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At 12.10 am on Sunday morning as I was getting ready to go to the airport for a quick interstate trip, things started to move for me.
Quickly I realized that it was an earthquake and as we live in a concrete house, I decided it was time to move outside.
Once my heartbeat had gone back to normal, I gathered by gear and headed to the airport, figuring that if I was on a plane, in the air, I wouldn't notice any aftershocks! There were two aftershocks on Sunday, but people hardly noticed them.
It was a 6.9 shake located 230 km (145 miles) NNW of Saumlaki, Tanimbar Islands, in Indonesia - 700 km north of us.
A quick look at the earthquake page tonight shows 28 earthquakes in the region in the last week and that large yellow one north of Darwin is the one that shook us up.
picture from U.S. Geological Survey
Here I have been, having a bit of a moan since the weather warmed up, got more tropical. But where do I live … in the tropics!
In the last week, however, in several other places around the equator there has been a bit more than just humidity happening.
Last week it was floods in the Philippines, caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/asiapac/stories/200909/s2699997.htm
Three days ago there was a 8.0 earthquake in American Samoa, which initiated a monstrous tsunami which swept ashore killing hundreds and injuring many more, and destroying villages before it.
http://www.news.com.au/features/0,,5019260,00.html
Two days ago there was a 7.6 earthquake off Padang in Sumatra, Indonesia, collapsing buildings and causing another tsunami. The death toll increases with each news broadcast, but is at least 1000, with many, many more still trapped.
Look at the earthquake map on the link below and see what I mean.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/
It will update by the minute, but I am sure you will get the picture; when I copied this link there had been 73 aftershocks in Samoa and 5 in Sumatra.
All this is happening so relatively close to us. This is all too glum and I felt I would post the latest Swamp cartoon to lift our spirits. It sort of seemed relevant really. It hasn't been a good week.
Copyright 2009 Swamp Productions Pty Ltd
