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Did We Just Have an Earthquake? How to Check in 30 Seconds
Real earthquakes post to the USGS map automatically within minutes — so the fastest answer is earthquake.usgs.gov: if nothing appears near you in ten minutes, the shake was something else, and this page covers both branches. Here’s the check, the impostor list, and the during-and-after drill worth knowing cold if the answer is yes.
Key takeaways Check: USGS Latest Earthquakes — posts in minutes; file a “Did You Feel It?” report. Nothing listed? → sonic boom, blasting, truck strike, frost quake — the loud boom checklist. During shaking: Drop, Cover, Hold On — don’t run outside, doorways are obsolete advice. After: shoes on, sniff for gas, expect aftershocks; coast + strong/long shaking = high ground, don’t wait. West Coast phones: enable ShakeAlert/MyShake for seconds of advance warning.
The 30-second check
- USGS Latest Earthquakes — the automatic feed; zoom to your area. Magnitude, depth, and epicenter appear within a few minutes of any real event.
- File “Did You Feel It?” — one minute, and your report joins the real-time felt map that’s also how you confirm the neighbors felt it too (and how seismologists map intensity — you’re contributing data).
- Nothing after ten minutes? It wasn’t a quake. Work the impostor list on what was that loud boom — sonic booms, blasting, frost quakes, and transformer faults all produce one-jolt “earthquakes,” and dispatch radio catches the ones that drew 911 calls.
- Texture matters: a single sharp bang-jolt leans impostor; rolling or rattling that builds, sustains seconds, and fades leans earthquake — as does a swaying sensation upstairs with hanging lights moving.
If it was real: the drill, during and after
During: Drop, cover, and hold on — under a table, arms over head and neck, hold the leg, ride it out. Running outside is how most US quake injuries happen (façades and glass come down at the exits), and the doorway advice died decades ago. In bed: stay, pillow over head.
After:
- Shoes before steps — broken glass is the classic injury.
- Nose check: any gas smell → out, and call from outside. Don’t flip switches on the way.
- Aftershocks are the rule, not the exception — same drill each time; skip elevators for the day.
- Walk the house like the post-boom checklist: water heater straps, chimney/masonry cracks, doors that suddenly bind (foundation movement tell).
- Coastal + shaking that was strong or lasted 20+ seconds: move to high ground immediately — the shaking is the tsunami warning.
Before the next one (5 minutes): enable earthquake alerts on your phone (ShakeAlert states get seconds of real warning; Android’s detection is built in), strap the water heater, and make sure emergency alerts are on.
The neighborhood picture after a real one
A felt quake instantly produces the whole cluster at once: alarms and sirens, gas-odor calls as fire departments run odor checks, outages where equipment tripped, and a burst of “was that an earthquake??” posts. Dispatch radio is the sorted version of that chaos — which calls are real, where crews are going, what’s actually damaged — and the kit below is how you hear it while the apps are still loading.
The fix for next time: a scanner that never sleeps, for about $250
Every lookup method on this page depends on someone else — a feed volunteer, an app's coverage map, an agency webmaster. This kit removes the middleman: a silent little box on a shelf that decodes your county's digital dispatch directly off the air, streams it to any browser in the house, and records every call with timestamps. Next time the sirens go past, the answer is already on your phone — and free, open-source GopherTrunk is the software, so the parts below are the entire cost.
Why two receivers: one dongle stays locked to your police trunked system while the second covers fire/EMS or a neighboring system at the same time — the two channels a "what's going on?" moment actually needs. That's a trick a $500 handheld scanner can't do, and GopherTrunk drives both dongles from one Orange Pi.
Orange Pi 5
around $90
The RK3588 host that runs it all 24/7 — silent, low-power, and strong enough for both dongles with headroom to spare. GopherTrunk ships a native ARM64 Linux build for it.
Orange Pi 5 on Amazon →RTL-SDR Blog V4 kit
around $55
The dongle and the telescopic dipole antenna kit with coax and mounts in one box — this one holds your police system's control channel.
V4 + antenna kit on Amazon →RTL-SDR Blog V4 (second dongle)
around $35
Covers fire/EMS, a second trunked system, airband, or NOAA weather — simultaneously, not by giving up the first channel.
