Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Earthquakes and sleeping.

I slept through an earthquake last night. Or rather an earthquake hit England several hundred miles to the south of here and it may or may not have reached as far north.
I did wake at 1 am, but thought nothing of it. I couldn't understand why I was suddenly so wide awake, but soon settled back again. The dogs were aggitated this morning when I got up. It wasn't until I checked the news that I discovered what had happened.
Having grown up in California, I am used to sleeping through earthquakes. I can remember my brother and I longing for a real earthquake without truly realising the consequences. Things seem exciting when you are little. And my brother used to tease me that there had been one. This had consequences in 1989 when I refused to believe his phone call about the SF Bay Area quake, until it was confirmed by listening to the BBC...
Large scale earthquakes are anything but exciting. thankfully this one was only 5.2 -- so enough to shock, and cause minor damage, but not enough to disrupt.
There is theory that it is better to have small quakes over a period of time, then one violent tremour. So in that context, the quake is good, it has relieved some of the tension.

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