Thumpalumpacus
Major
The deeper the quake is centered, the more of a chance for preceeding sound.
Typical fault quakes are shallow (aboit a mile deep) and make noise during the event, though they can issue noise just before they hit if it's high magnitude (like around 6+) where deep origin quakes (five miles or better) will have a herald even if it's a 4 or higher on the richter scale.
It's real creepy, to be honest.
First things first, the ground just shouldn't goddamned move. That should be against the law.
As for depth, that does make sense. IIRC Coalinga was fairly deep though not sure if it was five+ miles below. 6.3 R? [ETA: Wiki says 6.2 R, depth of 6 miles, reinforcing your point]. The only damage it did in PR was topple an old church spire, thankfully no casualties. Coalinga was flattened.
In Paso, I was helping a friend and his father install a concrete floor for the basement. His dad was in the basement, Carl was bringing me the wheelbarrow, and I was prepping mix. I heard the rumble and told Carl, "we're gonna get a 'quake". He laughed and said "It's a train" ... and then about five seconds later we started rolling and that's when I looked at the ground and saw the wave lift and then drop the surface maybe three or four inches, like grabbing a rug and shaking it through. Transited the yard in much less than a second of time.
I don't know how old his dad was, but he was running like a young man up the stairs.
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