Views of the massive Messina earthquake
Earthquakes have been on our mind of late due to a Christmas card from friends in New Zealand, the Darwin tremor and another essay by the late Professor Walter Murdoch (See our post ASSANGE AND THE MURDOCHS) dealing with a quake that destroyed an Italian city . The Kiwis live in Christchurch, once regarded as an earthquake free zone, and have had more than 3500 shakes since the city was struck by a seismic blow four months ago , smashing a large part of the CBD . Their house had sustained $10,000 damage . Then on Boxing Day we heard another quake had hit Christchurch, so sent them an email to which they promptly replied-
Hi there you two: Great to hear from you and for your concern. Just when we thought everything had settled down off it all went again .The first one at 2.30am followed quickly by another two, the first being so scary, many more from then on and a 4.9 at 10.30am really put the wind up us. All told in the last 24hrs we have had 29 after shocks. It's been quiet for 2hrs now which puts you on tenterhooks waiting for the next one.Even the small ones seem big as they are right in the city area and shallow. Parts of the city are now cordoned off as big glass windows succumbed. This time people were caught in lifts ,fire brigade very busy with alarms going off everywhere. Yes we are O.K. One thing fell and smashed plus a bookcase beside Graham missed him luckily. Mind you we have most things packed away. Two doors upstairs can't be closed. Same happened after first aftershocks but went back to normal a few weeks ago, quakes must have moved in a different direction but now they are stuck again. Have heard of several homes with quite extensive damage this time round.
Hope you have had a lovely Christmas and happy New Year to you too.
In Darwin we felt the recent mild tremors from the quake in the Banda Sea ,some 600 kms north of here.Reading Professor Murdoch’s book of essays, Steadfast, we were interested in his comments about the Messina,Italy, earthquake of December 28 1908, which claimed 75,000 lives outright ,delayed deaths through injuries raising this figure to as high as 100,000. He was in Naples at the time of the quake, and said the newspapers clearly stated that Messina and Reggio had been completely destroyed.
Twenty years later he visited Messina , the setting for Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, which he described as a city dominated by a cemetery in which many gravestones carried the words , morto nel terremoto, died in the earthquake . Parts of the city, he wrote , were a mixture of the new, very little of the past, with streets of corrugated cottages which reminded him of West Australian goldfield towns.
It just so happens that Little Darwin probably has one of the largest collection of Messina earthquake postcards in Australia, being long interested in seismology and volcanology. Some were posted the year after the earthquake.
Hi there you two: Great to hear from you and for your concern. Just when we thought everything had settled down off it all went again .The first one at 2.30am followed quickly by another two, the first being so scary, many more from then on and a 4.9 at 10.30am really put the wind up us. All told in the last 24hrs we have had 29 after shocks. It's been quiet for 2hrs now which puts you on tenterhooks waiting for the next one.Even the small ones seem big as they are right in the city area and shallow. Parts of the city are now cordoned off as big glass windows succumbed. This time people were caught in lifts ,fire brigade very busy with alarms going off everywhere. Yes we are O.K. One thing fell and smashed plus a bookcase beside Graham missed him luckily. Mind you we have most things packed away. Two doors upstairs can't be closed. Same happened after first aftershocks but went back to normal a few weeks ago, quakes must have moved in a different direction but now they are stuck again. Have heard of several homes with quite extensive damage this time round.
Hope you have had a lovely Christmas and happy New Year to you too.
In Darwin we felt the recent mild tremors from the quake in the Banda Sea ,some 600 kms north of here.Reading Professor Murdoch’s book of essays, Steadfast, we were interested in his comments about the Messina,Italy, earthquake of December 28 1908, which claimed 75,000 lives outright ,delayed deaths through injuries raising this figure to as high as 100,000. He was in Naples at the time of the quake, and said the newspapers clearly stated that Messina and Reggio had been completely destroyed.
Twenty years later he visited Messina , the setting for Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, which he described as a city dominated by a cemetery in which many gravestones carried the words , morto nel terremoto, died in the earthquake . Parts of the city, he wrote , were a mixture of the new, very little of the past, with streets of corrugated cottages which reminded him of West Australian goldfield towns.
It just so happens that Little Darwin probably has one of the largest collection of Messina earthquake postcards in Australia, being long interested in seismology and volcanology. Some were posted the year after the earthquake.
