Tracking the quake on Twitter

October 30th, 2007 · 16 Comments

I’ve been tracking “quake” and “earthquake” on Twitter. There was a continuous flow of information as soon at the quake hit.

9:14 pm Update:
Wanna see more? Part 2 of this transcript is here.

10:31 pm Update:
Part 3 is here. That’s all folks!

10/31/2007 Update:
Just wanted to clarify that the start of this transcript was about a minute after the quake – i.e. this does not include the very first tweets. According to @laughingsquid, @sofia was the first person to post to twitter about this quake (interview with the internet-famous Sofia here).

twitter: andykaufman: earthquake nice shaker in the mission/noe
burtonator: WELL THAT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE…..
elatable: Huge earthquake in East Bay
mintigal: Just felt our first tremor, very slight, but like a big rig riding past
me: Track quake
twitter: You’ll now receive updates matching ‘quake’. To stop, send ‘untrack quake’.
sacca: Earthquake!!!!! Woohoo!!
me: track earthquake
twitter: (joshtynjala): Just felt my first quake. That was awesome!
You’ll now receive updates matching ‘earthquake’. To stop, send ‘untrack earthquake’.
briancaldwell: my whole building just shifted
(oscarjr): omg! did u feel the quake?
(sallypnut): Whoa. Hello, earthquake.
(krob): Earthquake in the Bay Area!
(tychay): Earthquake. Sweet.
(CraigB): EARTHQUAKE!
(vglshn): An earthquake has my cat on edge.
(chipotlecoyote): Earthquake. Fascinating.
(trevor_m_wilson): earthquake in Berkeley
(jimgoldstein): Earthquake in SF
(rcrowley): Earthquake!
(jonk): earthquake!!!!
(MizLit): Earthquake!
(Golabutron): Earthquake!
(malerin): EARTHQUAKE
Nymo: OMG, Earthquake
(jakeludington): Anyone else feel an earthquake in the South Bay about now?
(lloydgomez): Modesto just had an earthquake! Yikes…..
(shawnbot): Whee, earthquake!
(sct): earthquake??
(homesliced): a little shaken from my 1st SF earthquake
(Fenchurch): Whoa, violent earthquake. Not the rolling kind, but a shaky one.
(stevepm): Hello earthquake, welcome to my dinner party.
(hizKNITS): earthquake?
(bernie): wow. best quake yet!
(synergist): Earthquake!
(deebeedee): WOW, we just had an earthquake!!
(aliciarenee): Earthquake! and haus still stands. huzzah.
(abhaykumar): Whoah. Anyone else just feel that? My first earthquake!
(CathyE): ZOMG! FIRST EARTHQUAKE!
(mjyazzie): Earthquake!!!!!
(head_zoo_keeper): that was a pretty big earthquake — a fore-shock?
(lhalff): Quake!
(mpeachey): Earthquake. San mateo. Decent size. Lasted 15i20 seconds.
(dan_mcweeney): That was either a small earthquake or a big ass truck.
(romeroax): Earthquake?
(catcubed): earthquake! Long and fairly strong one too.
(AnthonyBaker): Cripes! That was a big earthquake.
leahculver: earthquake!
(mat): Wow! Big quake!
(dialect): WHOA, we just had a crazy earthquake here!!!
(lisapadilla): earthquake
(scottchaile): We just had a big earthquake!
(shirasade): Wowza – earthquake! I guess I really am in California…
(askpang): Just had an earthquake! Not big enough to knock anything over, but big enough to make the house shake.
(bigepaz): Earthquake?
(misskaren): hmmm earthquake. guessing high 4, 4.8
(radioluxembourg): earthquake?
(odannyboy): EARTHQUAKE!
(goodwillstacy): Earthquake!
(SlightlySasha): Jesus. Earth quake!!
(jonchan): earthquake?
(Frang): significant quake just hit. Don’t know size just yet. Lasted a long time too
(kurtbrockett): whoa…..earthquake
(booboolina): Earthquake! And a long one at that.
(DylanThawt): woah, just felt a gnarly earthquake.
(donpark): whoa. a long earthquake
(kevindente): Earthquake!
(halletecco): earthquake
(kenn): Earthquake!
(musicalholiday): Whoa. Earthquake!
(bsii): earthquake.
(rickyromero): Holy shit, that quake spooked me.
(samuraiBSD): woah, mild quake in Oakland…anyone else feel that (if you’re in the Bay Area, that is)
(caffeina): Earthquake or whatever. NOT BAD.
(torrez): Big quake.
(shaper): Serious earthquake in SF a second ago, I actually got under my desk.
(thomashan): major earthquake in the Bay Area, CA!
(caffeined): Whoa! Good size earthquake just now.
(someToast): The first one not so much, but this quake I noticed.
(yoandrocky): earthquake!!
(PamK): Rumbles of something like an earthquake here in Hillsborough, CA
(rafer): earthquake in the mission! 4.4?
(jdaisy): earthquake
(whatman75): Woah! Nothing like a little earthquake to go along with my walk home
(gils9965): Woohoo. Mini earthquake. I thought I had too much to drink.
(mtanne): Wow. BIG earthquake. Lastest a long time.
(Quikchange): Earthquake! It was my first one since moving to California. I was hoping that shit would fall down and none did though [frown]
(Kittenbomb): EARTHQUAKE AHHHHH
(raynbow_me): We just had one HELL of an earthquake
(theleftcoast): just experienced a rather lengthy yet mild earthquake. The apartment building was swaying.
(trishC): That was an earthquake…..yep, whole building moved….. a bit freaky…. yeah…
(csoriano): Holy shite. In Gilroy at an Arby’s. EARTHQUAKE JUST NOW!!! Crazy. Everything seems to be ok.
(labspaz): I am missing Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin… Cause of work… ;( and we just had an earthquake…
(mikecreighton): A little put off by the earthquake that just happened. So was Rexie.
(aki_wah): my first earthquake in the new apartment! http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html

