There was a 4.7 earthquake about 41 miles (66 km) outside of Santiago on Wednesday night. And I felt it. I felt two sharp jolts about 10 seconds apart from each other. I figured the first one was vibration from the house music in the bar below on the 1st floor. I’m on the 2nd floor. That’s fine. No big deal. But the 2nd one was a stronger jolt and knocked me off my balance. It made a heavy noise as if a big truck hit the wall in the room next door. That’s when I thought this might be an earthquake. I tried to stand still and regain my balance, and waited for aftershocks. But that was it. There are constant earthquakes going on in the ground below. Most of them don’t reach the surface. But Chile, being on a major fault line, has a good share of earthquakes. The strongest earthquake recorded in the world was in Chile in 1960. I was aware I was coming into earthquake territory, especially after seeing the fault lines on the interactive map on the airplane. This one was minor and didn’t cause damage. This is the first time I’ve experienced an earthquake in another country. It probably won’t be the last. I’m thankful it wasn’t worse.
California wasn’t enough? You had to find somewhere with stronger quakes.
Living on the US East Coast I don’t even think about earthquakes but since 4 of my 6 siblings plus myself were born in California we all experienced them in our baby-years. The one I remember most…I woke up and mine and my sisters beds were slamming against each other like bumper cars… thx for the memory … :))
Dine – Thanks for your comment! Was that by chance the Northridge earthquake in 1994? I ask because people that share their memories of the 1994 earthquake also have memories of being thrown out of their beds, and your comment made me wonder if it was at that time.
Ha! Never really thought about the possibility of being in another country during an earthquake, but I think it would have happened eventually.