Friday, March 6, 2009

Earthquake (tremor)

Well, well, well... will wonders never cease... hanging out, chatting with next door friends, and a big shaking started in the house, getting stronger. I guess it lasted about 10 seconds, and apparently was a tremor, not an actual earthqake. Oh well... it was scary enough!

Tom thinks we're now in for the plague of locusts, and I'm hoping things don't flood here. [Oh, by the way, there is a swarm of Chilean millipedes crawling around and getting into things.. they are in the house, so I guess this is the next plague...]

I've been trying to find out what's going on in the Geoscience and Seismic Australia web sites, but I'm not getting in, so I'm guessing everyone is feverishly trying to figure things out.

Back again, Saturday morning, before we leave to check out the Great Ocean Road... like the others aren't great, but this one is certainly up there on the spectacular seismometer. Speaking of which... here's the scoop from last night's tremor, courtesy of The Age:

"It wasn't a figment of the imagination. An earth tremor was felt in Melbourne last night.
The tremor, which measured 4.7 on the Richter scale, was felt just before 9pm in places as far apart as Ormond, Essendon, Altona, Seaford and Phillip Island.

It was Victoria's strongest earthquake since 2001, when a 4.8 magnitude tremor was felt in Swan Hill...Victoria's strongest earthquake last year measured 3.7."

So there you go, and we're off, to check out the (unstable?) coastline...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I bet you did not think that you would have this many different experiences when you were planning this trip. Your kids will be able to top any story or show and tell for many years to come if they want to. Have a good and SAFE trip.
Val

Unknown said...

Hello Brigitte & family,

never a dull moment, drink some wine for me too

smile and realize you won't be missing the -36 we're having in Winnipeg tomorrow

Caroline

B and Co said...

You're right! I guess you never know what is going to happen... it happens when it does!

So far we're safe, warm (although there have already been some COLD nights), happy, and we ARE having fun. And yes, the wine is great!!

Brigitte