What woke us this morning was the first earthquake in the new house. Having bought an apartment (and no earthquake insurance) we have a whole new sensibility to these things. Of course, there is not really much to worry about, as the building has been constructed with tremors in mind. It rests on pillars that extend fifty metres into the ground and the ferro-concrete structure itself can absorb the shock waves quite well.

Hardly anyone ever gets injured by being thrown on the ground by earthquakes (unless they happen to stand on a ladder at the time). Most harm is caused by stuff falling on top of people, and by fires. The closets in our flat have a mechanism that makes them lock up when they shake, so that the doors cannot open and nothing can fall out. And the gas metre on our porch also shuts down if shaken. If that happens, we can just go there after the quake, press a button which will start a self-check sequence to confirm the absence of leaks (takes about two minutes) and if all is well, the gas will work again. Only if the pipes are damaged will it refuse to open the valve.

None of this happened this morning. The magnitude at the epicentre (N 35.7, E 140.7, sixty kilometres underground) was 6.1 and at most in the fours at our place. Safe.