Shake-up? February 27, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , trackbackAfter seven years in Wellington earthquakes still worried me. At least there the houses are mostly wooden and only two stories. The thought of one in London, with all those bricks and old mortar is truly frightening, but they never happen here.
So, when I lay awake at about 1am and the bed moved my first instinct was ‘that’s an earthquake’ and my second was ‘naah, not here, must be something else’. My mind was being kind to me, and kept that thought even as the bed shook again.
But they do happen here, though rarely. It was the biggest in the UK since 1984, at 4.7 on the Richter Scale and centred near Grimsby.
Down here in Camden, on the first floor of an apartment block, it felt about 10 seconds long, and a 2 on the Modified Mercalli Scale. This scale can be used by any observer to describe the earthquake at a given point. How an earthquake feels in any particular place and the damage it can cause depend not just on the raw power of it, but also on the local geology and the buildings you’re in. If you felt it, go to the US Geological Survey and log it
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Just as they had convinced me that this kiwi could do the Chunnel … no earthquakes they promised!