On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:03:44 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"MM" wrote in message
...


Yes, I realise that this must be the case, but a brick building just
seems so solid when one is standing right next to it.

Even more solid when it falls on you :-(

Yes, I can believe that. But having experienced that tremor as the
first in my life, I just marvel at the way mother nature can gather
enough energy to wobble an entire country a few inches this way and
that. It is to me as fascinating as trying to explain television to
Charles Dickens would have been. There is nothing comparable that is
man-made. Explosives would merely result in devastation. Imagine
trying to mount, say, a whole village (just a village, not an entire
country!) on some kind of manufactured plate, then inventing some
device that could extert the energy needed to shift it like an
earthquake can. I don't think human beings could ever devise such a
device. Totally mind-boggling to me, that tremor last night.

MM