I know most of you live in earthquake country, tornado country, hurricane country, wildfire country, flood country and so on. Me? I live in occasional ice floe country. There’s a big storm here every thirty years and people still talk about it when the next one rolls around.
Which makes the events of this morning more surprising than scary. I wake up early and the bottle on my bedside table is shaking loudly. The wind was howling outside and there was something… wrong. Suddenly the entire house rocks heavily, once. I assume it’s a storm, vaguely entertain notions of getting up at 5.20 am to look outside, and then go back to sleep.
Later, my brother sends a text message asking if I survived the earthquake. I think he’s kidding but he’s not. We had a fucking earthquake. I really thought they couldn’t happen here, that we were on steady bedrock that hadn’t moved for millions of years, but apparently there was a big one in 1904 and have been small ones since. You live and learn, I always say.
No personal or property injuries as far as anyone knows, but the rescue services still received a deluge of phone calls.
Shoot, I’m jealous. Experiencing an earthquake (small and with no damage to speak of) is on my life list. Here in Germany, the most exciting natural phenomena I’ve encountered have been a couple of major wind storms, a lightning strike 3 houses down, and deadly gloom as the days get darker this time of year.
Earthquakes are usually just a big heapin’ helpin’ of weak sauce. Seriously. First earthquake I’ve ever noticed I didn’t even really notice. I just thought a truck had driven past the house really fast and didn’t know it was an earthquake until I turned on the news. Every other earthquake I’ve ever experienced has done little more than wake me up too damn early. :mad:
That said, I still keep my earthquake-preparedness kit on hand. I’m ready for the big one!
I’ve experienced a few typhoons and three different tornado-producing storms. IMO, those are cooler to watch. At least, if you have somewhere safe to hide they are (and assuming, you know, that they don’t destroy your house).
I woke up from the earthquake, too. Found myself standing on the floor, which was undulating. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t very scared, but my body was. I couldn’t go back to sleep for the adrenaline.
Reading some comments about it on local news sites, I see that several citizens believe it’s a direct result of global warming.
According to the news, it was felt in Borås and Kalmar, and since Borås is right next door to Göteborg I assume they felt it there too. No word on Copenhagen yet but I’d be surprised if they didn’t notice.
It was felt in eastern Denmark; my SO in Copenhagen woke up from it. A friend of mine who lives halfway to Göteborg (Halmstad) also woke up from it. It didn’t reach as far as Stockholm, looks like - localized mainly to the Skåne/Sjaelland area.
Edit: And I see Priceguy filled in on other areas.
I felt it in Copenhagen, I woke up with the windows rattling and my cats trembling and trying to hide under the sheets (and under me).
Strange, are there any chance for aftershocks? I’m sort of looking forward to it.
Your bedrock is just rebounding from the last ice age-the 2-mile thick ice sheet that covered Scandinavia 10,000 years ago melted away, and the bedrock is rebounding.
Don’t worry-the next Ice age will pack things back into place again.
Now go back to bed!
