Just wondering?

[old school]

I was walking out of Cosco today as the earthquake struck. Fullerton is about 10 miles southwest of the epicenter so it was stronger than many I have experienced, but not that much more. Not like the big ones. I told my wife, the long suffering Mrs Chamberlain, 5.5.... I can't count how many I have been in at this point in time, but I enjoy how people react. They reach out to those who just went thru it and want to share. Not the norm in So Cal...

    Got me thinking about earthquakes. I have seem many film clips of earthquakes, but I have never heard a recording of one. I imagine one exists, but I have never heard one. If any one knows of a good clip and wants to share it, that would be cool. My favorite one was from a W C Fields movie being shot at Paramount I believe when the 32 Long Beach struck. That was a big one. They let the camera run as well as sound as everything swing and swayed and the sound was great with the actors breaking character and everyone bailing out of the set. Must be more. Maybe even from today. Just wondering.

CrewC

[Keith Birchfiel]

That sounds like it would be fun to here . I was born and raised in L.A. -- yrs ago . I think the loudest one I herd was in the 70,s ?? oh well. maybe someone has one old school !

                lets here it

                Keith

[Sergio Sanmiguel]

Living in México City I survived several quakes, including a 7.3 on a 5th floor apartment building... That was scary!!!

[Guest Ken Mantlo]

I was actually on the set (Murder in the First) when the '94 quake hit.  We were on a warehouse type sound stage in a big courthouse set with about a 100 extras.  When that thing hit in was pure pandemonium.  People running and screaming, lights crashing.  Thank goodness we were on a generator as the city power went out or there would of been a lot of people hurt.  Gary Oldman's manager had just few in from England the previous night; just in time to break his arm during the mad scramble to get out of the building (now that I think about it, I wonder if I did it?).  We made it outside to watch our new rubber world where physics didn't seem to apply.  The funny thing is that even though it seemed big to us, we weren't sure if we were going to continue on with the day or if it was a wrap.  The warehouse was condemned the next morning.  Good times, good times.

[Bondelev]

I didn't record it, but I know one exists. In summer of 2001, when I was music editor on BLACK KNIGHT, the Supervising Sound Editor and FX Editor set up to "worldize" some of the music on the Fox scoring stage, when there was a minor earthquake. The first few seconds are great, but then you hear THUMP THUMP THUMP as the supervisor's heavy feet run towards the doorway!

[Philip Perkins]

During my first earthquake --that I remember-- in CA I was working in my studio with headphones on.  My studio was in an old building in SF that had survived the 1906 quake, all wood, very loose.  Even though I wasn't playing anything back when the quake came, there was no sound at all.  The physical sensation was exactly that of sitting on a surfboard in the ocean and having a wave roll beneath you.  The '89 quake in SF sounded and felt like a very big truck had run into our building--enough like that that I didn't recognize it as an earthquake at first.  And then I heard all the car alarms.....

Philip Perkins

[studiomprd]

interesting thinking about what an earthquake itself sounds like, and I've been in a few, and actually remember listening to the sounds.  Thing is, it wasn't "the earthquake" I was hearing, it was all the things the quake shook and the results of the shaking, that were heard... I was getting ready for a shoot, as it was early in the morning, that I got to on time, but it got canceled.

so what would the earthquake (itself) sound like if I were way out in the desert??

Boy that must have been an early call for Murder in the First,  or was it just a really long day before??

[Matt Mayer]

I did see some video of a Judge Judy-type show that was taping when the quake hit.

You couldn't really hear any "quake" noise, it was mostly someone saying "stay calm, stay calm, get under the desks"

---Matt

[ptalsky]

RVD, wasn't it called Sensurround or something like that?  And there were the rumors (never did find out if they were true) that at Graumann's/Mann's Chinese Theater they had to put nets up because pieces of the ceiling were falling down during the earthquake scenes.  :-)

My favorite though was when I first saw Star Wars at the Avco (not sure if it's still there or if it's still called that) on Wilshire.  This was when they were still willing to really crank the THX opening.  We were in the theater upstairs, and about half way through the movie we could feel the THX opening vibrating the floor from the theater below us.  Ahhh...good times.  :-)

Phil

[old school]

   The Chino Hill has a large swath of open space. My guess is if you were there some sort of rumbling and trees shaking, birds taking flight would be heard, but thats a guess.

  The transformers blowing like air-mortars in a blue/green flash, poofmp, is something I forgot about, but that is a wild sight n sound to witness. The 94 was big, but not the big one. Gotta love Shaky Town.

CrewC

[BVS]

I live in Wellington, New Zealand,which has a couple of fault lines running through it.

Earthquakes are fairly common and we live with them and construct our buildings to cope with their effects.

Typically, an earthquake can be heard coming by my house"coming to attention".The house tenses up.

Then there's an infra sonic wave that I "feel" approaching.As a sound mixer having spent many years adding sub harmonic bass to film tracks in studio rerecording theaters,I wish I had the uncontrolled power that these waves have to use in my mixes.

The house then shakes backwards and forwards horizontally as each wave hits and then swings back to its original position.Some times in a bigger one there will be a bit of breakage,but we now have most of our vases and ornaments stuck down with an earthquake paste specifically designed here for that purpose.The bookcases are secured to the walls,and glasswear in closed cupboards.

Many years ago,I filmed at a weather station on Raoul Island in the Kermadec group,half way between New Zealand and Fiji.

This is a volcanic island that occasionally erupts and has done so in recent times with the loss of life.

They have a pool/snooker table,where the local rules apply.As there are up to 20 earthquakes a day,wherever the balls stop rolling after an earthquake,that's where the next play is from.

The Big One is what we plan to survive.Our newest buildings and the National Museum,Te Papa, are constructed to withstand a Force 9+ earthquake on the Richter Scale.

Its all taken very seriously here.I hope I never get to hear "The Big One".

Brian

[curleysound]

Maybe something like this could "hear" an Earthquake for us? The waves must be somewhere in the 2 to 0.00001 hertz range

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/1996/A/199600495.html

[mono]

On 7/29/2008 at 6:13 PM, old school said:

 I was walking out of Cosco today as the earthquake struck. 

   

Got me thinking about earthquakes.

 

I have seem many film clips of earthquakes, but I have never heard a recording of one. I imagine one exists, but I have never heard one.

 

If any one knows of a good clip and wants to share it, that would be cool.