Monday, April 25

Malaysia 2005 - earthquake tremors

We were in Malaysia during Easter 2005 when an earthquake, following the 2004 Xmas Tsunami, hit Indonesia again - it's weird how unfair is this planet. It was trivial except for the hundreds of people's lives involved. We received several SMS warnings about the quake from friends in the UK. A batch of three arrived during our  night saying, "Get out; there's going to be another one". One said "Did you feel any tremours?" and funnily enough we did:  the phone on the bedside table vibrated and shook everything within a few inches of it. For the moment as I woke to investigate, it was scary.
 
On a sarky note I'll "thanks for the warning, fellow scientists - you seismologists are so useful"! I can't see the point of Seismology except to spent your life working in a warm climate. The lack of ability to prevent loss of life is good reason to reclassify seismology not as a science, but alongside history as something to learn from.

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