RTL-SDR V4 on Amazon →The complete parts list
| Part | Why it's in the kit | Approx $ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Pi 5 | Always-on host for both dongles | ~$90 | Amazon → |
| RTL-SDR Blog V4 + dipole antenna kit | Receiver #1, antennas, coax, mounts | ~$55 | Amazon → |
| RTL-SDR Blog V4 (second) | Receiver #2 — fire/EMS or a second system | ~$35 | Amazon → |
| Powered USB 3.0 hub | Clean, stable power for two warm dongles | ~$35 | Amazon → |
| 16-piece SMA adapter kit | Joins any antenna to any dongle, first try | ~$18 | Amazon → |
| RG316 SMA pigtail kit | Flexible jumpers between hub, dongles, antennas | ~$15 | Amazon → |
| USB-C power supply (5V/4A+) | The Orange Pi 5 needs solid power for 24/7 duty | ~$15 | Amazon → |
| microSD card (64GB, A2) | OS plus months of recorded calls | ~$12 | Amazon → |
Kit total: about $250–275. Worthwhile upgrade once it's earned a permanent shelf: an outdoor discone antenna (~$40) that hears everything from 25–3000 MHz — see the antenna guide. Prefer a Raspberry Pi 5 host instead? Same build, swap the board — Pi 5 (8GB) on Amazon and the SBC build guide.
From boxes to first decoded call
- Flash 64-bit Linux (Debian/Ubuntu image) to the microSD and boot the Orange Pi headless.
- Plug in the powered hub, both dongles, and the antennas — the adapter kit bridges any connector mismatch.
- Install GopherTrunk — one free static binary, no dependencies: download, then follow the setup guide to point it at your county's system from RadioReference.
- Open the web console from any phone or laptop in the house — live calls, talkgroup names, and a scrollable, replayable recording archive.
Two honest caveats before you spend a dime: check RadioReference that your agencies are not encrypted — no device decodes AES — and skim the legality rules for your state (listening is legal in the US; a few states restrict use in vehicles). Rather have a no-computer, pocketable option instead? That's the dedicated scanner guide.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if that was an earthquake?
Go to earthquake.usgs.gov (or search ‘USGS latest earthquakes’) — real quakes post automatically within a few minutes, with magnitude and epicenter on a map. File a ‘Did You Feel It?’ report while you’re there; the felt-report map builds in near real time and will show your neighbors reporting too. No event listed after ten minutes almost certainly means it wasn’t a quake.
The house shook but USGS shows nothing — what was it?
The usual impostors: a sonic boom (rattles a whole region), quarry or construction blasting, a heavy truck or garbage truck impact nearby, a tree or vehicle striking the house, a transformer fault, or in cold snaps a frost quake. A single sharp jolt with a bang leans toward those; sustained rolling or rattling that grows and fades leans earthquake.
What should I do during earthquake shaking?
Drop, cover, and hold on — under a sturdy table, covering your head and neck, holding the furniture — until shaking stops. Do not run outside (falling facades injure more people than collapses in most US quakes) and forget doorways; that advice is obsolete. In bed, stay there and cover your head with a pillow.
What do I do right after an earthquake?
Expect aftershocks and treat them as the same drill. Check for gas smells (leave and call from outside if you smell any), don’t use elevators, look for shifted water heaters and cracked masonry, and put on shoes before walking — broken glass causes a huge share of quake injuries. Near the coast after strong or long shaking, move to high ground without waiting for an official tsunami warning.
Can my phone warn me before shaking arrives?
On the West Coast, yes: ShakeAlert delivers seconds of warning via Android’s built-in system and apps like MyShake before strong shaking arrives — enough to drop and cover. Android phones worldwide also crowdsense quakes. Make sure emergency alerts are enabled in your phone settings; the warning arrives as a loud alert like any WEA.
Why do I feel small earthquakes my friends don't?
Upper floors amplify shaking, quiet still rooms make M2.5–3.5 events perceptible, and some people are simply better motion sensors. The felt-report maps show this clearly: small quakes light up apartment dwellers and night-shift workers while sleepers and drivers miss them entirely. If you felt it and USGS lists it, you’re not imagining things.