutes, Aftershock Alert news is being broadcasted..

@catsalad Even the Loma Prieta quake, the biggest I ever experienced, just felt like someone jumping on the floor really hard. Ever been in a raised house while an unbalanced washing machine is running? It’s like that. The sound is scarier than the movement to me; it’s a low, ominous rumbling.

@catsalad Southern Missouri had an earthquake not too long ago. No idea about cats, but the rooster didn’t react much. It was more interested in attacking me.

@catsalad I've only felt small tremors, they made the wind chimes rattle and gave me an uneasy feeling. In was a little like a truck thundering through the street, only more

@catsalad I am from Chile. Lived the 2010 earthquake at 300km from the epicenter. Is.... an experience, it was at night when everyone was sleeping (3:34am), first you can't walk straight as the sense of balance is completely gone, the first we noticed was the noise, like a train coming and in the worst of it you can actually feel the earthquake waves like a massive tsunami, is like being neck down on the ocean during a tidal wave. The sound of the house shaking and cracking was frightening. After that, your balance is still fucked, and the rush of adrenaline and dread is something else. You can watch some videos online of the event.

EDIT: My current kitty starts meowing before we feel the movement! is our personal earthquake detector.

@catsalad My two were fine: a very quick one in Malta and a 30s more exciting one ~20 floors up in a Tokyo hotel.

Tokyo: my then partner has just arrived from the UK and said "So what's an earthquake like?" and I said "Well ..." and it happened and I cooly finished "... quite like that!"... B^>

@catsalad can’t answer for cats because I was at work during the 2011 Virginia quake. At first I thought it was the garbage truck banging the dumpster to get all the trash out, then the widow blinds started banging against the window. Checked USGS site, and sure enough, it was a quake!

I have decided I'd rather not experience an earthquake if possible.

@catsalad we had a mag 5 in Thailand this year, at first I thought I was sick, suddenly nauseated and then heard my husband yell, it's an earthquake! The cat was non plussed, didn't even notice

@catsalad I did not see any cats at the time

@catsalad The only one I’ve experienced (in Morocco, 2023) was a terrible roaring noise that went on and on. I was alone in bed about 11pm and the bed shook forward and back - not side to side at all - over and over, seemingly for ages. All this time, my thoughts were in a loop that went something like, “Is this… an earthquake? It must be! But it can’t be…”. At no point did I think, “Holy crap! I should get out of this building!” I found that instead of fight or flight, I do freeze. Just pinned to that bed. It was only when it stopped that Tom was able to get a call through to me telling me to get outside.

Once we’d found each other we were directed by hotel staff to sit on sun loungers around the pool, well away from the buildings. There was an aftershock, it felt like a literal ripple, like someone flapping an extremely thick tablecloth. Super scary.

@catsalad Indoors is janglier than outdoors. Was in one last week outdoors & it was a jolt, with quite a bit of noise, but relatively soft. Indoors it’s always rumbly. This is what you learn living in California.

@catsalad

Small ones are like a big truck rumbling past your house.

Medium ones are like a big truck running head-on into another big truck outside your house.

Big ones are like the truck running directly into the site of the house.

Really big ones that last an extraordinarily long time are like this: https://youtu.be/mk68bZ701s0

Dunno about cats, they'd probably be able to walk around better than people, but would be more susceptible to falling debris.

@catsalad depends on how strong it can go from "woah, that was fun" to "oh gawd the world is ending".

In my experience cats do not like

@catsalad I don't like them - very unsettling (no pun intended)... 🫨 My cat reacted to a minor 4.x... 🙀

@catsalad Imagine if, instead of everything not shaking, it was. It's weird. Cats usually do not like them.

@catsalad

@catsalad I think @Undercat said one of her cats was a bit unsettled by it

@catsalad i was only in a minor quake, but i imagine it being like having a stroke without the pain or vomiting

@catsalad

One minute, you're doing your thing. The next? Everything around you starts moving. Depending on how close you're to the epicenter and how strong the quake is, things either vibrate or start moving side to side or side to side and up and down. Feels like a giant grabbed the building and is shaking it. If you're outside, you see everything shake, rattle, and roll. It's a little scary, but not terrible.

@catsalad just felt like... Shaking. I kinda heard it first. My tinnitus started acting up in a weird way, and a bit later there was a minor earthquake.
I was also in a separate earthquake, inside of an old building that was already structurally unsound. That time was a bit scary. Part of the ceiling caved in

@catsalad imagine everything start vibrating. Idk. Never been in an earthquake that I actually felt.

@catsalad
Disturbing AF, even a mild one.
Everything shakes back and forth slowly.

@catsalad Depends on the magnitude. For the lil ones, it goes like "Is that a big truck or a quake?" And then you check feeds to confirm.

For the big ones, it's an "oh-shit" then scramble to get yourself and your people to the safest location until it's over. Not a fun time.