Tags: Bay Area · Twitter

http://twitter.com/andykaufman Andy Kaufman

nice one Mike!

i started chuckling when i was firing that first tweet off and thought of how many others were doing the same

this quake was well twittered.
http://www.cyclelicio.us/ Cyclelicious

I thought the same thing as Andy as I twittered the quake from my home in Santa Cruz County. It was very noticeable here, so it must been sizable over in the East Bay.
mdoeff

What’s funny is this blog post is already getting decent traffic from Google, just minutes after I posted it.
http://justine.tumblr.com Justine

Well done. I was hoping someone would be on top of this.
http://www.elatable.com/blog Bradley Horowitz (elatable)

I was pretty quick on the draw, twittering before the shaking stopped. And yet still a bunch of folks in the South Bay got in before me… Twitter is cool!
mdoeff

Bradley – yes, it was amazing that the tweets started in real-time when the shaking started. Unbelievable.
http://www.ryansholin.com/2007/10/31/obligatory-twitterquake-post/ Invisible Inkling » Obligatory Twitterquake post

[...] Tracking the quake on Twitter – Mike Doeff [...]
http://zeroinfluence.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/links-for-2007-11-01/ links for 2007-11-01 « Zero influence

[...] Tracking the quake on Twitter | mad dog in the fog There was a continuous flow of information as soon at the quake hit. (tags: twitter earthquake usa) [...]
http://www.ThomasHan.com/blog/ thomashan

I was pretty impressed myself after I twittered about the Bay Area earthquake (I got tracked by you above).

Twitter is where I get lots of news nowadays, much faster than any major media
http://afullerview.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/twitter-quake-bollocks/ Twitter Quake Bollocks « A Fuller View

[...] The ‘quake’ that followed in Twitter was total bollocks IMHO… Check the Scobleizer for what I mean. While I do think it is interesting to note that services like Twitter and mobile devices for sure are changing (and many cases already changed) the way we gather information about important events – such as earthquake - and keep in touch with loved ones etc, in this case most of the info on Twitter about this event was drivel (Mr Doeff was good enough to record it). Maybe in the future news organisation will use Twitter or a simialr service to agther info from the field… [...]
http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/ dotBen

I’m so proud of my wife Sofia for twittering first!!!

And to agree with the points made above, twitter is so useful during breaking news events.

I just hope Twitter, and it’s dependent services (internet trunking, wireless carriers,etc ) stay up if/when the “big one” comes.

B
thestand

Shessshhh…..ought to live in S. Cal…..5.6 is a twitch
http://mdoeff.com/blog Mike Doeff

@thestand – That’s what’s kind of scary about this. If a mild quake like this one generated this kind of response what will it be like when the big one hits? To dotBen’s point, will the infrastructure for this type of messaging hold up? There is also the issue of lots of noise and not too much signal on all of the quake chatter that was going on.
ebeth

Most boring blog post ever.
http://mdoeff.com/blog Mike Doeff

@ebeth – Worst comment ever. Troll much?
http://www.blogschmog.net/2007/11/18/twitter-utilitarianism/ Twitter utilitarianism – How do people use Twitter? | BlogSchmog

[...] Twitter as an alert system The low barrier to reporting makes Twitter an ideal channel for alerting a community to danger. Both the recent California earthquake and the rampaging fires in San Diego were well-covered through tweets, providing important information about where the dangers were, what damage had been done, and posting links to deeper resources. The emergency channel extends outside the affected area, giving remote friends and family the opportunity to reach out with thoughts of support and get confirmation that everything is all right. In Bloomington, our twitosphere has its own brush with local danger, and Twitter beat email and blogs to the punch as a means of alerting the community. [...]