Can you sense an earthquake before it happens?

22 comments

1. 

   Vash Kestrel on May 23, 2010 at 12:05 pm

   I can tell when a earthquake is about to happen.Thats why when my mom enters the room, I head for the hills.

   ….Yea, that joke was pretty weak.I’m off my game today.

2. 

   Fietsuo on May 23, 2010 at 12:05 pm

   there are no records of a person sensing an earthquake but animals are observed reacting to it before one or two days, for example in sanfransico 1906 earthquake dogs were barking all night and rats disappeared. also in some other places wild cats made loud roars two days before earthquakes hit.

3. 

   ace2r5678898 on May 23, 2010 at 12:05 pm

   Geologists can use instruments to predict it, but they can never know for sure.

4. 

   bustersmycat on May 23, 2010 at 12:05 pm

   I cannot, no. Your mom is psychic, I suppose. there are reports of animals anticipating quakes, so one can only wonder. the 12 hour precision strikes me as rather difficult to believe, if you want an opinion, but hey, I don’t know nearly anything close to everything so my opinion has little value on this particular subject.

5. 

   abigmaybe on June 7, 2010 at 4:41 am

   I live in LA and on three seperate occasions Ive had a strange feeling hours before earthquakes have happened. Ive had the feeling some other times rarely where nothing happened but I cant deny that there is an overwhelming sense that something is off and for some reason an earthquake is my immediate reaction. On one occasion I even told the girl I was with that after I had walked outside in the morning for a stretch that I had a bad feeling about today and to be careful where she was because of an earthquake. About ten hours later I was napping in my apartment and woke up to a 3.4 earthquake that was centrally located about 3 miles from me. It was insane and I immediately called the girl and she couldnt believe it. This has happened a few other times but tonight there was a 3.6 earthquake in Manhattan Beach and I had the same strange feeling earlier today. Mind you it was almost 12 hours ago but Ive been googling earthquake predictions and sensing it and I found this post and thought Id share. Im probably overanalyzing it but its happened a few too many times for my liking.

6. 

   Mimzy on December 9, 2010 at 2:18 am

   I feel so weird because I have these strange ways of sensing sudden atmospheric changes.

   One one occasion, I woke up thiry seconds before the first strike of lightning began. Months later, the same happened but this time it was to an earthquake. I asked my parents about it later, because they were suppose to be awake at the time and nobody felt it. At first, I had felt insane, but I look it up. I wasn’t insane, there was an earthquake happening at about that time.

   What’s odder is last spring, I was sitting with my family in Church and I had a sudden headache. Three minutes I began to beleive this headache was so severe I was hilucinating that the room was rolling. Rather, it was another earthquake, manifesting itself in a rolling sensation that lasted for the better part of five minutes.

   I felt another a half hour ago, and I asked my mom about it, but she dismissed it. I’m waiting to see if that was the case, because I felt it twice.

7. 

   Sarah on February 8, 2011 at 7:16 am

   We just recently had a 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. It hit a 4:30 in the morning and all night before the earthquake I had an awful sick feeling that something wasn’t right. I barely had any sleep and when I did sleep I had nightmares. I didn’t know it was an earthquake coming but I definitely felt like something was wrong.

8. 

   Jenny on March 14, 2011 at 6:37 am

   You’re not alone. I feel them too hours before they happen but I can’t pinpoint where it will hit. But I feel it shaking all over only to find out I’m the only one who feels it.. then 4-5 hours after, somewhere in the world, an earthquake hits. I used to think I was also insane until someone told me that there are people who can actually feel changes in the electro magnetic waves in the atmosphere.. I dare not discuss it with anyone because they give me “that” weird look.

9. 

   Deanna McAlister Hosea on May 21, 2011 at 5:57 am

   I can sense them an hour or more before they happen. I have fibromyalgia. There are two other people I know who can also sense the earthquakes before they happen. We get very sick…dizzy, headaches, fatigue, diaphoretic, nauseated. Sorry…clammy/sweaty = diaphoretic. I’m a nurse. I live on Okinawa…1,200 miles away from Honshu. When the big earthquake happened on 11 MAR I was sick all day and couldn’t hardly make myself get off of the couch even for having to evacuate due to the tsunami warning. I’ve felt the aftershocks ever since. We were in China in April and I felt several there. While we were in Hong Kong we went to Ocean Park (kind of like SeaWorld). The sea lion would not perform that afternoon and the macaw would not return to its handler. I was sick as a dog that day. I didn’t put two and two together until about a week later when I looked it up on USGS. But, after the big 7.1 on Okinawa on 27 FEB 10 I haven been feeling every little thing.

10. 

    Deanna McAlister Hosea on May 21, 2011 at 6:01 am

    *have been

    It’s very hard to explain to people. I know they think I’m crazy. But, I get USGS alerts in my inbox. I can journal how I’m feeling and then the email shows up. There were three today and I felt the last one an hour ago. I would not have believed it myself if it hadn’t happened to me.

11. 

