Well as we have all heard many times over the last few weeks May 21st 2011 is meant to be a day bringing along the end of the world. Interesting thinking, and by all means many are skeptical. Including myself! But even so, imagine my surprise when at 4am this morning our small town of Newman was shaken awake by none other then an Earthquake! lol
Newman sunset
In a half sleep, dazed moment one could only think- “well the boys put a bit too much in that one!” in reference to the blasting at the huge BHP Iron Ore minesite that the town sits on the outskirts of. Then when you realize the time you know this isn’t the case, even yet an Earthquake is the last thing to come to mind with us being in a region definitely not known for quakes! So I fell back asleep, to awake an hr later for work, thinking did I dream that??? Quick search on the net and no I wasn’t going crazy haha. Quite a surreal experience though, and while not strong enough to cause any damage it was still up around 5 on the Richter scale, so I guess it’s not exactly a small one.
Anyway here’s an photo just outside of town from before the Earthquake hit….. no doubt looks exactly the same now but it was a pretty remarkable sunset so it needed to be shared 
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Nice shot Stephen, I love the pilbara landscape.
thanks Pete, yeah it’s stunning hey!
You think those trees would have survived that earthquake?
I wouldn’t have expected an earthquake to hit Newman. It’s kinda like Perth being on cyclone alert, but I guess strange things are happening in the natural world these days. The world must be ending!
haha, yeh they’d be fine i’m sure. was just continuing on the lightheartedness of the post lol. i’d imagine there would have been some small rockslides, but nothing bad.
there sure is some strange things going on, although in saying that I stumbled across some things last week that was along the lines of 200 or so volcanoes in Victoria, some still active. I never knew anything like that! But also the same site showed active hotspots for earthquakes, and the Pilbara was one of them…. who would have ever thought hey. Glad I got to experience one though. Would like another, but this time knowing what was going on instead of lying there half asleep think what the hell???
Would like another huh? I’m sure there are people in Japan who would give your head a knock for that one
I had no idea Australia had any volcanic hotspots at all. That’s fascinating!
Probably many people who would wana do that anyway! hahaha. But it was such a surreal experience, but when you’re not sure what is going on it’s over before you know what’s going on. Hard to explain- but I wouldn’t like one while being in a tall building, or probably one stronger then the one we had. That was crazy enough haha.
And check the below links on the Victorian Volcano’s- pretty amazing! The second one especially is real good!! I stumbled across it after seeing a pic of bubbling stuff on Flickr, and went WTF?? No active Volcano’s on the Australian mainland, then google came through once again
http://museumvictoria.com.au/mineralogy/volcan.html
http://home.iprimus.com.au/foo7/volcmap.html
Gorgeous shot!! There is nothing in the world that compares to the Pilbara landscape and colours.
Hi Katrina
Thanks very much, and I think you’re right. Not much gets close, it’s an incredible place for sure
Hey mate this is an excellent photo, the colours in the sky are truely awesome.
Dan
Hey Danny, thanks glad you like it. It was one of those evenings I thought it was all over and was about to pack up. Decided to head up a hill to scout out for another night and then the skies lit up. Was stunning to see!
It’s an awesome landscape and an exquisite sunset photo : ) Wow!