EARTHQUAKES IN SPAIN - A PROBLEM?
I was interested to read recently a prophetic report by Luis Suaréz (President of the Colegio Oficial de Geólogos (ICOG)) that came out in March of this year – in which he warned that a major earthquake in Spain was overdue.
Well, Luis Suaréz’s timing was nothing if not prescient given the earthquake in Spain that occurred on Wednesday May 11th. Sadly, the earthquake killed nine people in the town of Lorca in south eastern Spain, hurt dozens more and has damaged numerous buildings, some of which have been condemned.
The question, of course, is how prone is Spain to earthquakes and, perhaps more importantly, how dangerous are earthquakes in Spain?
The truth is that Spain suffers numerous earthquakes each year (some 2,500 on average) however the earthquakes are normally too small to be either felt or cause any significant damage. In fact, the last serious earthquake in Spain was in 1884 around Arenas de Rey in Granada when 800 people were killed, 1,500 injured and some 4,000 homes destroyed.
The Arenas de Rey earthquake, which occurred on Christmas Day, was certainly serious (5.6 on the Richer scale) but was roughly consistent with ‘serious’ earthquakes in Spain happening every 70 years or so – which was, no doubt, why Luis Suaréz was warning that a serious earthquake was ‘due’.
Certainly, over the years that I have lived in Spain (in Valencia province), I have felt tremors – albeit that all but one (centred on Tavernes, a year or so ago) were almost imperceptible.
The one that occurred not far from Tavernes produced a most odd sensation and felt as though a vast and overladen lorrry was passing beside my house. Everything shook, the lights swayed, the building made an unpleasant grinding noise and our pictures went askew on the walls. However, there was no appreciable damage apart from some hairline cracks around the house.
So, if you are thinking of coming on holiday to Spain or living in Spain then I think that you should have few undue concerns that you are coming to somewhere ‘dangerous’ because of the earthquake risk. These may sound like bold words but even the recent serious earthquake in Lorca was not on a scale that many high risk areas would consider a major problem.
Needless to say, it is still worth knowing what to do in the event of an earthquake in Spain (or anywhere else, for that matter). In this regard, do have a look at an excellent site that will provide you with all the information that you need about earthquakes and what to do.
In short, if you are in a building and experience an earthquake then the ‘triangle of life’ is to ‘drop, cover and hold’ – i.e. ‘get down, take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture, and hold on, or shelter against an interior wall – away from windows, bookcases etc.’ The biggest danger for us all, it appears, comes from flying debris not the vibrations of the ground…
Nick Snelling - Culture Spain