Comment from Matthew
Time: August 12, 2007, 10:03 am

Hi Ben, it woke me up all the way down here in Murcia!

Comment from greytop
Time: August 12, 2007, 10:33 am

Were there two? - that news source says: “Ha sido a las 9.30 de la mañana y ha durado menos de 10 segundos.”

Comment from greytop
Time: August 12, 2007, 10:35 am

Cancel that last question - false assumption

Comment from Edith
Time: August 12, 2007, 10:47 am

We had an earthquake in Holland about ten years ago and it woke me up too because my bed was shaking. I’d been through an earthquake in southern Mexico but I couldn’t believe this was actually happening in Holland, so all kinds of crazy thoughts raced through my mind! It was quite uncanny at first.

Comment from Jules
Time: August 12, 2007, 1:44 pm

I assume "Ben, stop doing that,” is a translation!!

Comment from El Jardinero Zurdo
Time: August 12, 2007, 4:51 pm

They’ve updated that original (4.7) estimate, now they’re calling it a magnitude 5.1 — pretty big for Europe!

Comment from Ben
Time: August 12, 2007, 9:42 pm

@Jules, I knew that phrase might be open for misinterpretation!

Comment from Stuart
Time: August 13, 2007, 5:05 am

I’ve slept through three small tremors in Lima, so still yet to really experience anything - only a couple of months to go until earthquake season though.

Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: August 13, 2007, 12:09 pm

How often does Madrid or Spain, for that matter, get earthquakes? When was the last one previous to this? I’m glad it was minor.

Comment from Ben
Time: August 13, 2007, 12:21 pm

Very infrequelntly I believe , no idea when the last one was, but it could be decades back…

Comment from Graeme
Time: August 13, 2007, 7:09 pm

I saw a comment in the the press today saying it is surprising that 2 earthquakes in the last few months in a region with no history of them doesn’t attract more attention. The other one was in Guadalajara province. Maybe the plates are shifting? The biggest earthquake that I know of in Iberia was that which destroyed Lisbon in 1755 - you can see how far that one reached, as Salamanca cathedral still bears some of the scars.

Comment from Matthew
Time: August 14, 2007, 10:43 am

There was an earthquake in Murcia on the day I first arrived in the city in February 1999. It ‘destroyed’ quite a few houses in one of the nearby villages. Everybody was very nervous and it was the talk of the town for the rest of the week.

Comment from rod
Time: August 14, 2007, 4:57 pm

There was one measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale back in February this year. True, the epicentre was off the south west Portuguese coast so no-one bore the full brunt of it, but it was felt through much of Andalucí­a - buildings were evacuated for Sevilla for example - and some said they felt it as far away as Madrid (source, El Mundo http://tinyurl.com/2occ8s)

Comment from greytop
Time: August 14, 2007, 6:49 pm

@VS There are about 2500 a year but only 2 a month are noticeable. From Lasprovincias article. Most are around Southern & South-eastern Spain
http://www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/20070812/ocio/detectado-terremoto-grados-intensidad_200708121006.html

Comment from Margot
Time: August 17, 2007, 1:43 am

Comment from Stuart
Time: August 13, 2007, 5:05 am
I’ve slept through three small tremors in Lima, so still yet to really experience anything - only a couple of months to go until earthquake season though.

************************************
Whew! After last nights 8.0 quake in Peru your post seems eerily prescient. I hope you’re OK Stuart?

Comment from Pepino
Time: August 17, 2007, 12:37 pm

Hi Margot, I instantly thought of Stuart after hearing of the quake in Peru. Luckily, his newly updated blog http://enperu.blogsyte.com/ tells us he’s ok, and is also a good source of first-hand info about the quake.