500th Post.. and EARTHQUAKE!!

I initially planned to reserve my 500th post for something interesting, but never did I expect this thing to be SO INTERESTING.

For the first time in my life, I FELT EARTHQUAKE TREMORS!!!

I was lying down on the floor trying to listen FM 93.3 when I suddenly find myself "swaying". I felt "giddy", but a second later I realise that my giddiness was unlike my usual ones because I did not see "stars" at all. Being an avid and hardworking Geography student, I did consider the possibility of experiencing an earthquake tremor, but I quickly dismissed it as I thought it would be more likely for the "swaying" and the "giddiness" to be a result of my hallucination after immense exam stress.

But I could hear the windows in my room trembling (due to the travelling of the Primary Waves, aka P waves) and there seem to be some commotion going on outside my house. As I leaned against the windows in my room and looked out, I actually felt the floor shaking.

By induction, this has to be an earthquake tremor.

What is an earthquake?

The vibration, sometimes violent, of the Earth's crust that follows a release of energy that was stored as friction and prevented the smooth movement of rocks in the Earth's crust.

Wow. What an experience! And what a good incident to make it my 500th entry on this blog! But I certainly cannot imagine what is it like for those at the epicentre. The earthquake occured in Indonesia, with a magnitude of 8.0 measured on the Richter scale.

For your information, by the time the seismic waves reached Singapore, much of the energy has been lost and what we are experiencing now is probably equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 1.0. For every increment on the Richter scale, the amount of energy increases by 31.5 times. Hence, Indonesia was probably experiencing something around 31.5^8 times worse than us. You go do your geometric progression.

It's like practical session for Geography. I finally can apply what I have learnt, which is especially rare since living on this tiny island nation of Singapore means that you are sheltered and protected from first-hand experiencing of natural disasters.

Fortunately, the tremors did not last long. 1 minute of pseduo-giddiness and a 30-minute aftermath which involved discussing excitedly with your friends about the tremors you felt over MSN, it's back to preparation of prelims.