Did the earth move for you...?

Earthquakes... not really something you associate with the UK. When I think of earthquakes I tend to think of Asia and America, but following last night's tremor I did a little digging around. Yes I am that much of a geek.

Earthquakes are caused by the movement of tectonic plates beneath the earth's surface. This gives off a seismic wave that shakes or displaces the earth itself. There are twelve of these plates across the globe's surface and when the rock shifts beneath it, it causes an earthquake.

How Earthquakes happen

Apparently, Britain has at least 200 hundred tremors a year, but not all of these are felt. The last one I remember is the 2002 Dudley one. That one measured at 5.0 on the Richter scale and shook the entire house like it had been hit by a bomb.

Dudley Epicentre 2002 - Keele University Geophysics Department

The one last night was larger, at 5.2 according to the British Geological Survey, but because the epicentre was in Lincolnshire we only really got the tail end of it. That said it was scary as hell. I woke up at around 1am, my entire bed shaking.

Seismic Activity in Lincolnshire 27 Feb 2008 - Daily Telegraph

The largest earthquake the UK has ever seen was in 1931, off the coast of Great Yarmouth, and measured 6.1. It's not even a patch on the 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean that caused the tsunami over Indonesia. That was 9.2 and caused the deaths of thousands of people.

But, earthquakes are a strange phenomenon. Indonesia is prone to them because of an area called the Pacific Ring of Fire. This horse shoe shape is said to be an area of frequent natural plate activity. This is one of the reasons they have so many volcanic eruptions and quakes.

The most deadly earthquake ever recorded was in 1556, in Shaanix, China. over 800,000 people were allegedly killed in the quake, although the official numbers are unknown. Modern day seismologists have deciphered that Shaanix was an 8 on the Richter scale and that aftershocks plagued the country for almost six months after the initial quake.

The United States Geological Survey records lists of quakes and it's rather scary to look at how many the world has. Try at least one major earthquake every year. But it's not just the quake itself that causes problems, but the movement of the plates can cause landslides, volcanic eruptions or tsunami's.

Real Life... Blah... Who Needs It?

Ok, so I'm in my final year of university. Six months and I'll be off the party treadmill and onto something a little more serious. Joy. I had no objections to being neither rich nor famous but apparently in this day and age it is a requirement that the youth of the world make a name for themselves - or at least achieve something more than the "Most Drunk Person Last Night" award (which I am granted most weeks. Can I help it if I am an overachiever?).

It sounds ridiculous but after almost five years dossing about at Party Central I don't feel ready to leave. Surely I should be ready to be a grown up. Surely I should want to have a job, have money, have responsibility...?

Ha! No. Not a chance in hell! I do not want ANY of these things. I think I've spent so long acting like a teenager that I'm not ready to let it go yet. There is so much immaturity to be had still and the real world expects you to relinquish that playful innocence and act like an upstanding member of the community.

I think there are a number of things I will miss most about university:

1) Getting up at 3pm and then having a nap at 7pm

2) Eating dinner at 1am

3) Drinking at 11am without stigma

4) Falling through the back door after lectures wasted

5) Eating toast for every meal

6) Wasting a whole day on Facebook and thinking nothing of it

7) Listening to music so loud it reverberates nextdoors walls

8) Going to the takeaway at least three times a week

9) Only getting dressed twice a week, when you actually have to be somewhere

10) Waking up at 5am to a housefull of drunk people

I'll miss other things too. Like no one even batting an eyelid when you turn up at a club dressed as a pirate, a disney character, a baywatch babe, a moll...

Or getting so wasted you pass out at six o'clock in the evening and your friends take photographic evidence so they can laugh at you the next day.

University is often described as a stepping stone to the next part of your life. For me this is how I want the REST of my life to be. What's not to like? Ok so the money is crap and I hate writing essays but even so the rest of it is grand. I'm the original Van Wilder. I'm Peter Pan. I don't ever want to grow up. Ok, I can do without the trail of lost boy's looking for a mother figure but beggers can't be choosers, right? Hell if it keeps me in this bubble I'll take the kids, I'll fight the pirate and I'll save the day. I'll even learn how to fly and wear tights. It's a small sacrifice.

I think this is harder because most of my friends are first or second years. There are only three or four of us graduating this summer. So whilst we're off having a Stepford perfect life complete with briefcase, an office with a view and the dead husband under the patio they'll still be doing the childish running around at 3am and rearranging traffic cones.

My Green-Eyed Monster is snarling at the thought of it.