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Earthquakes in Spain
By Joe | April 17, 2009
Some people count traffic, some people spot airplanes. I’ve recently developed an unhealthy interest in counting local earthquakes. Perhaps it’s my age, perhaps it’s my medication. Perhaps it’s both. But although I’m assured that it’s perfectly normal, I still find it astounding that Spain experience so many earth movements (notching above 1.5 on the Richter scale). By Spain, I mean the Iberian peninsula and the area around it, including the Canary islands.
Did you know that in the past 10 days, Spain has shuddered 49 times, the largest was just off the Azores and measured 5.7. That’s big. The Canary Islands had three earthquakes in the last 10 days, the largest hitting 2.3
Now I’m not trying to scaremonger, we live on a volcanic island here in the Canary Islands, and the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula is right on the major Gloria fault line, which is where most of the larger earth movements are taking place. The earth moves a lot in this neck of the woods, which is perfectly normal, but I guess I just have a morbid fascination with major acts of nature. Same with tornadoes. I still hold a burning ambition to go on a tornado-traking holiday in the States sometime. My partner’s not exactly in agreement, so I guess it’ll be Mallorca again this year for the Cawley family summer expedition.
For some more background on earthquakes in our region check out Pamela Heywood’s excellent post here.
I’m going to share my obsession for a few weeks so check back daily for an eathquake count. I’ll also provide a daily weather update, so at least any worry can be tempered with the promise of a little sunshine - hopefully.
Topics: General musings, Tenerife |
