[npsomaratna]

I remember the first earthquake I experienced. Same feeling: everything around me started shaking; for several seconds, I couldn't figure out what was happening; and then it suddenly hit me: it's an earthquake.

(I'm from a country where earthquakes do not occur. For some reason, I always thought that earthquakes were accompanied by, well, movie-style earthquake sounds. It was kinda eye-opening to realize that earthquakes are silent...)

[klysm]

Silent? I think they are the exact opposite. I experienced a very very minor earthquake in New England and it sounded like a truck roaring down the road

[DoreenMichele]

I've been in two significant earthquakes. I don't recall hearing anything either time.

I think it probably depends on a lot of factors?

[nraf]

There was an earthquake in Melbourne, Australia earlier this year and a common theme (myself included) was thinking a car had rammed into the house.

[Aerbil313]

I was 150 or so kms away from the Turkey earthquake this year which martyred 50,000+. It was big. We shaked in the 2nd floor of our house. Some people in the same room heard a very loud noise it while others didn’t. I didn’t. I guess it’s just below the average audible frequency range.

[victorbjorklund]

I was in the earthquake in the balkans last year and didnt hear anything. And while I wasnt in the center everything in the apartment was shaking and some stuff fell down.

[totallywrong]

Personally I've gone through a number of small quakes in different countries and don't remember any sound at all.

[okaram]

I think they can vibrate at different frequencies, and so some can be at frequencies lower than we can hear

[elliotec]

Earthquakes are not silent. I'm not sure where you experienced yours but earthquakes are deafeningly loud. Movie-style earthquake sounds don't even do it justice.

[npsomaratna]

I was in an apartment building in Santiago, Chile—in fact, pretty much all of the earthquakes I experienced were in Santiago. Never heard any (out of the normal) sounds. Is that because the buildings were built to handle earthquakes?

[serf]

the experience isn't the same across the board.

I was in a heavily affected part of LA during the Northridge quakes. It did 50b in damage, killed people, injured thousands. The most significant noise I remember was the cacophony of car alarms and people screaming.

Our house didn't collapse. If it had, i'd probably remember that noise.

Memory is faulty, so who knows. Maybe it was loud, but that's not what I remember, so I can understand why the descriptions vary so broadly.

No good footage of the Northridge event is really very available, but there is plenty of detailed (and unfortunately graphic) footage of the 2015 Nepal event, the 'sounds of chaos' far and wide out-match the sound of the low rumbling quake -- but that could be a deception of the microphones; I would imagine most of them lack the range to properly capture the low roar of an earthquake.

[fragmede]

Northridge was also really early in the morning (4:30 am), so it's possible you were sleeping during the actual earthquake.

[parabyl]

I heard a very small one somewhere that really isn't meant to get them, through a TV show in earbuds. Perhaps the volume has something to do with what's happening beneath the surface vs magnitude? In our case, as far as I know, the epicentre was a ~5h drive away (and out at sea), but it sounded about the same as loud subs at a concert to me.

[mvdtnz]

They're not silent but they're also not "deafeningly loud". Where do you people pull this nonsense from.

[elliotec]

Experience. Not nonsense.

[victorbjorklund]

I was in an earthquake in the balkans last year. Didnt hear a thing. Everything vibrated and some stuff fell down though. But it was still quite far from the epicenter (perhaps that is where you hear it).

[notnmeyer]

not universally true.

[mvdtnz]

Earthquakes are by no means silent. Earthquakes are accompanied by a deep rumble. I have experienced many earthquakes unfortunately, including a deadly 7.1 magnitude quake and its many aftershocks.

[Fatnino]

The 5 earthquakes I can remember experiencing all took place when I was indoors and all I can really remember for sound is the building creaking. Followed by a bunch of "did you feel that?"

[mh-]

Depends on the type of earthquake, the composition of the ground near you, etc.

Where I live now, weak earthquakes can sometimes almost only be heard, along with a brief shake you'd easily mistake for someone slamming a door.