A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!!!

Last Wednesday, Septmeber 12th at approximately 7:10 pm Singapore time they had a major earthquake in Indonesia. It was centered about 265 miles from us off the coast of the Indonesian Islands.

Having been through any number of hurricanes and tropical storms, several very close calls and brushes with tornadoes - I can tell you I was not excited at all about adding earthquake tremors to that list.

Picture this: It's evening. 24th floor. I'm sitting on the front balcony with our very good friend, Wayne, drinking iced tea and watching dusk settling in. Nice breeze, very pleasnt, casual conversation. All of a sudden, I'm in the middle of a sentence and I get the strangest sensation. It's like you are very off-balance, even though I was sitting. You feel almost weightless and slightly nauseous. Very strange feeling. Then it dawns on me - the building is moving! Wayne says not to worry - it's only a tremor, it will last about 15-20 seconds. Well, a minute and a half later, it finally stopped. We stayed on the balcony the whole time. We turned on our chairs at one point to look inside the apartment. The two rocker/recliners are going back and forth like crazy all by themselves. The chandelier over the dining room table is rocking back and forth in an arc, the globes on the lights are touching the ceiling, then it swings the other direction and touches the ceiling that way. Things were really moving. Wayne said to check the computer in about 15 minutes and he bet there would be news of a major earthquake in Indonesia. Sure enough - 10 minutes later it's on the news and the Internet.

At 7:50 am the next morning Singapore time , here it went again. That one was a 7.9 on the scale. Chairs and chandelier went crazy again. Now, if I think we're experiencing tremors, I just glance into the dining room and see if the chandelier is dancing. It's a pretty good indicator. I keep reciting my mantra that our neighbor Bob told me before - Just remember, Debbie - a swaying building is a good building. Well, I am here to tell you that may well be - but it sure is a very weird feeling to feel this and see it.

If this is only a tremor - I would hate to actually be in an earthquake!

Here's a bit of a lesson -

That earthquake registered 8.4 - considered to be a major one. During the next 48 hours they had 5 major earthquakes - 6.0 and higher - in the same area of Indonesia. Anything above 6.0 is considered major. In the week since that first big one, Indonesia has ad in addition to the 5 large ones, they have also experienced 61 smaller eathquakes that measured from 4.8 to 5.9 and they have experienced approximately 300 "ground movements" that register below 4.8, smaller ones and aftershocks. You couldn't pay me enough money to live in Indonesia!!!

Singapore does not sit on any fault lines. We just feel the tremors from the ones in Indonesia. The fault line runs through the Indonesian Islands, then turns and goes up towards Japan and another part of it runs out into the Pacific Ocean. The Indonesian Islands are known as "The Ring of Fire" because of their volcanic and earthquake prone activity in that area. Sometimes, these quakes will cause tsunamis as this first one created about a 9 foot wave that struck about 20 minutes afterwards. The next one caused a tsunami, but fortunately that one headed out to sea. We are not in a tsunami prone area either due to the way Sinagpore sits in relation to the islands surrounding us. I guess it's possible, but they say the likelihood of that is very, very small. Never say never, I suppose.

If you glance at the map below you can tell where we are in relation to the earthquake area. If you find Singapore at the base of Malaysia, then follow a line straight down to the tiny islands that are on the left side of Indonesia. These quakes have generally been centered in the area between those islands and the Indonesian coast. Look close on the map below to see where Sinagpore actually is. I'm not naming any names, but some of you seem to think we're in China!