Suddenly he shot off in the back garden like a bat out of hell, and started to run up and down, up and down, up and down.
What strange behaviour I thought.
"Brownie what's up with you?" I asked him, but he continued to run up and down, up and down, up and down.
Sitting back on the sofa, I felt a strange sensation. I then heard the many pieces in my blue and white porcelain collection rumbling on the etagere, but still I did not make the connection.
We were experiencing an earthquake.
It was about 5.30am.
The epicenter was 126 miles northeast of our capital city Bridgetown at a depth of 20 miles.
The tremor affected the entire island but was mostly felt in the north and the east.
The US Geological Survey confirmed that the 6.7 magnitude quake occurred 107 miles NNE of Bathsheba (east coast) and 116 miles NNE of Bridgetown (west coast) at 5.27am at a depth of 20 miles.
The tremor was also felt in the neighbouring islands of St.Lucia and Martinique.
According to news reports, over the last 18 hours there has been heightened seismic activity in the area.
Coincidentally, over the weekend I viewed a documentary highlighting the Canary Islands fault line and the resulting mega-tsunami that would occur if the predictions of the scientists came to pass.
The last earthquakes in Barbados were two months ago when two occurred on December15th and 16th. The first, which occurred to the south of the island, measured 3.8 on the Richter scale. The second was slightly weaker, magnitude 3.6, and struck to the north of Barbados.
The last major quake was back in 2007 and during that quake my six dogs were running up and down, up and down, up and down too.
See the news reports here and here.
Here is the link to the Worldwide Seismic Monitor.
I have heard that animals can sense an earthquake about to happen, this just porves it. clever Brownie. Now if we can just use that somehow....
ReplyDeleteYes animals, and especially dogs have an extra keen sense that we don't seem to possess....I've read that they can even detect cancer in the body.
DeleteAlways knew he was a smart dog. I wonder if there is a low level sound they hear that we can't. Anyway I hope that was it as far as earthquakes go and you don't have one that causes major damage.
ReplyDeleteI must do some research on how dogs can detect events such as this...maybe like you said well-tuned ears that hear high pitched and very low noises like an underground tremor.
DeleteWe've been told that we need to be on the alert for more seismic activity, yet the sea sensors around the island have not indicated a rise or lowering of the sea.
Animals do seem to sense earthquakes and storms much more readily that we do. Given that some areas of NZ have almost constant earth tremors (most of which are not noticeable to humans) some animals must spend a lot of time being agitated.
ReplyDeleteAnimals are great at warning us of danger. I see Brownie sticking his nose in the air and smelling the air quite regularly. He felt the earthquake about to happen and that's amazing.
DeleteMy friend had a cat that forewarned her of a fire in the home. The cat jumped up on her in the bed and clawed at her scratching her and running towards the door over and over, but the time she got up and opened the door, the fire was just beginning in the front area of the house....so lucky for her since she sleeps very soundly.