Shaken, not stirred

I got to experience my first (and second) earthquake this week! By experience I mostly mean “laid in bed sleepy and confused”, but it was still an interesting event to have felt.

The first earthquake one was at around 3:00 Thursday morning. I didn’t actually wake up for that one, even thought it was the stronger of the two at 4.2 magnitude, and only later remembered having strange dreams in which everything was moving. I woke up for the second (3.3) at around 5:00, cursing “at the garbage trucks” for waking me up. (Our last house in the UK was a renovated old workers’ cottage, which tended to shake if any large trucks ever drove by too fast, so…) In my early morning delirium I’d assumed it was their doing. It was only later on during breakfast that I was told there had been two earthquakes and that we had been really near the epicenter, which was 13 km west of Larnaca.

Afterwards, I did a bit of research and it turns out that earthquakes in Cyprus (at least ones you can feel without equipment) are relatively infrequent and mild, but new building here are built to withstand seismic movement, and there have been sever earthquakes in the past. For example, in 1222 when Cyprus was under Lusignan rule, a major earthquake was felt throughout most of the island (and as far as Alexandria, Egypt), which caused a tsunami that flooded Paphos and Limassol.

Thankfully, such sever events are rare and I’m glad that the two on Thursday were small. There were no reported injuries and, as far as I know, the only significant damage was to a 100+ year-old bell tower in Psevdas.  It was a cool experience – like airplane turbulence but on the ground – and definitely one that I’m glad to have checked off my bucket list, rather than having it precipitate the bucket’s kicking.