From someone that grew up in New England, but experienced a 4.x in california: I assure you it does not feel small.
The revelation that the ground does not stay where I left it was quite disturbing.
The revelation that the ground does not stay where I left it was quite disturbing.
This is why I use every chance I can to espouse a scale like Japanese Shindo which actually measures the surface shaking (what matters to civilians) rather than the Magnitude scale that just measures the energy of the earthquake (more interesting to seismologists). Japanese news always focuses on the maximum observed Shindo which immediately tells you had bad it felt/affected people living nearby.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_se...
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=40.31872...
And we had a M4.2 one there about twenty years ago when I was living there.
But it didn't prepare me for the few small quakes I experienced in the bay area (typically a bunch of car alarms go off and dogs bark, there's a thud, and then a gentle rocking).