Living, breathing, furry earthquake detector

[scheming daemons]

Last night, my dog was acting very strange. Pacing back and forth, and she wouldn't go out on the deck with me.... which is unusual, because she loves going out there.

After I finally got her to go on the deck, she hid underneath a deck chair and was visibly shivering very badly. I thought maybe she got scared of an animal or something she saw.

When I went to work this morning, I put her in her crate as usual... she's crate-trained... and when I got home I found that she had vomited in the crate. This dog has an iron stomach and NEVER gets sick.

Shortly after that (around 2pm), the earthquake hit. I'm in Pittsburgh area and we definitely felt it.

Neither me nor the dog had ever experienced a quake before, so I didn't know what to make of her behavior.


But I'll know next time.


The stories are true. Dogs know.

[Stuart G]

1. Why not? Of course they know..They know how to act better

than many of us act..

[Lost-in-FL]

2. Did your dog calmed down as soon as the earthquake ended? nt

[scheming daemons]

3. Yes

[InvisibleTouch]

4. Yes, animals can often tell.

There's a report of snakes in China coming out of underground hibernation and freezing to death in advance of a major earthquake. Apparently a lot of species can hear or feel the fault lines grinding against each other deep underground in advance of a quake.

[rsmith6621]

5. You Should See What A Cat Will Do....

....When Seattle had a 7.2 in 2011 my cat tore the drapes up and puked all over the furniture..it took most the day to get her out from under the bed..... Yes she was freakin the night before as well.

[Donnachaidh]

12. one of our cats wedged himself into a 2 inch wide concrete area

I literally had to yank him out by the tail and haunches to get him out. He growled and hissed at all the neighbors trying to help him. He didn't stop growling until he realized it was his family saving him.

My neighbor's visla hound started eerily howling just before the aftershocks. The howl would make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

[gateley]

13. During a couple of smaller quakes in Seattle, my then-cat Spot

slept through them. Was at work when the one in 2011 occurred, but was really worried about Nero. Don't know what it was like for him before I got home, but he was back to normal by that time, happily.

I've always thought that was so odd that they didn't seem to bother Spot at all.

[montanacowboy]

17. I think that was in 2001

I experienced it in a 29 story high rise and thought for sure I was biting the Tuna- that building swayed 1 foot off center

[MineralMan]

19. When I lived in California, my two cats reacted to earthquakes by

looking at me accusingly and whining. Once it was over, they resumed their 16 hour naps. They were used to them, I guess.

[Hawkowl]

6. My horse knows

She will really start to lose it a few hours before one hits. 1600 pounds of hysteria is not fun.

[tularetom]

7. We've experienced many earthquakes here and the only strange animal behavior

was when we had sheep. They all ran to one corner of the pasture under a large oak tree and huddled there for about an hour after the quake.

Our dogs and cats sleep most of the time anyway and they'd never wake up for anything as piddly as an earthquake.

[dtexdem]

8. But aside from animals, here's how to build an earthquake detector:

Tie a rock to a string and hang it from the ceiling. When the rock starts jumping all around, it's probably an earthquake -- or a stereo blasting upstairs. ;-)

[AlecBGreen]

10. incorrect. a swaying rock indicates WIND

see? :P

[fredamae]

9. I have read about people in CA

who look at the "missing pets" section of their local news. Animals apparently run away from home right before a quake. When there is a big spike, folks go on alert...I also understand animals suffer headaches from the pressure change that often occurs right before a quake as well and some dogs have been found with willow bark (aspirin) in their stomachs as they try herbal relief...I have no idea if any of this is true, but it is interesting.
Glad everyone is ok.

[fredamae]

11. I have read about people in CA

who look at the "missing pets" section of their local news. Animals apparently run away from home right before a quake. When there is a big spike, folks go on alert...I also understand animals suffer headaches from the pressure change that often occurs right before a quake as well and some dogs have been found with willow bark (aspirin) in their stomachs as they try herbal relief...I have no idea if any of this is true, but it is interesting.
Glad everyone is ok.

[gateley]

15. Some people experience headaches, too.

I heard about the lost pets approach and after a quake in Seattle went to the library (this is when all we had were newspapers!) and tracked the lost/founds for three week period prior. The number of missing pets tripled about 3 days before it occurred. It makes sense that they're more sensitive and probably get disoriented and scared.

[underseasurveyor]

14. Animals are more in-tune with their world than people.

Look at the animals in the tsunami zones. Disappearing all together or furiously trying to flee as were the elephants that were chained up in Thailand and the locals didn't know why they were behaving so strangely. Another example is chickens will disappear before tornadoes.

Pay attention to what your wild and domestic critters are doing. They are the best indicators, detectors and warning systems. Back in the 70's I had a couple really large oscars and one morning they went nuts in the tank. Nuts like I had never seen before. My dog wouldn't come out from under the bed and my cat was behaving all freaked out and nervous and a few hours later, a 5.3 quake hit. I listen to the animals.

[gateley]

16. The Chinese used to keep crickets because when they suddenly

went silent, duck and cover!

[kestrel91316]

18. Wait, what?? Earthquake in the Pittsburgh area???

[scheming daemons]

20. Just about everywhere east of the mississippi felt it

[AngkorWot]

21. last night I had a bad case of gas.

today = earthquake

am I a wizard?

[newspeak]

22. I lived in Ferndale CA

we got quakes pretty often. If they're bigger quakes, I believe pets do sense it. One morning my two dogs started acting weird, whining and barking and I didn't know what was wrong with them. I went to school and approximately thirty minutes later a 5.7 hit. I was in the book store and I was going with the rolls, like surfing. Living in that area, I also remember reading a newspaper article about a man in Fortuna who had some form of physical reaction before an earthquake hit. Apparently, he could also determine the severity. Don't know about that, but it was interesting to read.