Do I have a special power or was it a coincidence?

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On Saturday night I went to bed downstairs, instead of my usual upstairs room, because it was so cold that night. I slept soundly through the night until 5:30 a.m., when what I immediately thought was an earthquake woke me. It was short-only a few seconds, less of an earthquake and more of the earth readjusting itself-and it didn't wake my roommate. I got up and washed my face and looked around and checked the clock, 5:34 a.m., then went back to sleep.

When Lxy woke me at 10 the first thing I told her was that I thought I'd felt an earthquake, around 5:30. I jumped in the shower and she got online. When I got out she showed me this:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/uw12171317.php#details

Okay, I live in Seattle, at least 80 miles away from this, and it was a 1.8, micro, and almost 8 miles deep.

I've always felt a hippy's love for the earth's crust, and after two years in Japan feel pretty highly attuned to earthquakes. One more note, not that I really believe in this stuff: my family has a house less than 5 miles from the epicenter (none of them were there at the time).

Is it possible that I felt this? And I woke up about 15 minutes after it occurred. How fast do these things travel? Amazing atttenuation or a sucker for coincidences?

― jergins, Tuesday, 15 July 2008 07:01 (fifteen years ago) link

a hippy's love for the earth's crust

mine's a poet's love for the outer core

― I am the best lyrocost since Dylan (Scourage), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 00:29 (seventeen years ago) link

We had a minor (only 2.something) quake fairly deep in the next suburb over recently. They almost never happen in this part of the country. But everyone felt it, it was the weirdest thing - a WHOMP like someone'd set off explosives in the far distance, or kind of bumped the earth, I dont know how else to explain how it felt. Like "hey who moved that?"

And animals seem to sense this stuff before we do, maybe our hindbrains feel it and normally we don't notice, but thats what woke you.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 00:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Seismic energy travels at 3-6km/second, so you would have felt it 25-45 seconds later. Probably a bus or something...

― schwantz (schwantz), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 00:42 (seventeen years ago) link

hey okay that's what i was guessing

― jergins (jergins), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 00:47 (seventeen years ago) link

O I missed the "15 mins later" thing, yeah that can't have been it.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 00:58 (seventeen years ago) link

maybe a fart woke you up

― this is cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 01:14 (seventeen years ago) link

coulda been:

more of the earth readjusting itself

― jergins (jergins), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 01:19 (seventeen years ago) link

SPECIAL POWER, SPECIAL POWER, SPECIAL POWER

― maunders (maunders), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 01:23 (seventeen years ago) link

maybe yer hindbrain is slow to react.

― lxy (lxy), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 03:55 (seventeen years ago) link

lol jergins you long-haired hippy all in touch with the earth and shit

― Lingbert (Lingbert), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 04:24 (seventeen years ago) link

And animals seem to sense this stuff before we do

maybe jergins is an animal?!

― jaxon (jaxon), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 07:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Some kind of mammal, maybe?

― Frogm@n henry (Frogm@n henry), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 07:49 (seventeen years ago) link

A MANIMAL

― jaxon (jaxon), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 08:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Animals pick up on the sounds (which we can't hear).

― nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 08:27 (seventeen years ago) link

I woke up in the middle of the night as well, but I didn't know why. Jergins, whatever it is you're doing, stop it!

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 09:22 (seventeen years ago) link

it was probably me whacking off in the UK.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_wave

ten times the speed of sound = 7700 mph

7700/60 is 128, so the surface waves that animals can detect would have gotten to you in less than a minute, just to confirm schwantz' post.

I had a friend in college who used to wake up and know it had been an earthquake, though, and the next morning he'd be right, just like lots of other creatures on the earth, so I don't think it's so improbable - perhaps an aftershock got to you.

― TOM. BOT. (trm), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 17:21 (seventeen years ago) link

WHAT ABOUT AFTERSHOX PEOPLE

― jw (ex machina), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link

PREVIOUSLY ON HEROES

― has been plagued with problems since its erection in 1978 (nklshs), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 20:16 (seventeen years ago) link

If it wasn't a Saturday, I'd vote for garbage truck. But since it was Saturday, it's obviously a latent SUPERPOWER!!!

― jaq (jaq), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 21:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I was woken up by this.

― Maaarghk C (Maaarghk C), Wednesday, 20 December 2006 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

A similar thing happened to me once; I fell asleep and was BOLTED awake by what sounded like the the house falling down but much much louder.

What actually happened was I was listening to "De-Loused in the Comatorium" and had gone from half-asleep to asleep during "Cicatriz ESP', when it gets silent and the helicopters come in. Oh my word I have never been so startled in my life.

― RIYL Christiane F. (drowned in milk), Thursday, 21 December 2006 00:25 (seventeen years ago) link

we felt a gnarly shake yesterday. it was pretty low (3.something) but epicenter only a few miles from here

― jaxon (jaxon), Friday, 22 December 2006 00:16 (seventeen years ago) link

i felt that pretty bad. we stormed into the room where the baby was sleeping to make sure he was okay; he didn't even stir. of course two hours later when the cat made a noise he woke up immediately.

― akm (akmonday), Friday, 22 December 2006 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link