Earthquakes

We were rudely awoken at a quarter to six this morning (a quarter to six, mind you: that's 05:45 and far too early for any living organism to be awoken) by a strange rumbling noise and a brief but very noticeable shaking. Responsible for this unwelcome phenomenon was a small earthquake of magnitude 3.1, whose epicentre was located some 15 kilometres off the coast of Torrevieja, at a depth of about 11 kilometres.
Numerous earthquakes have occurred in the area during the past twelve months, but few have been of sufficient strength to have been felt. Also, they have usually taken place during the daytime, so that their effects are noticed less. The last largish tremor was on 23 March, 2011, but it took place close to midday and, even though it was of the same strength as today's, many people didn't even notice it.
No damage or injury has been reported as a result of today's tremor.
We live in a seismically active area, so tremors and quakes are not at all unusual. Few, however, are as strong as the 1829 earthquake, known as the Torrevieja Quake. This occurred on 21 March, 1829, when numerous towns in the Alicante province were seriously affected, with the most damage being in Almoradí.
Between 1820 and 1830 an unusual amount of seismic activity was registered in the province, especially along the three fault lines of the Bajo Segura (lower Segura): Benijófar, Guardamar del Segura, and Torrevieja.
Between 13 September, 1828 and 21 March, 1829, it is estimated that more than 200 quakes took place. Finally, at a quarter past six in the evening of 21 March, a major quake with a magnitude of 6.6 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre between Benijófar and Torrevieja, caused 389 deaths and 209 injuries, and destroyed more than two thousand homes, with many others badly damaged. The bridges across the river Segura in Almoradí, Benejúzar, Dolores, and Guardamar were all destroyed. Half of the fatalities were in Almoradí, where the roads were narrower than elsewhere and the buildings higher.
In our own Guardamar, 380 houses were completely destroyed, 140 received considerable damage, and 115 suffered fire damage (fortunately, only four people lost their lives and 20 were injured). The medieval town was completely destroyed, so that a new town had to be designed and built. This was done based on a neoclassical plan, having long straight roads with perpendicular intersections and three squares (two small, one large) arranged symmetrically. The new houses were built low and with large yards, in order to minimise the effects of future earthquakes. Stones from the old town were used to build the new. The photo below, dating from 1930, shows the layout of the rebuilt town, with the castle and old town visible in the top right.

(Photo from the book, Guardamar del Segura. Arqueología y Museo available from the Casa de Cultura, Guardamar)

David Neale

Segway Tour, Guardamar

How to enjoy yourself on a Segway.

We had our friends Terry and Sue from the UK over to visit us in October.  It was their third time here, so we were keen to find something to do that we hadn't done before with them.

We went into the Tourist Information Centre in Guardamar and picked up several leaflets to peruse.  One of them showed details of a Segway Tour in Guardamar.  If you don't know anything about this mode of transport, it is a two wheeled vehicle powered by an electric motor.  You can read more about the Segway here. The photographs show how much we enjoyed our adventure.

We try and do something now and again that scares us, so this was the perfect thing.  Our friends, are always game for a laugh, so we decided to book the Tour.

We had to be at the Segway Offices for 11am.  We arrived to be greeted by three pretty girls, which George and Terry appreciated very much.   The paperwork had to be completed and signed, then the training course started.  After a familiarisation exercise, we rode around an obstacle course, to make sure we understood how to operate the segway.  Once we felt competent(ish!), we were allowed into the car park, and the speed of the vehicle was increased.  In no time at all, we were careering around the car park like experts!

Two of the girls acted as  'Monitors', one at the front and one at the back and we nervously set off from their offices on the Santa Ana Industrial Estate, up the steep hill, past the bus station towards the South Park.  Crash!  Sue hit one of the kerbs and promptly fell off.  She was shaken but not hurt and we were impressed that she got straight back on and continued the tour.

We had over two and a half fabulous hours of fun.  We had people waving, laughing, and staring at us, we felt almost like film stars with all the attention we were given.

The highlight of the tour was careering around the square in front of the Town Hall.  Luckily it was empty no people to manoeuvre around, we had great fun circling round and around.

It is a tour to be recommended.  

If you want something different to do, call into the Tourist Information Centre and book yourself on this very different, challenging, but enjoyable tour.  Further information can be found at this webpage.

George and Linda Corrigan