“The Bed Shook... Couldn’t Sleep a Wink” Citizens Lose Sleep over Earthquake Alert in the Middle of the Night

“I was so nervous, I couldn’t sleep at all.”

Gim (32), a salary worker living in Mapo-gu, Seoul, immediately felt the earthquake after receiving an emergency safety notification sent by the Korea Meteorological Administration at 1:28 a.m. January 9. Gim said, “I was just about to fall asleep when I was startled by the emergency text.” “Then instantly, I felt my bed shake,” he said. After finding out that an earthquake on a scale of 3.7 had occurred in the waters near Ganghwa-do, Incheon, he thought that a war had broken out at first. He was unable to go to sleep after that and said he was getting ready for work after staying up all night.

Residents of Incheon, where the earthquake occurred, also shared stories of the earthquake on social media and nervously stayed up all night. According to the Incheon Fire Headquarters, as of 3 a.m. Monday, they had received a total of thirty reports in connection to the earthquake off the coast of Ganghwa-do, Incheon. Reportedly, most of the citizens expressed their concerns after perceiving the earthquake and there was no report of any damages.

When an emergency text message was sent to all people in the greater Seoul area, some citizens tried to ease their anxiety by sharing ways to check how earthquake-resistant their homes were, such as the service provided by the Architecture and Urban Research Institute--an affiliate of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport--that allows people to easily check and see if their homes are earthquake-resistant.

Yi (31), who lives in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul said, “I didn’t feel any tremors, but the alert ringing so loud in the middle of the night was horrifying,” and explained, “I even searched on the internet because they said that I might not have felt the earthquake because my house was not earthquake-resistant.”

The latest earthquake occurred in the sea 25 kilometers west of Ganghwa-gun, Incheon-si at 1:28 a.m. Monday. The center of the earthquake was located at a depth of 19 kilometers. Initially, the earthquake was estimated at a scale of 4.0, and the Meteorological Administration released an early warning, but after further analysis, they corrected the scale to 3.7.

In the case of an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0, many people indoors can sense the tremors. If it occurs at night, it could wake people from their sleep, and it could shake dishes and windows. An earthquake with a magnitude of 3 can be sensed by people indoors, particularly in the upper stories of a building, and can slightly shake vehicles not in motion. A small number of people in a quiet environment or in the upper stories of a building can sense a scale-2 earthquake.

This is the first time in slightly over 70 days that an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 and higher occurred in the waters near the Korean Peninsula since a 4.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Goesan-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do on October 29, 2022.