Well, hardly news to shake the earth, but we here at hidden europe do take some pride today in being able to share a news story before it has hit the mainstream media. At breakfast time this morning, an earthquake shook the town of Jaworzno in Polish Upper Silesia. Now in the general scale of seismic events, this was a mere shudder, a tiddler of a shake that measured a modest 3.4 on the Richter scale. But clearly there is some subterranean rumbling under Poland these days, for today’s little quake comes just three days after a much larger rumble near Legnica in western Poland. That seismic shudder, at 5.55am last Saturday morning, notched up a very respectable 5.9 on the Richter scale. Both earthquakes were in areas not generally noted for such seismic events and there was evidently no damage to buildings in either quake. So if you receive e-mails imploring you to donate to the Polish Earthquake Reconstruction Fund, some scammer is surely at work.
These Polish tremors are good reminders that earthquakes are felt from time to time across many areas of Europe, even in regions not much noted for their seismic activity. Indeed, later this month we shall mark the second anniversary of the Great Earthquake of 2008 that shook parts of eastern England. We happened to be in York at the time the ground shook just before one in the morning on 27 February 2008. Those who dismiss such events as insignificant might do well to remember that a mediaeval quake in eastern England led to Lincoln cathedral being severely damaged.
Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
(hidden europe)
