Why might you not feel the earthquake when others feel it?

Joy Lee has lived in the Los Angeles area her whole life, but the 48-year-old says she hasn't felt an earthquake in nearly two decades. “Sometimes, I'll be on social media and suddenly my friends will start commenting on the earthquake, and I'll realize I didn't feel anything,” she said.

One time, she thought an earthquake might have occurred after she saw a strange ripple in the tank of her 5-gallon water dispenser. It was “like the scene where the glass of water shakes in Jurassic Park.”

As usual, she took to social media to confirm her suspicions. In fact, there was an earthquake that was never felt again.

Lee is what we call the “never-feeling person,” someone who never—or very rarely—registers the roar of the ground beneath his feet.

After two SoCal earthquakes in early January (a 4.1 magnitude on New Year's Day and a 4.2 four days later), the Times conducted an informal survey to learn more about people who chronically ignore earthquakes. Lee was among the readers who shared their feelings — or lack thereof.

On Tuesday, a 2.8-magnitude earthquake was reported in View Park-Windsor Hills at 8:19 a.m. While this quake could be considered a “mild” earthquake — too low for the vibration alert app to be triggered — more than 170 people shared Did You- Feeling this is reported within 30 minutes, according to the USGS.

Of 116 respondents to the Times survey, a quarter described themselves as never feeling; People who, even though they have lived in the Los Angeles area for between two and 42 years, have never felt the slightest shiver of any size. Meanwhile, 61% reported that although they had already felt the ground shaking at some point – especially if the quake was on the larger side – they had not felt a single tremor in a very long time.

There's robust seismology behind why some people feel earthquakes while others don't in any given situation, said Julian Lozos, an associate professor of geophysics at Cal State Northridge.

“In general, you are more likely to feel earthquakes if you are sitting still [instead of] While moving, you're more likely to feel it if you're awake [instead of] Asleep – of course – but it also depends on where you are. There were earthquakes in the San Fernando Valley, for example, that were felt while people were on the other side of Santa Monica [Mountains] Didn't do that.

“And it will certainly depend on where you live in terms of having a constant source of noise or movement, like living in an apartment building where other things are constantly going on versus a single-family home. In that case, you're more likely to think that's the way it is, or Most likely, you have developed the ability to control it.

In fact, Lee thinks her location may play a role in her ignorance about the quake. “[I] “We've just been oblivious to the earthquake since we moved into our house in Mount Washington 17 years ago,” she said. “I think it has to do with the geology our house sits on.” Linnea Stanley, a four-year-old Angeleno who lives in Bel Air but used to live in Beachwood Canyon near the Hollywood sign, wondered if she never feels earthquakes because “maybe I live far enough away.” [away] Who?” Isabel Corazon, a 37-year-old resident who was born and raised in Los Angeles and currently resides in the historic downtown core, believes she may have developed immunity to the disease.

“I find it strange because I'm very sensitive to what other people are feeling at any given moment as well as how I'm feeling at any given moment,” Corazon said. “I'm very intuitive and perceptive. So I'm confused why I never feel earthquakes. … Maybe when you spend generational time in Los Angeles, you become like, 'Who saw the earthquake?'

Lozos, whose area of ​​expertise is computer simulation (“I make fake earthquakes on my computer”), has a keen interest in the never-feeling phenomenon, having observed it firsthand in the classroom.

“I always ask my students if they felt the earthquake, and most of them say they did — but some say they didn't,” Lozos said. “And I think some of that has to do with how much they think about it? I think about earthquakes most of the time, because it's my job, right? So I'm more likely to feel something and say, 'Well, was that an earthquake? Or was that my neighbors, or was that the center of Firehouse across the street? Whereas people who don't necessarily think about it all the time… they probably felt the earthquakes and never thought to look at it. It's like how much comes to mind at first?

Theories of those who never feel

In general, survey respondents who do not feel earthquakes had three main reasons. A third of them, including me, cited their actual location.

Lozos explained that different locations — even within the same building — can make a big difference in how an earthquake is felt. He used his personal experience at a 2014 earthquake conference in Japan as an example. “It was lunch time and half of us were in a restaurant on the fourth floor and half in a restaurant on the 18th floor in the same hotel when a 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck,” he said. “The people on the fourth floor felt a kind of sudden shaking—a strong shaking—and the people on the eighteenth floor felt a much greater sway. … [which] One can look at it as the wind versus the earthquake.

