Thursday, December 18, 2008

Earthquakes

Since we (8th grade students) are studying disasters at school, we have decided that our first entries will be about earthquakes. There are a few below, so please read them and feel free to comment afterwards!
Lana

My earthquake experience

I didn't exactly experience a real earthquake, but it came pretty close. Here's what happened:
Our class went on a tour into a nuclear reactor. We were all nervous, because we were thinking about the disaster in Černobil. But the chances of that happening were small. Anyway, the tour was a success and after the presentation, we went into a big room filled with simulation gear, machines and nice posters. In that room stood an earthquake simulator - a big green surface with a red button and a fence. If I remember correctly, five students at a time were allowed onto it. When we pushed the red button, the thing shook and if we hadn't grabbed the fence, we would have fallen off. It was a simulation of an earthquake with the force if 9 on the Richter scale. We didn't think it was much… the thing was just shaking… but if it happened for real and we wouldn't react properly, chances are we would be hurt or even dead.
Lana, 8.a



An earthquake in Tolminsko region

It all started in 1976, when my mother was in the 3rd grade. One evening, while my mother, her sister and their cousin were playing in the hallway, the house started to shake. The mother of my mother's cousin that was in front of the house, started to scream: »Children, you should not be so loud!« But the children were not to blame, because that particular earthquake was the biggest in Tolminsko region till that day.
All my mother's family was scared. My mother told me that it looked like a wave in the house. At the time all the people left the house, the earthquake ended.
In the next days, when my mother was at school, their teacher was describing how terrible was the earthquake. The teacher's brother was going to sleep when his dog started to bark. Her brother, as well as his dog, went out. Then the earthquake began. Many houses in Bregin, where the teacher's brother lived, collapsed. Also, many people needed medical attention and some people died. In the village where my mother lived the earthquake didn't damage so many houses.
My mother's teacher was teaching them what they must do if the earthquake strikes once again. Right at that moment, the aftershock began. It took a few seconds for the classroom to be empty – all the children and the teacher were in front of the school, hugging each other with the tears in their eyes. The teacher said to all the children: »I love you, my sweet children!«
The earthquake never happened again.
Lidija, 8.a


My father remembers an earthquake


The earthquake happened in 1976 in the afternoon. My father was in Ljubljana. The quake wasn't very strong there. It was the most powerful and made the most damage in Posočje. At that time my father already came home from school and was riding his bike. Because he was riding his bike, he didn't feel the earthquake at first, but then he saw a brick fall from the roof and many people started to come out of their homes. So he stopped and then he felt it. He wasn't very scared, because he only felt the last few seconds. The city wasn't very damaged, but some buildings needed to be repaired. After the quake there were two aftershocks. In the following moths they practiced how to get out of school in case of an earthquake. His class had to jump out the windows because they were on the ground floor.
Katarina, 8.b




The great earthquake in Ljubljana

An earthquake happened in Ljubljana, on 14 April 1895, at 11 p.m. The epicenter of the earthquake was in Ig. About 11 people died but a hundred of people needed a medical attention. The earthquake lasted for 23 seconds. Many people were sleeping when earth shook. People woke up, and they were panic – stricken.
Everything was shaking and houses, bridges, ceilings crashed down. People were screaming, children were crying. Some of them thought: ˝That is the end of the world˝.
The earthquake happened at night so people didn’t have time to go out. If they were outdoors, buildings, bridges and tall trees could have collapsed on them. People who were indoors stood under doorframes.
The earthquake caused a great damage. Buildings, bridges and other structures can be build again, but people’s lives can’t.
Jasmina, 8.a




It was a Sunday, Easter Sunday, on the 14th of April 1895 in Ljubljana. Many people were sleeping and some were celebrating Easter night in restaurants. But suddenly, at 23:17 everything shook. The quake was very loud. It was like 1000 bullets were shot from the center of the Earth to Ljubljana. Many people, even the most educated ones, thought that this was »the end«. Every second, the ground was shaking more and more. The quake lasted for 23 seconds. People had a feeling that it lasted for at least 10 minutes. After the quake, the inhabitants of Ljubljana were panic-stricken. The town was crushed. Many houses and buildings collapsed. There was some dead too. One man died because, in panic, he went out of a restaurant and a brick fell on his head. Four people died, because the wall crushed on them. Many people needed medical attention.
Matic, 8.b


An earthquake on Pašman

It happened on 23rd of July on the island Pašman. It was scary. Me, my brother and our cousin were watching TV. My parents, my grandma, my uncle and aunt were sitting outside when it happened. Other people were having rest after lunch.
It was half past one in the afternoon when the glasses started to shake. We thought that was just a car driving very fast. But it wasn’t the car, it was the earthquake. My mum screamed: “Run out!” We all started to run outside, but I still didn’t know that it was an earthquake. The ground was shaking just for about 5 seconds. We were all terrified. Then we were watching the TV news where they said that it could happen again at night and that the epicenter was on Kornati.
At night, when we were sleeping, it happened again. My bed was shaking when I woke up and ran out. When it was over, I was so scared that I didn’t want to sleep inside the house. In the morning there was no damage anywhere. Everybody said that now it was over and we were all happy. But in the afternoon it happened again. I was alone in the house, the others were on the beach. When I told them about it, nobody believed me. They believed me only after the other people told them about it.
This was my first experience of an earthquake. It was good, because I learned a lot about it.
Vesna, 8.a