Earthquake detector

Does anyone own an earthquake detector? For example, here's one: QuakeAlarm . And if you own one, have you ever seen one in action during a real earthquake?

I've always thought that it makes a lot of sense to have one in the bedroom, at least here in California. We have smoke detectors to protect us in our sleep from fire, so why not an earthquake detector? Although our building is quite new and built to the latest building codes and our bedroom is pretty safe as far as not having heavy objects near the bed, a really big earthquake can be an extremely violent experience and even just a short lead time in "waking up" could be the difference between flipping out from the sudden shaking and just being freaked but relatively awake.

Actually, maybe it's just a luxury in places like California where structures and people are expecting a big earthquake. I should just be happy that my building and bedroom are safe. But perhaps places like the Midwest are the people who truly could benefit from it.

Don't forget that the largest earthquake in US history occurred on the New Madrid fault in Missouri. How many houses in Missouri are ready for a magnitude 7 quake? Or how many people know that there's an earthquake fault under Manhattan? I used to live in Manhattan and I actually felt a small earthquake there once, about 5 years ago, I think. Even a moderate quake (by California standards) could cause significant damage to all those really old, unreinforced brick buildings in NYC.

I have one. His name is Fergus. He can hear a dog bark at 3:00 AM five blocks away and respond. I wish he wasn't so sensitive--I sleep through the night about one night in five. He doesn't miss a trick.
I doubt he will miss the big one, and I live on the Wasatch Fault.

Regards, Vince

The recent sharp increase in gas prices have brought back fuel line magnets to realign molecules for increased fuel combustion, a fan accessory to improve air intake and several other worthless gimmicks. While this alarm will wake you up with a few seconds warning I fail to see how most people will react any swifter or more coherently. I followed the links to their endorsements and gave up with the overt politics. My reaction is to duct tape this devise to my hood mounted deer in the road warning sirens and the sonic gopher eradicators.

I have heard some things about Cats, -being good Earthquake Detectors. (If Fergus is indeed a Cat!). Much of this was observed prior to the 1906 San Fransisco, and other, Earthquakes.

Other than a Cat, or other possible Natural Earthquake Early Warning indicators, -at today's State of the Art, -I Agree with you and Chris, -in not putting much Stock or Faith down, -on anything else! Earthquake Indicators my Eye! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]norad45[/email]

I visited the Palmer Earthquake Observatory once, years ago. They had racks full of expensive chart recorders, hooked to expensive, sensitive seismometers all around Alaska. With all that fancy equipment, everyone working there had on his desk a ``spring neck'' (aka ``bobblehead'') to tell them when there was an earthquake, or a heavy truck driving by.

These are little novelty items, a pair of flat plastic feet, a fat, weak spring body, and a plastic head which will wobble back and forth at the slightest breeze or disturbance. If you wanted an earthquake indicator, you could rig one of these so that if it wobbled very far, it would set off a battery operated buzzer.

I'm not sure why that would be worth while. If it's big enough to care about, I think you can count on it waking you up. My limited experience has been that earthquakes start slow, but build really fast. I can't imagine that 5 to 10 seconds is going to make much difference, particularly since anything sensitive enough to give that much warning is going to have lots of false alarms, and you won't run until you feel a real shake, even if you're awake.

I know that in Hawaii and here in Central Ca. there are sensors that are linked by radio. In Hollister Ca. you can monitor the frequency for a slight warning of earthquake. The problem is that there is a steady beeeep when normal, and it "warbles" with activity. Sometimes when I get woke up in the middle of the night I punch up that freq and check to see if it was an earthquake. IIRC it's a 160 MHZ freq, I can look it up for anyone that's interested.
Dave

Nah, Fergus is a chocolate lab. But you might be right about cats too.

Regards, Vince

I posted a long time past about my cat. I was trying to walk out the door and Piewacket began catterwalling and attacked my leg. Within seconds a huge oaktree crashed down destroying the stairwell I would have been descending.

I'll bet he got his fill of Fancy Feast that day! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Wow, I've seen cats attack their owners for not feeding them to their satisfaction, but yours is the first I've herd of to use Telekinesis.

For everyone else who believes in Telekenisis, raise my right hand.

This isnt a detector, but its an interesting screensaver showing where they have been.
I thought it might interest some body.

http://www.mgshareware.com/qsmain.shtml

Sadly, we can only estimate the statistical likelihood of earthquakes, and even that on about 100 year timescales. The estimates are mainly based on historical activity in the region.

An instrument to predict earthquakes does not exist. Take it from a geologist (in training): it's a sham.
Or take it from the USGS .