Others hypothesized that they had become less sensitive to ground vibrations and shakes, due to medical conditions (from shaky legs caused by ADHD to frequent seizures), previous earthquakes or even where they grew up. “As a native Seattleite, I have spent much of my life on boats (rowboats, ferry boats, powerboats, crew shells, kayaks, canoes, etc.),” Colleen Davis writes. “So, I'm very used to the feeling of sea legs and water flowing underneath me. Who knows if there's a connection? But it makes as much sense as any other theory, I guess.”

Most earthquakes are small and last for a very short period of time — a second or less, Lozos said. “And there are a lot of other things that can cause such a movement, which you might not think to check. And so, later on, when the earthquake is on the news, or when it goes off [X] Or BlueSky or Mastodon or wherever you are, you have to step back and think, “Did I feel something earlier?” What time was that? There's probably a lot of that.”

A surprising number of participants (to me at least) were too distracted to notice. “I honestly feel like I don't care about the earthquake,” Tess Steblic explained about forgetting about the earthquake for six years. “But most of the time I work quietly from home. So I think it's a skill!”

Not caring is what Lozos most likely thinks works for people who haven't experienced a single chakra. “I would be willing to bet that if they were adults and lived in California their whole lives, they probably would have,” he said. [felt an earthquake] I didn't realize what it was. Also, if you've never felt one before, you'll probably have this mental image, like it's going to be this big, obvious thing. “Most of the time they are not.”

Didn't I feel it? Do not be surprised.

Since 1999, the USGS has been conducting a post-earthquake survey called “Did You Feel It?” People are asked to detail the intensity of the shaking and report damage. According to Vince Kitoriano, the program's developer, of the more than 450,000 Los Angeles County responses since its launch, about 96% reported feeling the earthquake. Using survey data, the USGS found that less than 10% of people were likely to feel an earthquake with moderate shaking if they were outside and moving around (e.g., walking or driving) while nearly 85% of people if Comfortable and down to earth. The top floor of the building will feel the same force as the earthquake.

However, the survey was not designed to collect accurate data from those who did not feel anything, says geophysicist David Wald, the scientist behind and project director of Did You Feel It? system (which he established in the wake of the 1994 Northridge earthquake). “What's really unfortunate is that answering the questionnaire to say you don't feel like it only takes one answer,” Wald said. “And then I'm done. … We get their location, we get the actual intensity [of the quake] They are based on other people's reports and we usually know what the story is [of a building] They were there. But we didn't put much effort into it [exploring] The limits of what you do not feel because this is a small part.

However, Wald is not surprised that some people who have lived in the Los Angeles area for decades say they have never felt a single earthquake.

“On a scientific level, I would say there are certainly many circumstances where it would be perfectly reasonable not to exist,” he said. “It could have been that [during] They had to feel like they were in a car or in a building small and far enough away that only half the people would feel it and they were watching loud TV or something. …So, even if you lived in Los Angeles, in the early 1990s, you might have been in a situation where you wouldn't have felt the earthquake.

Tricks for those who never feel

Since where you are, what you are doing, and what you have previously experienced can affect your ability to feel any given earthquake, what should an Angeleno do? Can people who did not feel the earthquake somehow train themselves to become more aware of the earthquake? When I posed this question to Lozos, his response (almost jokingly): “I think the easy answer is to become a seismologist!”

Since this isn't a practical option for most people (and even if it were, it certainly can't happen overnight), here are some life hacks submitted in responses to the Times poll. While I can't personally vouch for it (well, except for the chandelier — the delicate oyster shell chandelier in the bedroom serves as an earthquake early warning system in my house) and nothing should replace actual earthquake preparedness, here are some smart signs that People rely on it to guide them when they don't personally observe the Earth's movement.

“We have a chandelier that swings when we have an earthquake. I would look into that if I thought we would get one.” — Maribel Diaz “I have wind chimes.” — Bonnie Howard[I rely on an] Under cabinet wine glass rack. And the best life hack ever – my three cats! All three will rebound, usually meerkat-style, and they all look in the same direction. – Lindsey Gutierrez “I'm using a bobblehead from a sports team, so why not?!” – Lakshmivallabh Pandalapalli “I have hanging plants in many rooms of my house, and if the plants are moving that is a sign that something is going on.” -Amanda Rodriguez “Little blinds and pool water are clues to larger blinds far away. Twitter and Facebook are good for little ones nearby.” – Angel Zobel-Rodriguez “In San Francisco, I had a dresser in our bedroom with the handles that went on the face of the drawer. If I heard them start jiggling, I knew there was an earthquake going on.” – R.W. Ziegler[My] Automatic USGS alerts [are] It's set to a low threshold, like 3.0 on the scale, in a large radius around Los Angeles, and it's sent instantly! It never fails.” – Jackson Finerman “Dogs. My dogs know when someone is coming. So tell me.” – Eileen O'Farrell

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