New Zealand is a precarious country. Life here means facing that risk daily

Volcanos and fault lines are a part of daily life, but should the tragedy on White Island make us rethink the dangers they pose?

One summer evening in Auckland, I got the fright of my life. My house groaned, as though its wooden frame was crying out in pain. The sofa I was lying on began sliding back and forth. I looked up, expecting to tell one of my brothers to cut it out. No one was there. All at once I thought: “This is an earthquake. Auckland doesn’t have earthquakes. Auckland has volcanoes.” I ran to the window and jerked the curtain aside, scanning for the glow of fire in the night sky, then turned on the news. I was terrified. It was finally happening.

It wasn’t. (Just an earthquake, after all, a puny 4.5 on the Richter scale.)

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2PrtI1N