Thursday, September 13, 2007

I was sleeping when the bed started shaking. It was as if somebody was jumping or pushing at the mattress. And I kept bobbing up and down. I thought I was sleeping on an artery or something, so I flipped to my other side. But I was still bobbing, like on a water bed.

Unable to sleep I opened my eyes to see the hanging light swaying lightly on top of me. Awakened by the same thing my Dad was first to point out it might be an earthquake. Immediately I thought of hiding under the table, but that felt a little stupid. It wasn't like some magnitude 8.5 earthquake! Just weak tremors. Singapore is safe as safe can ever be.

"Singapore is located in an area sandwiched by the Java trench in the west and south, and the Philippine plate and trench in the east. Thus Singapore is located in a seismically stable zone, free from earthquakes. Most of the shallow and bigger earthquakes are in western Sumatra and Java because of the deep subduction zones to the west-east and south-north of the Java trench. Earthquakes that occur near Singapore are usually deep earthquakes and weak."

- National Environment Agency (NEA) of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources

Do you know what's the best way to counter an earthquake? Start shaking about so that the effect cancels out.

writing at 8:24 AM

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