So Did You Feel the Earth Move?

At around 04:00 GMT today (28/10/12) a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck 139km (81m) off the coast of the town of Masset in the Canadian province of British Columbia. As you only get around 4-5 earthquakes of this magnitude anywhere in the world in a year and because the epicentre was in the sea this earthquake triggered tsunami warnings across the US state of Alaska, the Canadian province of British Columbia and down through the US states of Oregon, Washington and California. The area considered most at risk though was the US island of Hawaii where thousands were evacuated amid fears of tsunami waves of between 3 and 7 feet which would be enough to cause significant flooding in coastal areas. Fortunately as the earthquake was caused by tectonic plates sliding against each other rather then over and under each other the largest wave reported in Hawaii was around 6ft and was well handled by flood defences meaning that the tsunami warning has now been lifted.

In the meantime the east coast of the US is preparing for hurricane Sandy to meet a northern storm front creating a super-storm over most of the eastern seaboard as early as tomorrow. So it's almost as if the environment is insisting that it's on the agenda for the 2012 election.

12:20 on 29/10/12.