Society
ROMANIA
Dealing with earthquakes
By Andreia
Some people have never experienced an
earthquake and therefore they cannot
even imagine how lucky they are to be
able to have a good night’s sleep. For the
p a s t t h r e e w e e k s h o w e v e r, t h e
inhabitants of several villages in Galati
county, a region in the eastern part of
Romania, not far from the Black Sea,
have
gone
through the
nightmare of as
many as 10
earthquakes
d a i l y. E x p e r t s
have installed
equipment in the
area, monitoring
the situation, but
so far they have
been unable to
provide
a
p l a u s i b l e
explanation. It seems that they are facing
a phenomenon that is unique in the
world. Japanese scientists will now be
studying the phenomenon and analyse
the data.
In the meantime, the people are
frightened and sleepless. They describe
the tremors as preceded by rumbling
noises that wake them up at night, or
accompanied by loud bangs. As the depth
where they occur in the rock layers is
quite small (a few kilometres), the effects
are visible in the form of cracks in the
walls of the houses. It is true that the
intensity of these earthquakes has not
exceeded 4.3 on the Richter scale, but
one cannot help being worried. Every day
the tremors cause fragile objects to break
and people have considered the option of
leaving their houses and moving in with
relatives in other parts of the country, at
least for a while. Wouldn’t anyone feel the
same if they had been through about 200
earthquakes in two weeks?
What people fear
most
is
a
devastating
earthquake, like
the one Romania
experienced 36
ye a r s a g o, o n
March 4th, 1977.
It was a major
one, measuring
7.2 on the
Richter scale and
although it lasted
for just under
one minute, it had disastrous
consequences.
I was a child then, but I still remember
vividly the blood-chilling rumble coming
from deep down in the ground, something
like an approaching elephant stampede, I
guess. It was like the earth were
threatening us to beware its anger.
Fortunately, we lived in a ground-floor
house back then and we could easily get
out into the garden. The noise and
shaking continued for what seemed like
an eternity. You could hear glass breaking
and the deafening thuds of falling bricks
as parts of building collapsed. There was
also thick dust rising from the debris and
dogs barking violently.