The Bad and Good

There's a topic that I haven't written very much about. I haven't written because I don't want to worry anyone - including myself by thinking about it too much. Guessed the topic yet? Earthquakes.

About a month before I got here, there was a huge earthquake south of Lima. While it devasted the towns of Ica and Pisco, Lima was essentially untouched. I bravely claimed that big earthquakes didn't happen every year so, statistically, I was better off that a big one had just happened. Since arriving, I have changed my way of thinking a few ways.

On one hand, I think that since we now have the knowledge of where the major fault lines are in the world, there should be no cities directly on top of them. On the other hand, there are potenially dangerous natural disasters all over the world and we can't really ever escape them.

But, back to earthquakes. According to Wikipedia, the average recurrences of earthquakes in the United Kingdom - an area with very little seismic activity - is as follows:
an earthquake of 3.7 - 4.6 every year
an earthquake of 4.7 - 5.5 every 10 years
an earthquake of 5.6 or larger every 100 years.

Even at home this is happening and we don't even realize it. In March there was a small earthquake, about 3.0, outside of Boston and a tiny tremor of 1.0 in Connecticut. In February, there was a 3.0 earthquake in Troy which lastest a whopping 2.3 minutes.

Also, researches do not believe that earthquakes are increasing, we're just reporting them more which makes it seem like there are more. In fact, I've read some claims online which say that the big 7.0+ earthquakes are lessening.

There are have been six tremors since September. Five of them have been tiny, almost like a big truck driving by. However, one of them was 5.6. Luckily, I was with Arturo for this. We had spent the night at his brother's place which is in the hills. I woke to about 8 a.m. to a huge rumbling and shaking. In fact, almost more than the shaking, it was the noise. It was over by the time I got dressed and make it to the front door. My body continued to shake for sometime and the next few nights I woke up when a big truck drove by.

Last day, there was another tiny tremor during the day. I slept through it like a baby. I felt incredibly relieved. I'm not saying that earthquakes don't scare me. They do. A lot. But, perhaps I'm becoming accustomed to something which, let's face it, we don't have a lot of control over.

So, now for the connection to the title of my email:

The bad - Earthquakes will happen. Wherever you are.
The good - I'm not living in daily fear...something you just can't keep up...and