Is it normal for earthquakes to be loud? Please read details.

Well the very earth undderneath you is colliding and crushing itself, I imagine something might have collapsed or something though. Not sure what would make an explosion sound.

@XOIIO 11 times?

@ANef_is_Enuf Hmmm

Yeah it’s real wierd, not sure if you got a junkyard or something, it could also be gas released by the shifting, and jsut blowing out violently.

Ahh, this seems to have a nice explanation.

I mean, to the best of my knowledge there have been no actual explosions. It just sounds that way every time we have one.

@XOIIO this article specifically mentions Oklahoma. Our earthquakes, here, are most likely related to fracking… which is also a concern in Oklahoma. I am curious to know if there is a connection between earthquakes from wastewater disposal sites and these types of “noisy“earthquakes. Can you tell me how you came to find this particular link? Thanks.

This reads exactly right, though. I know at least 2 people who thought their furnaces exploded, my parents went outside to look for an explosion, and I, personally, thought my husband blew up something in the garage.

@ANef_is_Enuf Just googled “earthquakes sounding like explosions?”

@XOIIO thanks, that helped a lot. Seems to be related to location, which would explain why my friends in California had no idea what I was talking about.

I lived in L.A. and San Diego for about 5 years and yes, their were several quakes that sounded like a train rolling through the house.

Infact, one of my most scary earthquake moments was the day after I came home from giving birth to my daughter and was on the potty in serious pain with a 4th degree tear and episiotomy trying to poo and a good size quake hit. It literally almost knocked me off the toilet and all I could think of was that I could NOT run to my baby and get us out of the house fast enough!

It was like a mac truck hit the wall!

@Coloma yeah, I also heard a lot of people who were further away, and thought a truck or vehicle had run into the house. After following some of the links that came up from @XOIIO‘s search, I see people describing them as sounding like “sonic boom” or an explosion. Have you heard quakes like that, as well, or do they all have that kind of rumbling or train like sound?

It’s interesting, learning that these types of quakes are more common in this part of the country, it explains what some of the explosive types of noises that I’ve heard in recent months actually were. I can think of a couple of times where we were all wondering if someone’s house blew up, but nothing ever surfaced.

@ANef_is_Enuf

Aside from the great toilet quake of 1987 there was one other that was like a giant wave that ran through the house. I swear I could SEE the earth rolling from my second floor window. THAT one sent myself and friends running for the door. It was a deep rumbling wave that was extremely intimidating!

@Coloma eek, that sounds terrifying. My husband claims that he “saw” this one. He said he saw it more than he felt it, that it looked like the whole garage shifted for a moment. He thought a gust of wind had knocked a tree into the garage.

It’s all very strange, because to the best of my understanding, this was quite a minor earthquake. It knocked over some small things in my home, and the same at my neighbor’s house. I was taking a nap at the time, and the boom woke me up, but I was lying down and could feel the shaking – so I recognized what it was. However, I’m about 3 miles from the epicenter, and people closer are reporting structural damage to their homes, cracked walls, damaged foundations, chimneys, things falling from the walls… I read that someone’s refrigerator fell over. If this is a “minor” earthquake, I’d be petrified to experience anything worse.

An earthquake experience may differ anywhere from a funny feeling in your stomach to a rolling to a jolting, with or without noise. Are Ohio’s due to shifting on the Madrid fault or to a fault closer to you?

@Sunny2 they are attributing these quakes to fracking wastewater leaking into a fault line that they did not know was there, until now.

Interesting. I haven’t heard of that before. Something new to worry about.

That’s strange. I’ve gone through a series of rather large (magnititude 5–7) and never heard a sound except for the fixtures in the buildings. I guess the earthquake would have to be very close to the surface to be heard.

have lived through a bunch of earthquakes from the 1971 Sylmar Quake to the Northridge Quake and lots in between. Some have made some loud booming sounds and some have not. If I remember correctly the smaller, shorter ones make more of a boom where the longer, bigger ones tend to rumble. That is based solely on my recollections not any kind of science at all.

@SuperMouse makes sense, though.

P-waves travel at supersonic speeds, so it could be that a PW coming from a relatively shallow point would create a sonic boom.

P-waves coming from a deeper point might be too far underground to generate a sonic boom.

I was already awake when the 6.7 Northridge quake hit in 1994, so I heard it from start to finish. IIRC, it seemed to start with a slamming sound, which might have been a combination of sonic energy from the PW and the sound resulting from the waves striking my house.

By the way, I understand the earthquake was traced to a fracking operation in Ohio. What’s next, the water from your faucet lights on fire?

@Ron_C that’s what some people are afraid of. Fortunately, they have shut down all drilling until they can determine whether or not that is definitely what is causing the quakes. So far, it seems to be one of those rare instances where they are putting the safety of the people and the environment before money. How about that? :)

@ANef_is_Enuf I just read an article that said the earthquake wasn’t caused by fracking but storing contaminated water in deep wells. There is an estimated 3 million gallons of contaminated water that can’t be treated in standard water treatment plants. I bet the shut down won’t last long.

When money is involved, average citizens always loose.

@Ron_C yes, yes, that is correct. I should have been more clear. Above I said that it was attributed to fracking wastewater. They are assuming it is from the dumping, but have banned all drilling until they can be sure.

@ANef_is_Enuf How much do you want to bet that this ban will be very short? Look at who’s running Ohio and you know that all decisions are pro business regardless of the damage done to the citizens. I live in Pennsylvania and our governor (Republican) is trying to fire say drilling rights as if the natural gas is going to disappear tomorrow.

I know it will be short. I am positive that they will resume drilling, and probably soon. The news articles have been a bit misleading. The people who are saying “put the people first” are not the people who have any say in whether or not drilling resumes. At this point they have already said that they intend to start back up. Frankly, I’m not even sure what the point was in stopping at all, if they were only going to continue doing what they are doing.
It’s scary, to be honest. They don’t give a shit about us. Most of us don’t understand the potential outcomes, we can’t get any straight answers… there is a disturbing lack of transparency about the whole thing, and that makes it even scarier.
We have had 11 earthquakes in approximately 10 months, and they insisted that 10 of those earthquakes were unrelated to the drilling. Suddenly they fess up, and expect everyone to be okay with it. While other sources tell us that the earthquakes are not going to stop, they are going to get worse… and then the whole question about the drinking water comes into play, who can we trust?
It’s scary.