Earthquake Camera Shake

I was living in Santa Clara when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit. Man, that was a bad one for many people. I had lived there in the Silicon Valley from '74 to '04 and had experienced several during that time but nothing like the Loma Prieta. :confused:
 
Lived in the Bay area 25+ yrs, lots of shakers, mostly minor.
Fun fact - while driving you almost never feel an earthquake unless it's a big one. If you do, mostly disregarded as wind gust, road bump, etc.
Wonder if those in the video felt anything?
 
Fun fact - while driving you almost never feel an earthquake unless it's a big one. If you do, mostly disregarded as wind gust, road bump, etc.
Wonder if those in the video felt anything?
+1^^.
I was driving slowly around a residential street curve @ about 20 MPH when the Loma Prieta hit, thought I had a flat tire the way the '84 Mazda B2000 pickup shimmied and wallowed!
 
Lived in the Bay area 25+ yrs, lots of shakers, mostly minor.
Fun fact - while driving you almost never feel an earthquake unless it's a big one. If you do, mostly disregarded as wind gust, road bump, etc.
Wonder if those in the video felt anything?
I was turning left from from a stop sign when Loma Prieta hit. I thought one of my tires had come loose and was about to fall off so I pull over to the side of the road and stopped. When I was stopped and the car was still rocking I knew it was an earthquake.
 
I was out at the end of a public fishing pier in Antioch. Other than the Antioch Bridge emitting a loud groan, nothing seemed all that bad, and people kept right on fishing. Then word spread rapidly that the World Series game was cancelled and everyone was pissed. I decided that maybe this was a little worse than it seemed, so I went home about 4-5 miles away. I noticed two things. 1. There was a crack in the stucco on the back of my house that ran from the upstairs window down to the downstairs window. 2. There was water all over the back yard which was shaken out of my swimming pool, but it was ok because the water had been replenished by the neighbors pool next door. His pool is fairly close and his property was a couple of feet higher.
 
I worked for Santa Clara County Roads then in '89; it was all hands on deck to inspect over 140 traffic signals and over 4,000 street lights. We had no power for 4 days.
Mechanically, we had few casualties regarding the field inventory (signals, poles, lighting, controller cabinets, electrical service pedestals, etc.), none at the 4 transit bus maintenance yards, 2 airports (beacon towers and runway lighting) and 8 storm sewer lift stations at freeway underpasses.

I do recall the mast arm for an older type 3 traffic signal pole bending from all the swaying and gyrations down to within 2 feet of Foothill Expressway in Los Altos so it blocked 2 of the 3 lanes; we had to remove the arm and erect a temporary secondary traffic signal head for when the power was restored.
 
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Does the camera behind the PTZ have built in optical stabilization? Couldn't tell the Earth was shaking from the second camera. Interestingly, the trees and drivers appear business as usual. :eek:
 
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Does the camera behind the PTZ have built in optical stabilization? Couldn't tell the Earth was shaking from the second camera. Interestingly, the trees and drivers appear business as usual. :eek:
Not that I know of. The 2 cameras are mounted next to each other. At one time our deck was covered. When the cover was removed a 2 by 4 was left in place attached to the side of the house. The second camera is mounted with all screws attached to the 2 by 4. The PTZ is only secured by the top 2 screws. The bottom 2 screws are not attached. This accounts for all the shake in the video.
 
I remember a 5.7 in Santa Barbara when I was a teen. So bizarre looking out in a open field and seeing the ground ripple like swells on the ocean. Made a hell of a mess in the house and cracks in the stucco. A bridge knocked out and a train derailed. It was the type of earthquake that made a small one cause a lot of problems