I was in Le Marche Italy when the big quake hit, and it threw me out of bed. That was bad, but worse was the constant tremors which carried on for months, each bringing the fear of the big one.

I was on the 38th floor of the Standard Oil building in San Francisco when the Coalinga quake hit in 1984. Or was it 83? Anyway. The thing swayed like a damned swingset. Scary, but it was built to take the movement. So later I was impressed.

I haven’t experienced one yet, but I look forward to it. Maybe I’ll be in SoCal next time the system slips. Hope so, anyway.

Perhaps the most dramatic earthquake I have ever experienced happened in Hawkes Bay New Zealand. I was outside in farmland when it struck.
As I viewed the countryside, the surface of the earth was moving up and down like a towel being shaken. There was no apparent surface damage which illustrated to me just how flexible the earth can be in a major quake. In 1931 Hawkes bay was struck by a massive event, The earth in Napier was raised 6 feet and Napier and Hastings was virtually flattened. The raised earth in one part of Napier was drained as previous swamp land and recovered to become Napier's new airport. The Island of Napier became part of the mainland, The Australian tectonic plates are colliding with the pacific pales just off the coast where we live, which makes life very interesting.

I was stationed at Fitzsimons General Hospital (Denver, CO) in 1963 when two minor earthquakes were generated by the Army's pumping of biological warfare liquid waste underground. It led to the discovery that earthquakes could be triggered by pumping liquids into the fault line. They were minor, like someone hitting the floor next to your bed with a sledge hammer...one big band then nothing...not aftershocks. The Rocky Mt. Arsenal where that was going on was only about 1/2 mile from Fitzsimons Hospital so I (we) were almost at the epicenter. I learned years later what had caused them.

In the Natural History Museum in London, there's an earthquake simulator mocked up to look like the interior of a small Japanese shop. Last time I was there, I stood in it with a Japanese tourist couple and their son, who was about eight years old - he was completely unfazed when the "earthquake" started, evidently being very used to such things.

Not me, even though I grew up in Southern California--but my ex (from Montana) was in both the 1964 earthquake in Alaska, and the 1989 (?) earthquake in San Francisco. I guess he was just lucky--or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, lol.

I felt a few in KY. On the level of a big truck going by

Up in Anchorage, had a 6.4. Just out of the shower, and took a seat on the bed. Pictures on wall were swinging, and building shaking. Another here in Oregon, dishes rattled, and grabbed the door frame to keep from falling. We are overdue for some big ones.

I slept thru a few. I slept thru winter storm in Norway that removed a 10 ft portion of the catwalk in an LST so... godzilla better stump real hard if wants to wake me up.