Earthquake

On Wednesday morning it was Tuesday night in the USA.  I was waiting to listen to the Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama debate at my PC.  Around 1AM, in Harrow, in the bedroom, I heard what sounded like a train, a distant rumble and then I felt the shaking beneath.  As I live not too far from a station, at first I thought it must be a big train, but when the ground shuddered I knew it was an earthquake. It moved from one corner of my flat facing south east towards the south west.  The ground shivered, and metallic objects like heaters rattled.  It only lasted about 7 seconds but was quite monumental.  The second earthquake I can definitely note from the UK and my whole life.

The next day, they revealed it had been about 7 on the Richter scale and has caused a bit of damage close to its origin in the north east of England.  If you can imagine stamping you foot on the ground and creating such a thump that many in the UK could feel it, you can understand the magnitude of the energy released in this event.  Any bigger and my walls could have cracked.

It ran like a ripple, making solid ground, trees, concrete and houses everywhere shake in one go - this is an unimaginable amount of force and connects us to the vast forces beyond our control that we mostly have the hubris to ignore.

Not many that I know were awake at that time and most people slept right through it, but the bed of a friend of mine shook as recalled by his wife.  One person in east London awake at that time did not feel a thing though the call centre at LBC were inundated shortly after - he said.

At least in the South East of the UK earthquakes are rare and I shan't worry about it for insurance purposes just yet.