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@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.