I was pretty close to a group of low to mid 6.x earthquakes in eastern California in 1980, across a couple of days.
For the strongest, I distinctly remember not being able to stand up. I tried, but kept falling down right on my ass each time. The amount of ground movement was quite surprising.
This is curious since I've seen people standing (kind of) and even running (kind of) in even stronger quakes, on video, as we see here.
I was in a deep canyon (with >4000 foot mountain walls around), so I'm sure the geology was interesting from an earthquake point of view.
The sounds were titanic; there were enormous rocks slides all around, and the mountains largely disappeared in dust, even as you could hear intense crashing and tearing sounds echoing back and forth.
If memory serves, nobody was killed, likely because of the parse population of that area, and also the stringent building codes. Also a lot of people got lucky, with so many rock slides going on.
Well when you are running you are mostly in the air, so you are only influenced by the movement of the earth while your feet touch the ground (which is still obviously a little problematic).
Makes sense to me, didn't surprise me, and doesn't impress me either. I find it entirely a natural and logical response. Are you going to leave out one person who's in the very same sudden need and sudden distress as you?
A magnitude 7 earthquake releases approximately 5 PJ over less than a minute, so let's say 100TW. A Tesla supercharger provides 120KW, so even if the braking system is equivalent, you'd need 1B cars.
Now I'm not in an earthquake prone area, so I genuinely don't know.
But wouldn't the roof of the car provide some protection from smaller debris falling on you without you needing to "dodge", and anything bigger (like a building) you are unlikely to be able to dodge anyway.
It seems intuitively safer to stay inside the car (it's built in some ways to keep you safe), and it won't necessarily be hurt by the movement itself.
I read that it is safer to lie down alongside the car rather than be in it or under it. This is because the car won't mash down to be less than a foot thick and will support debris off you, whereas it doesn't have to crush much to kill you inside or under it.
I'm skeptical. Any recent US car has to be able to withstand at least 3X its weight, in order to make rollovers survivable. The amount of force the car's roof can withstand is much higher than how much my skull can withstand.
I was thinking the same and then thought, oh no, the car maybe is crushed under debris? Then when the smoke cleared I thought, phew, no, no damages to windshield - and then again - NO! - a tree across the street. Something like that could easily have crushed a car along with its occupant.
How will self driving cars handle this, or other fast moving emergencies such as a tornado? Is it hooked in to earthquake and weather monitoring systems and just shuts down or what?
A chainmail suit will direct the energy around you. They make more pedestrian looking versions of these which folks who work with high voltage often wear as protection
What's the appropriate reaction in a situation like this ? Do you stay outside and risk falling trees, buildings and electrocution ? Or do you go inside the nearest building and find something to hide under ?
Stay outside. Try to find an area that has minimal falling objects. If possible, find something sturdy to shelter inside like a bus stop. Knell down to prevent yourself from losing your balance and be observant of your surroundings. Try to remain in place but move if you see the situation rapidly deteriorating like puffs of dust being spewed from concrete building columns.
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[ 0.25 ms ] story [ 102 ms ] threadFor the strongest, I distinctly remember not being able to stand up. I tried, but kept falling down right on my ass each time. The amount of ground movement was quite surprising.
This is curious since I've seen people standing (kind of) and even running (kind of) in even stronger quakes, on video, as we see here.
I was in a deep canyon (with >4000 foot mountain walls around), so I'm sure the geology was interesting from an earthquake point of view.
The sounds were titanic; there were enormous rocks slides all around, and the mountains largely disappeared in dust, even as you could hear intense crashing and tearing sounds echoing back and forth.
If memory serves, nobody was killed, likely because of the parse population of that area, and also the stringent building codes. Also a lot of people got lucky, with so many rock slides going on.
Well when you are running you are mostly in the air, so you are only influenced by the movement of the earth while your feet touch the ground (which is still obviously a little problematic).
So, the next time I need to move my body somewhere during a large earthquake, running as quickly as possible should provide the best outcome. (:
Now there's an investor pitch I'd love to hear.
-- Salesman
But wouldn't the roof of the car provide some protection from smaller debris falling on you without you needing to "dodge", and anything bigger (like a building) you are unlikely to be able to dodge anyway.
It seems intuitively safer to stay inside the car (it's built in some ways to keep you safe), and it won't necessarily be hurt by the movement itself.
Seems pretty hopeless
https://twitter.com/Excelsior/status/913961924181630976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_0rQ9hnP84
Here's a high resolution version of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jYOn3uvj_w