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1. My Earthquake Experience
I am currently in a country town called Satin which is in Western White, Wisteria. This is
located in the Southern East part of Australia.
Right now I am hiding in my attic trying to protect myself while a catastrophic
earthquake is pulling down trees, power lines are falling, things are falling off all the
shelves in my house and it is really dangerous. The windows are shattering and houses
are collapsing as I crouch down in my favourite box. The worst thing is that the power’s
out and all I have is my little book light which could run out of battery any minute.
I feel very annoyed, scared and worried because I don’t know where the rest of my
family is. All I hear are noises that sound like something cracking, I hear loud banging,
things falling down and lots of people shouting and screaming. I am hoping that my
family isn’t seriously injured or dead. I feel like I’m in a tsunami.
I am not really sure if I’ll survive this earthquake or not because it is very hard to tell. I
probably will because my house is one of the very few that hasn’t collapsed yet which
might be because it is pretty stable even though it’s shaking pretty dangerously. But
then again I might not survive because the trees that surround us are swaying pretty
dangerously too and could fall down any minute now.
Half an hour later
After the earth quake I went downstairs and saw things scattered everywhere and
thankfully found the rest of my family in the basement. I gave them lots of hugs and
kisses. I also told them how worried I was and they said they were worried too. We went
outside and saw trees, power lines and rubbish everywhere. The only thing that I was
happy about was that my family were alive and well. We stood outside our front door
with our arms around each other looking at everyone else searching in the debris.
The next day when we were watching the news they said that the earthquake was
measured as an eight on the Richter Scale and a ten on the Modified Mercalli Scale.
By Katie Turner
I was in an earthquake
It was the start of April, and my partner Nick and I had gone to spend a much-needed
holiday in the beautiful mountainous Abruzzo region, 50 miles east of Rome. We have
been visiting this part of Italy regularly, slowly renovating a ramshackle farmhouse we
bought three years ago.
It takes us at least a week to relax, to switch off from life and work, and enjoy the views,
not to mention the local wine. This time, however, was dramatically different. Seven

2. days in, I was woken at about half past three in the morning by severe tremors that
were making the bed shake violently. At first I thought it was Nick making a prolonged
performance of turning over in his sleep, but when I looked over he was still.
Half asleep, I couldn't work out what was happening. I hesitated in waking up Nick,
because I thought I was probably being too dramatic. Then the tremors moved up a
gear and the whole house began to shake - it sounded like an old train carriage rattling,
shifting backwards and forwards, then side to side. It was a bone-jarring feeling. My
God, I thought, this is an earthquake. I shook Nick awake - if I was going to die, I didn't
want to be alone. He had been fast asleep and woke up with a shock.
Looking back now, I wonder why we didn't run out of the house, as far away as
possible. Yet our instinct was to stay put. So we clung to each other in bed, terrified and
waiting for the worst to happen. The earth rumbling below us was such a disorienting
feeling; all I could imagine was a crack opening up beneath me and then me falling in.
We watched as household objects slid and then crashed to the floor, wondering where it
would end. And then it stopped, just like that. The whole experience had lasted less
than a minute. All that noise and movement was replaced by eerie silence. Everything
was still except for a gaudy gold chandelier that we had inherited and that now swung
from side to side.
We waited for a while, then got dressed and went outside to find that the families from
the surrounding farms were all out checking on their homes and animals. It was a
strange atmosphere; everyone up at four in the morning, nervously chatting and
laughing in their pyjamas. Lucia, our closest neighbour, called out across the fields to
ask if we were OK after the terremoto
We walked around our house with a torch to check for cracks, and the rest of that night
we lay awake wondering if that first earthquake was a precursor of something even
more serious. It was only when we started getting texts from friends in London and
Australia, checking to see if we were safe, that we knew the earthquake had been a
major news story. We're 25 miles from L'Aquila, where they took the brunt of the worst
earthquake since 1980.
In the days that followed, helicopters flew low across our valley to take the injured to
hospitals, resembling scenes from M*A*S*H. It felt surreal. Here we were on holiday,
the weather was still stunning and the views unchanged, yet in L'Aquila hundreds of
people were dead and injured, and tens of thousands were homeless.
One house near us was completely destroyed and many buildings in the village had
been damaged. The local convent's giant stone crucifix had smashed to the ground, and
the butcher had only just managed to get his boy out of the house before the ceiling fell
in. There were frequent tremors in the following two weeks, and we kept the front door
key in the lock, in case we had to make a quick escape. Our neighbours were so
frightened that they slept in their cars and only felt comfortable talking to us outside our
house. Others pitched tents in their gardens. Everyone went back to work, but looked
wary and exhausted.
A friend asked if we hadn't been tempted to get on the first plane home, but that would
have felt as if we were abandoning our community. As expats, we will always be
outsiders here, but this terremoto is an experience we all shared and it has brought us
closer to our Italian neighbours. We were very lucky. Even now that I'm back in London,

3. I have a strange distrust of the ground I walk on. I'll never take solid earth for granted in
quite the same way again.
Earthquake Essay 300 Words
The shaking and trembling of the surface of the earth is referred to as an earthquake.
Earthquakes are considered one of the most dangerous natural disasters as they cause
great damage to life and property. Sometimes the earthquakes have low intensity and thus
go unnoticed while some are quite violent and disastrous and certainly cause great
destruction on the earth. Earthquakes are generally unpredictable and thus they are
considered hazardous as people do not get any warning before it takes place.
Earthquakes cause severe damage to buildings, houses and other properties. The intensity
of the earthquake depends on the magnitude and the distance of the place from the
epicentre. The epicentre is a point where the earthquake originates. The geographical
locations of the place also determine the type of earthquake and its severity. There are
basically four types of earthquakes namely tectonic, volcanic, collapse and explosive. All
these types have different reasons behind the ground rupture.
Earthquakes also lead to landslides in hilly areas and mountains. It causes great damage to
mankind and property. In addition to this, it also causes soil liquefaction. This phenomenon
suggests that the water-saturated material in the ground loses its power and firmness and
the solid surface changes into liquid causing buildings and other structures to sink into
these liquefied grounds.

4. Earthquakes also lead to a fire in the buildings and pipelines. When an earthquake takes
place, it destroys electric wires and gas lines and as a result of this, many types of
equipment and buildings are trapped in the fire. It also causes tsunamis in the oceans. The
high sea waves are a result of the earthquake that takes place under the ocean.
In a nutshell, earthquakes are quite terrifying and cannot be controlled by any means.
Various man-made activities also lead to such natural disasters that must be controlled to
avoid such hazardous situations.