    Tina on August 23, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    Today is 8/23/11 and an Earthquake hit Washington DC – Mineral Springs, VA. For the past day or so, I have had a headache (much like the ones I have when a Hurricane is going to hit – lived in FL for 10 years.) This time one day before the quake I had a headache (sinus pressure); then today while at work I felt dizzy, sick to my stomach and went home ill. I arrived at home at Noontime and went right to bed. I felt as if I was going to fall down! While laying in bed, the quake (Charlotte, NC) shook my home, me in bed and the pictures on the wall. Beforehand, my dog was restless. Now that it is over, I feel back to normal. No dizzyness, no sick to my stomach – WOW! I guess I can also detect earthquakes too.

12. 

    Renee on August 23, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    Glad to hear I’m not the only one. The world completely tipped today. Thought I was going to fall because everything just turned sideways. This happened at 11:45 this morning. Then it happened again at 1:45 slightly less dramatically, although I was sitting that time. Then I hear that Washington DC had an earthquake. Did I feel it? and how did I feel it before? Quake in Washington happened around 1:45. Thought I was having some sort of health issue. Maybe not.

13. 

    Joe on August 23, 2011 at 11:26 pm

    I decided to search tonight after the quake today. I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced what I felt today.
    About a half hour before the quake hit today, I had the strangest feeling come over me. I could feel my blood pressure rise and my heart started to race in a way I’ve never experienced before. Then I started to fell completely flushed and nauseas and my head felt like I was really dizzy. Also my hands started to ache.

    Then I sat back in my chair to try to calm myself so I could get back to work. About ten minutes later the quake started. There was a definite physiological change in me before it happened. Very strange.

14. 

    Anne on August 24, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    It’s 8/25/2011. I have the strangest feeling right now, 1:45 pm. Like vertigo.

    I had the same feeling on 8/23/2011 at about 8:00 pm. I actually thought the earth was moving. The next day, EQ at around 1:45.

    Hopefully I just have vertigo now, all I know is I have a very strange feeling. worse than the other night.

15. 

    Crystal on November 28, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    So good to know I am not the only one. I started documenting the feeling I get before a powerful quake strikes into a public blog, so anyone can read it and also send a text message related to every post. We are definitely not crazy and it really feels good to know I am not the only one. I also keep track by staying subscribed to USGS alerts.

16. 

    gustavo on January 22, 2012 at 2:02 pm

    I can sense and earthquake 3 day before happen, or at the same moment when happen far away.

17. 

    Eleni on January 28, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    some hours ago( 2-3 hours) before the earthquake on Turkey on 23 octomber 2011 i felt the earthquake and i wrote on my facebook wall in Greek :

    Ελενα Αγνωστη
    εχω μια άσκημη διαίσθηση δε ξέρω για φυσικό φαινόμενο νομίζω
    Μου αρέσει! · · 23 Οκτώβριος 2011 στις 9:18 π.μ.

    i also have sense earthquake on Japan and other earthquakes 2-3 hours ago!
    Eleni
    Limni Evias Greece

18. 

    Jullie on February 6, 2012 at 12:52 am

    Mine is similar to Jenny. Happy to know that I am not the only one odd out there..

19. 

    ghew on February 6, 2012 at 7:35 am

    thought im the only one… but tonight when talk about this whole sensing earthquake to my best friend, i thought of googling it.! it’s started when im in college every time i felt like it’s earthquake an hour or the next day after news on tv will report that there’s earthquake in other countries… just like you Jenny i feel it before it happened the thing is i don’t know where would it hit. just like last night February 4,2012 around 10:52 i felt an earthquake then to find out the next day that in Philippines my home land had earthquake February 6, 2012 around 11:49am since i’m here in California… Philippines is one day advance… im totally scared too to tell someone about this feeling like a stupid crazy girl… thought im going crazy and thats what i get from reading sci-fi supernatural books.! *sigh* good thing im not the only one!

20. 

    s on March 12, 2012 at 4:13 am

    This has happened with me for many years now. I get an uneasy feeling, then one hits where I am within 12 hours or 2 to 4 days, usually between 2-4.0 in magnitude locally, or a large/powerful one hits somewhere in the world within 12 hours or 2 to 4 days somewhere far away. We just had one 3 days ago at 5:30am, I thought of it before going to bed and my eyes shot open about 20 seconds before the first temblor rolled through. There were two mild jolts. I tried telling some people about it, but they kept misunderstanding me and thought I was awakened by the first jolt, but my eyes shot open many seconds before the first one and I knew something was coming and then it happened, it was weird because my eyes popped open and I felt wide awake as if I had not been asleep at all. I just stayed very still, waited and rode it out..

21. 

    Mexicanbutterfly on April 3, 2012 at 10:57 am

    It’s strange because I never thought much of my “feelings” but I can sense an earthquake in my region when I am outside at night. I live in the High Desert in Southern California, and for some reason when I go outside at night before and earthquake hits, everything is strangely calm, I don’t hear cars, trains, planes, not even dogs barking in the distance. Where I live it’s really populated. usually about 12-24 hours later an earthquake happens.

22. 

    Matt on April 23, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    I have I was sitting in my living room on my laptop when all of a sudden the room shakes I talk about it to my friend she says she didn’t feel it well I look online about 10 minutes later there was an earthquake in L.A. but they didn’t think it reached orange I felt the earthquake about 3-4 minutes before it actaully happened. This particular earthquake 3.9 broke alot of my grandmas glas furniture in her house too. Odd huh