Several messages appear on social media, reporting an earthquake in the sunshine island of Corfu. “It was quote scary,” said one British holidaymaker. “I woke up from a deep sleep to feel the bed moving around the room.” Blimey, I thought. That’s a little worrying. It turns out, there have been a large number of earthquakes in Corfu this year so far, 4371 of them, yet I hadn’t until yesterday, heard anything about them. I wonder why that was?
Turns out that earthquakes are incredibly common not just in Corfu, but everywhere across Greece. I am not an expert on the geology of the area, although I did get a CSE Grade 4 in the subject at school back in 1973, but the term earthquake does seem to be a little over-dramatic.
Apparently, the vast majority, which is to say almost all, earthquakes in Corfu were so small no one was actually aware they were going on, until the one the other night, of course. I have been to the island a ridiculous 25 times and never got close to feeling the effects of an earthquake, although it’s very likely that I have been there when earthquakes were, well, earthquaking.
Many years ago, I went to Corfu’s near neighbour Zakynthos where there actually was a serious earthquake, way back in 1953, which wrecked Zakynthos Town, killing between 445 and 800 people from what I can tell. That’s quite a “between” figure, isn’t it? There were a few plaques in the town but in truth the only way you could tell there had been serious damage because so many of the buildings were much newer than you normally get to see on the Ionian islands. But I did think, somewhat irrationally, about earthquakes a lot when I was over there and half-expected the earth to move under my feet at any moment. Needless to say, it didn’t. To be fair, I was with my ex wife, which may explain a lot.
I’ve actually experienced more earthquakes here in Bristol than anywhere I’ve been around the world. Some time back in the 1980s, I was working my office in Bedminster and the building, along with many other buildings in the city, started swaying. It was highly disconcerting, for sure, but experts were quick to reassure us that nothing was about to fall down anytime soon and there would not be an accompanying Tsunami steaming up the river beneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge. And, courtesy of Mr Google, I have discovered that there have been six earthquakes in our fair city so far in 2026. Put simply, it is no big deal. In fact, it’s not even a small deal. Those ‘plates’ underneath our feet are moving around beneath our feet nearly all the time but most of them move so slowly and so little we don’t even notice.
I’m thinking it’s probably safe to fly off to Greece, or pretty well anywhere, this year given the low risk of being squashed by an major earthquake. And if you find the earth moving for you, I hope it’s more of a pleasurable experience. If you know what I mean.
