So, I'd never been in one until a couple weeks ago in the Tetons. Was recouping from a painful little climb and e-mailing a few friends when that little Jackson library - some of you know the place I'm talking about, especially if, like me, you're too poor to own a laptop - suddenly felt like someone picked it up and shook it.

Having no frame of reference, I just looked around in a confused manner. People were on the floor and the librarians were standing under door frames. Crazy.

Stories? I'm certain some of you have been in actual earthquakes....

Yeah, but not any from the library(Climber's Ranch library?), in Jackson. Cool. I could picture it.

dskoon wrote:Yeah, but not any from the library(Climber's Ranch library?), in Jackson. Cool. I could picture it.

Ha! The library in Jackson. But... I know the climber's ranch library. Often wondered why more other folks didn't drink and read there.

Earthquakes in the mountains are pretty cool. I've camped along the shore of Convict Lake while quakes tumbled rocks down from Mt Morrison.

Years later I hiked around the same lake with my kids as an earthquake swarm hit the area. The roar of even the smallest quakes would echo off the steep canyon walls.

We have had a few small ones lately, but I am really looking forward to experiencing a big fat quake in this house we built. I want to see the shear walls stretching and the holddowns pulling it all together. I want to look out the windows and see the ground jiggling and rolling as the shockwaves head toward the house.

Andinistaloco wrote: . . . librarians were standing under door frames.

Just FYI, never stand in a door frame during an earthquake. Its a long standing idea, but research has shown its one of the worst things a person could do. If the door frame fails, it cuts people in two like giant scissors. Don't get under a desk or bed. Get beside it. As the building falls there will often be a small survival space beside such furniture.

I've only been in one earthquake. I wasn't really in it, but it was big (7.3) and I felt it from far away. It was the Challis quake in 1987(?). I was in sleeping in at home in north Idaho and the bed started swaying back and forth. I thought, "ok, who is shaking my bed trying to be funny". I sat up and looked around to see no one and thought we either had an earthquake or my room was possessed. Got up and turned on the radio and learned it was the former.

I live in Los Angeles. We have earthquakes all the time. Most of them are small though. It is still recommended to duck under a sturdy desk or table. If you are outside... stay outside, if you are inside... stay inside.

I have never actually felt an earthquake while hiking though...

butitsadryheat wrote:

mrh wrote:

Andinistaloco wrote: . . . librarians were standing under door frames.

Just FYI, never stand in a door frame during an earthquake. Its a long standing idea, but research has shown its one of the worst things a person could do. If the door frame fails, it cuts people in two like giant scissors. Don't get under a desk or bed. Get beside it. As the building falls there will often be a small survival space beside such furniture.

I've only been in one earthquake. I wasn't really in it, but it was big (7.3) and I felt it from far away. It was the Challis quake in 1987(?). I was in sleeping in at home in north Idaho and the bed started swaying back and forth. I thought, "ok, who is shaking my bed trying to be funny". I sat up and looked around to see no one and thought we either had an earthquake or my room was possessed. Got up and turned on the radio and learned it was the former.

Good advice. Find the "triangle of survival."

Thats what it is called. I wish I had the citation, but don't remember where I read it. There is a man who has investigated the aftermath of over 700 earthquakes. One example he used was the quake in Mexico that killed all the children at school. They had got under their desks because thats what they had been taught to do. The roof fell on the desks crushing them to the floor and crushing the kids under them. He said everyone of the kids would have survived if they were in they were in the rows between the desks rather than under them.

mrh wrote:

Andinistaloco wrote: . . . librarians were standing under door frames.

Just FYI, never stand in a door frame during an earthquake. Its a long standing idea, but research has shown its one of the worst things a person could do. If the door frame fails, it cuts people in two like giant scissors. Don't get under a desk or bed. Get beside it. As the building falls there will often be a small survival space beside such furniture.

Interesting. At the time I was thinking... wouldn't it be better to get in a spot where it's less likely something will fall on you? But having no experience I didn't say anything... plus the whole thing ended before I could even decide what to do.

Why you want to stand in the doorway is because of the construction of the frame. (Not sure of the English terminology here). It's a box construction, (frame construction?) and as such very strong. The wall isn't.

Take an egg. Most people consider it a frail construction. It's very easy to break it sideways, or by throwing it on the floor etc. Take it in your hand, try to break it through pressing the top and bottom towards each other. See? Takes much more power, if you can do it.

The librarians did the right thing.

What's with the coherent posts?

Don't know about doorways, but in the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco some of the double-decker freeways around the Bay Area collapsed.

As far as people on the highway, most who died were folks who moved their cars UNDER the horizontal supports for the upper deck, rather than avoiding them. Their logic being that this was safer similar to the doorway situation. Turns out the opposite was true, when the upper deck collapsed the horizontal support hits the lower deck, and there is still space in front of an behind it. They know that people positioned the cars intentionally because they were found in park.

Stand next to a tall fat person. That way whatever falls will hit them.

A bit like taking someone slower than you out into grizzly territory.