இ TRIANGLE OF LIFE ~ Earthquakes

Ever wonder what do you say 'Earthquake' in any of your local dialect other than Mandarin? As a Bananaz I just realised while posting this entry that I do not know what to say 'Earthquake' in any dialect much worst in my very own mother tongue. If there should be an earthquake in Malaysia how on earth am I going to warn the older folks who do not understand [dìzhèn]  as in Mandarin or "earthquake!" which only sounds like Greek to them. We should be grateful and thank our lucky stars we do not have any earthquake other than the minor tremors. Anyway we need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best just in case mother nature decides otherwise..How many would have any knowledge what will be the best to do just in case a quake hit Malaysia or while you are in overseas? It is quite obvious from the increasing number of earthquakes and other Natural disasters that earth is becoming unstable.

Earthquake ~ [ dìzhèn ]

An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor, temblor or seismic activity) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves which can be detected with a sensitive instrument called a seismograph. According to TheTech.org the earliest seismograph was invented in China A.D. 136 by a man named Choko. It consisted of a copper vessel with eight dragon heads attached to it, positioned above eight frogs. Each dragon head held a ball in its mouth, which, when dropped due to the strong shaking of an earthquake, would fall into the open mouth of the frog directly below it. Maybe could started of with fengshui experiment but later landed up as seismograph instead. ~:)  

The moment magnitude (or the related and mostly obsolete Richter magnitude) of an earthquake is conventionally reported, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas.

Global earthquake epicenters, 1963–1998 (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear experiments. An earthquake's point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The term epicenter refers to the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter. How lucky the epicenters are running along side by side off the coast of Malaysia. More information from Wikipedia.

What is Triangle of Life? : Without listening or reading, simply by looking at these photos, you can learn more than in a thousand words about how to protect yourself…Thanks to Yoke Mee for her email and the inspiration to post this useful information and have to admit the source of the photos were unknown and would certainly give credit to the person who is kind enough to share them in an effort to save lives. Think this is one of the ways we should react when there is an earthquake or perhaps there could be other better alternatives and would appreciate your invaluable comments with regards to the safety measures that we should adhere to.

If you are inside a vehicle, come out and sit or lie down next to it. If something falls on the vehicle, it will leave an empty space along the sides. See below..

Thanks to HappySurfer for sharing more pointers on what to do during an earthquake although the first pointer by FEMA may not be totally agreeable towards the concept of 'triangle of life' as to take cover under a sturdy table. Guess it could mean a very strong solid table then.

You'll be seeing fire on ice..oh what a sight the hot & cold of mother nature..

Posted in: Safety