Something strange happened this evening. Rhiannon was in bed and Tim and I were pottering around when suddenly there was a loud “whump” which rattled the large, French windows in our dining room.
To me, this sounded a lot like the wind I heard as a child growing up on the edge of Dartmoor, so I took little notice of it, apart from wondering what the weather was doing.
Minutes later, another “whump” sounded and the ground shook, and carried on shaking for, ooh, all of a few seconds. But it felt a lot longer than that. Our first earthquakes! Luckily, it didn’t wake Rhiannon up.
Although fully aware of the high seismic activity in Japan I had taken the ostrich approach and had neglected to find out what we were supposed to do when “the Big One” hit. So, somewhat nervously I started googling.
I found a website http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Asia.php which gives details of the strength of the tremor and discovered this one measured a mere 4.6 on the Richter Scale – a minor earthquake. Minor in geological terms, maybe, but pretty major for me! I am not looking forward to experiencing anything larger than that. I was shaking long after the ground had stopped.
Sometimes it is really not a good idea to google.
I had a very sleepless night and resolved to buy myself some pyjamas.
