Yes, there are earthquakes in Tonga!

Last night, when we got home from the clinic, we sat down to dinner, and Mom asked, “Do you feel that?” At first, I thought she meant “Do I feel the exhaustion settling in, from spending the afternoon bent over the vacuum pump in the clinic (see my previous post). But then, within a second or two, there was a very sharp jolt, followed by shaking  that lasted for 10 seconds or so. It didn’t knock anything off the table, and my glass of water only sloshed around a little bit (kind of like the water that vibrated when the Tyranosaurus Rex was approaching the goat that was staked out, in “Jurassic Park.”)

We immediately went next door to ask our neighbors if we should go to the temple (see my previous post), and she assured us that we were at the highest point in Tonga – about 220 feet above sea level. I reminded her that she had taken us to see “Tsunami Rock” last week, and that whatever washed that boulder ashore was probably higher than 220 feet.

But after calming our fears with rice krispy treats, we returned home, and went to bed. All night long, I dreamed I was on a ship that had been torpedoed, and was in a sealed compartment that couldn’t be opened without having the ship go down.

Anyway, we are fine. Here are some earthquake facts: You can go to this website to learn more: https://earthquaketrack.com/r/tonga/recent

There was a moderate earthquake in Tonga, at 10:01 p.m. on November 12, 2017. It was 4.8 magnitude, and was 47 km from Nuku ‘alofa, at a depth of 23 km.

Tonga has had:

• 1 earthquake in the past 24 hours
• 3 earthquakes in the past 7 days
• 23 earthquakes in the past 30 days
• 132 earthquakes in the past 365 days

The largest earthquakes in Tonga, this year, have been: 16 days ago, 4.9 (which we didn’t feel, and didn’t even know about until now), 23 days ago, 4.9, 25 days ago, 4.9, 26 days ago, 5.1, 26 days ago 4.7, 27 days ago, 5.1.

So, they happen all the time (although the largest ones have all been in the last month!) No worries, though. We are right next to the Tonga Trench, which at a depth of 35,433 feet, is the deepest point in the Southern Hemisphere’s oceans, and the second deepest point on earth, after the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (at 36,070 feet).  By the way, one crazy fact is that the Mariana Trench was established in 2009 as a United States National Monument, although not many tourists visit it. (That would be a good Jeopardy question).

The Tonga Trench has cooler water than elsewhere in the South Pacific, so cyclones tend to lose steam as they pass overhead – this protects Tonga from the effects of destructive winds. And the barrier reefs around Tongatapu protect the island from tsunamis (except for the one that moved Tsunami Rock 200 meters inland. But that was “approximately thousands of years ago.”)