MikeLigalig.com

By Joe Espiritu
Columnist
Bohol Sunday Post

The first week of November has passed. Except for the political circus nothing has happened except in some barangays, there is a changing of the guard. That and nothing more. The fishing season for striped and dogtooth tuna has not yet started. The rice-planting season came late and the harvest may not be in time for Christmas. There are some remarks that the weather maker is getting old. He is getting his seasons mixed up.

During these months, storms are supposed to pass our latitudes. Not that we are praying for them but that is a common natural event at this time of the year.

What had occurred was an earthquake. Geologists say that the source was tectonic, that means the shifting of the earth's crust. The fault is somewhere in the mountains of Gunldulman. Reports say that the tremor was 5 in magnitude but we hardly felt the shake.

There was a warning that Southern Bohol might experience a tsunami. Some years ago an earthquakes did happen. One toppled the bell tower of the Jagna Catholic Church. The other was the so-called tsunami. In this earthquake, there was something like a comedy of errors. Records say that there was a tsunami that occurred years ago. There was a submarine disturbance somewhere in the Bohol Sea off the waters of Baclayon. We wonder if a tsunami really occurred. There was a water disturbance but the wave did not even reach the highway.

According to accounts, there was really a shake. The sea did recede. A ship moored in the Jagna wharf sat on the bottom. Some fishes were stranded. Some places in the shoreline cracked. When it closed again mud and water spurted from the closing cracks. The sea surged back but it barely topped the high water mark.

Most of the people took alarm. They first fled to the hills leaving everything behind.

Later on, they came back for some necessities. The beauty is; nobody did have time to steal. They were all afraid of the tsunami. This time, the folks discovered the beauty of the hills. They pitch tent cities and made the hillsides park like. We appreciated the event because it made our inland place lively. The moon was full and the weather was dry making nights beautiful.

It is our opinion that a tsunami of a disastrous magnitude like the one that hit Aceh province of Indonesia and beach resorts of Thailand will happen here. The earthquake was also tectonic but it happened when the continental shelf somewhere in the Indian Ocean shifted. Fifty feet high waves were generated by the submarine disturbance and it reached as far as Madagascar in Africa and Bangladesh. Thousands were killed.

We had received posters on how to cope with tsunamis if they might happen. This may happen not here. The Marianas Trench or Philippine Deep, the submarine canyon off Surigao and Samar seas could be the edge of the continental plate. If any shifting would occur, only the provinces facing the Pacific Ocean would be affected. Since Bohol Sea is practically an inland sea, ant undersea disturbance would be lesser in magnitude. Anyway, there is no harm in preparing. The faults found here are small. We hope.

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