Tremors

Beautiful morning. Brilliant blue sky, and the narrows looking like newly hammered steel, bright and pale blueish. A nice change after the wind and waves we've had recently. There was an item in the news that Vancouver had been badly hit by a windstorm. No one really hurt, but power outages and stuff hanging off buildings caused a lot of inconvenience.

If anyone were to ask me what I worried about most in terms of catastrophe, the truth is I don't. I understand that the global and local climates follow cycles. I don't believe that mankind has much effect on the climate. We can muck up the food chains by overfishing and over hunting. We can poison the very ground we walk upon, temporarily speaking (Temporary in this case to mean events around 1-200 years), yet when it comes to the climate, and the earth we stand upon, we have very little effect.

One thing that surprised me is the lack of Earth tremors felt in our little neck of the woods, especially when four moderate to strong (5.3, 6.7, 6.4 and 5.4) richter scale events have occurred since the 5th of January, a couple of hundred kilometres north and west of us in the Cascadia subduction zone. Did we feel anything? No. Not so much as a tinkle of glasses on the shelf.

People keep on telling me that we on Vancouver Island are expecting 'the big one' of a magnitude of 8 or more on the Richter Scale any time now, but if this site is to be believed, as the big quakes come every 4-600 years, and the last one was in 1700, we've got at least another 90 years at the very least before the 'big one' comes, although three or so larges event of around 7 plus is likely as we tend to get a group of those around every 50 years. If it does hit, I expect to get a phone call to put on my working togs and help out, such is the way of things over here.

Certain stores stock ready made 'Emergency kits' which look quite handy. Simple stuff, flashlights, small radios, water purification tablets and space blankets, that sort of thing. I hope not to make use of mine, although it sits in a 'grab and go' location in the car. It's like an insurance policy. It's comforting to have, but it would be nice if you never had to use it.