Nueva California, Panama
Volcanoes and earthquakes, oh my.
A few months back you may remember my recount of Mount Poas erupting, belching noxious, foul gas and heavy vapors in Grecia, Costa Rica.
Today marks my first moderate earthquake in the tropics.
Having felt mild tremors in:
- Fiji
- Bali
- Costa Rica
and a stronger rumble which roused me from a deep sleep in New Zealand, I discerned the difference between the light touch and unmistakable moderate shaking of a 5.3 measure on the Richter Scale.
Rocking and Rolling
I woke to agitation this morning in Nueva California, Panama.
As the bed shook to and fro, the entire house being bounced around as if a Mack truck slammed into it, I immediately thought:
“Earthquake.”
Shaking ensued for about 5 seconds.
The dog waltzed into the room to check on our condition.
Far from feeling scared, I experienced fascination, a wee bit of fun-excitement and a twinge of respect because for the first disoriented second or two, I warned Kelli that we may need to exit the house if the shaking continued or became more pronounced.
5.3 Earthquake in Panama
The official reading:
4:55 AM local time 5.3 Earthquake 1 kilometer east of Santo Domingo, Panama at a shallow depth of 19 miles (31 km).
The shallow depth made for stronger shaking.
Being roughly 25 miles due north of the epicenter, we rocked and rolled for a few moments as the quake shaked and shimmied us out of a deep slumber.
After doing some preliminary research, millions likely felt the shakes today throughout Panama and Costa Rica.
The majority likely sensed a light touch or perhaps a mild rumble.
However, we felt a clear shaking from side to side and low rumble which woke up this typically sound sleeper, pronto.
The quake lasted for about 25 seconds but Kelli and I slept through the first 20 seconds of light rumbling which built to a stronger crescendo with our rocking to and fro.
I also noted an aftershock at about 7:30 AM which felt like someone pushing the bed a wee bit. Turns out, this was a 4.6 aftershock at 7:31 AM a little east of the bigger quake’s epicenter.
Earthquakes would only rattle me if I were in a high rise somewhere in the city. Even then, truly epic numbers seem incredibly rare, even in areas like Central America with frequent seismic activity.
At the end of the day, about 5 seconds of moderate shaking summed up our experience.
Imagine a big truck slamming in to your house but the sensation lasted not for a split second of impact but 5 or so seconds. We did feel rattling through the entire house. Windows shook. The concrete foundation bounced back and forth just enough to make me consider leaving the house since any other quakes I experienced pretty much involved windows rattling, lights shaking and no genuine movement from the entire house itself.
This 5.3 number felt different. When the foundation to the roof moves back and forth for 5 seconds as if a team of 50 Sasquatch were playing tug of war with the house, you do tend to notice it. Imagine Godzilla giving the house a little nudge with his foot to see if any tasty humans were inside….and alive.
Far from being highly comfortable but genuinely not anything to lose sleep over. Unless you lose sleep over it like I did since I woke up and felt it. So yeah; I guess it was something to lose sleep over.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you a short update on this recent outlier travel event since it ain’t everyday one experiences a 5.3 earthquake near the base of a volcano in Panama.
I think we are good as far as landslides as this area experienced one a while back just 200 meters up the rocky, bumpy, unpaved road from the house.
True; it was a biggie which took a few days for backhoes to clear but that makes it all the less likely to have one occur again in the neighborhood.
Until next time…..enjoy paradise.
