Shoreline, 1840

Not a very nice day actually. And this is just the first bit.

Day started with a bang, literally, as I woke up at about 8 am, to find the bed jouncing around a fair bit and the house creaking and groaning ominously..................it couldn't be ..................but it was, I realised, as the bed jostled heavily yet again.

"Earthquake," I head Shiv shout from the lounge, as I picked up Nandita and rushed under the door frame. In the next room, I heard Nandana doing the same.

Crikey, we'd just had 10 on Tuesday. Another one so soon, and a fairly big one, from the looks of it, as we'd felt it. I went online to check. It was 5.5 Richter, followed by an aftershock as well, which we didn't feel!! And even so, this is the biggest in Wgn in the last 30 years!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3163116a10,00.html

Blast. And with all the talk about THE BIG ONE coming anytime and everyone intent on discussing this morning's one ("Did you feel the the one this morning?"), I have to admit I was feeling a bit shaky myself.

Others fared even worse. Apparently, some who rise and shine at decent times (unlike us journos) were at work in their 7th or nth floor offices. And when the quake hit 'em, the whole floor swayed. Some of them went into hysterics and others started crying, as they were so rattled.

There are so many reminders all around me. When I walk to work, I am walking on the pavement that bears a plaque saying 'Shoreline, 1840'. So, had I been walking on the very same place, say in 1839, I would have had to be J. Christ, as that would have all been water. Sea water. The whole of Wellington's central business district is built on land reclaimed from the sea by the 1840 earthquake. That was when we had the last big one

And I've always wondered at that as it made me feel very uneasy. How could that be done, especially in this island nation that is so prone to quakes and tsunamis. As we drive down from Petone, we can see the CBD on the other side of the coast, with an expanse of beautiful blue sea in between. Gorgeous (on a fine sunny day! On a bad day, you can barely see the road ahead of you, leave alone the CBD silhoutte). I cannot imagine losing all that. But yes, oh yes, it is very much a possibility. Almost a reality, in fact.

In fact, all the seismology think-tanks expect a big one every 150 years. So, if the last one was in 1860, the next big one for us in Wellington would be in..............maths has never been my strong point, that's why I am a journo, so I will leave the calculation to experts.

Wellington sits on the boundary of the place where the Australian and Pacific plates meet, 25 km below the city. The plates are locked toghether at the moment, but eventually they will have to separate, say experts. When? No one wants to guess. And that will be SUCH A BIG ONE, as these ones rarely produce less than Richter 8!

However, earthquakes on interfaces are rare, happening hundreds of year apart, they add. The Boxing Day tsunami was one such.

As they say, it is not a question of if. It is a question of when. Ok, I better rush to get my quake emergency kit ready.