Two Earthquakes!

Last night I was talking to my mum on the phone. It was about 1am, when suddenly the room started shaking. I felt the bed rock first, then I saw the wardrobe shudder, and the door was banging about in its frame. I couldn't hear it, so I knew it wasn't as big as the last earthquake. It was very strange, saying into the phone "Ooh! Earthquake!!"

The shuddering lasted for maybe 30 seconds, and then subsided. It was the first time I'd actually seen the effects of an earthquake on my room, because all the other times I've felt a tremour I've been asleep or nearly asleep.

I went to bed, and about 30 minutes later, there was another quake! I assume this one was an aftershock, or the first one was a "pre-shock" or something, because this one was bigger. I could hear and feel it. The room shook again, and I actually felt a bit of motion-sickness from the swaying.

This one lasted the same amount of time, but was stronger. I was a bit worried as two earthquakes in a short space of time seemed a bit ominous. I checked the Japan Meteorological Agency's website and sure enough, two minutes after the quake, there was information about it. So efficient! 100 miles north of Tokyo, in the Tohoku region of Japan, there had been an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale. This is relatively big, but I haven't heard of any damages or deaths. There's more information about this quake here.

I did check, just to be sure, to see if they thought the quake was related to the Tokai earthquake (the big one that is meant to strike Tokyo and Yokohama every 60 years and is long overdue) but it wasn't. So I could sleep easy! You can view information about what to do at the various warning levels of Tokai prediction and see current circumstances on the website.

It does make you think though, if a large earthquake was to strike Tokyo soon, the damage and death toll would be horrendous. And there is no 'if' about it, there will be other large earthquakes, it's a guarantee.

The earth is a very powerful thing, if we could feel a tremour from 100 miles away, what would it feel like if the epicentre was under Tokyo? Scary, huh?!