Earthquakes in the area...

[the drifter]

my sister is just back from the playa flamenca and she heard about this when she was over there...some googleing returned this

Earthquake causes alarm in Alicante and Murcia

is this a common occurance in the area?

doesnt bother me just like to know if its earhtquake prone?

[theloupy]

There are a few earthquakes here on a reglar basis, mostly just small tremores though. There was a fairly large tremor earlier this year which happened about 6 in the morning. It only lasted about 20 seconds, but was loud enough to wake a lot of people. The only other one i have felt was 5 years ago with the same effect. The papers do the occasional report on them, and one stated that there are around 36 tremors a week in the Alicante region, but most are so small you rarely feel them. They also said that the more smaller tremors we have, the safer it is, because if we go a long period without these smaller ones then a large one is due. Which is what happened 100 years ago. Torrevieja got flattened by an eathquake and had to be rebuilt. But this is obviously not common here. Although it is a little frightening when a tremor starts, it really is nothing to worry about. They last seconds and are not strong enough to do lots of damage.

[the drifter]

lol wouldnt bother me...the mother and father bought a house last year and if they feel one of these they will be on the next plane out of there

[Chrisdee]

Earthquakes

They are normally over before you realise what the hell it is. More often than not you are asleep when they happen (early hours of the morning), the one I heard and felt a few months back sounded like a train running under my house at high speed. Hopefully the houses are built to better specifications these days then they were when Torrevieja got flattened in 1829, apparently over 500 houses got destroyed and almost 200 dead, another useless bit of information is that the main church in Plaza de la Constitution was constructed out of masonry from that quake.
Fingers crossed it won't happen again.
Don't worry, if they can happen in Birmingham (was it?) they can happen anywhere!

[the drifter]

thats interesting i must do some googleing on the 1829 quake...its nice to know some history of the area even if it is of a disaster....

[Nalle]

I remeber reading about it on the homepage. As Chrisdee said, it sounds like a big train passing by just outside your window. First time i heard it I actually thought it was a massive truck or something