Don & Ara,

The easiest way for me to describe what I hear is to imagine a fibre optic wire where the sound goes down the wire to me. Depending on where it comes from it has various types of sounds, but larger quakes make a huge sound and it is much like imagining an electric wire that has a huge amount of electricity attached to it and its sound is bushy or sparking with electricity. I can feel a sense of pressure at times when this happens, but so far I don't hear any quakes that are close to me that are 5.0 or greater. I don't think I'd have any hearing left after that.

To give a sound reference, the Nisqually sound was the equivalent of standing on a train station next to the track with a freight train passing going 60 or more miles per hour. With that the fibre optic wire would have increased from tiny to 3 or 4 inches around. And it finished with a weird sound like waves traveling out from an explosion. I've only heard it once, but I'll remember it.

Petra