Quake in UK

[BluebottleFlyer]

This really happened yesterday at about 1AM. There was a tremor in Lincolnshire, small fry compared to quakes other parts of the world, but quite big as far as the UK goes. As far as I know, only one person got hurt, but it was mostly just house damage. The tremor was felt quite a long way away, though, as far south as London and as far north as Newcastle. Personally, I never felt a thing. I was asleep at the time though.

[Cassini90125]

Glad to know you're fine and that the damage wasn't too bad. I'd read about the quake; quite unusual for your part of the world, I believe, but I don't think any place on Earth is truly earthquake-free.

[BluebottleFlyer]

Originally Posted by Cassini90125

Glad to know you're fine and that the damage wasn't too bad. I'd read about the quake; quite unusual for your part of the world, I believe, but I don't think any place on Earth is truly earthquake-free.

I don't actually live in Lincolnshire, that's in the middle of the country, I'm from County Durham in the north east. I was nowhere near.
And I agree, no place is quake-free. It's just that some places get it worse than others.

[jekylljuice]

Yeah, I was caught up in this (I mentioned it in the Post Whatever Is On Your Mind thread). I was just drifting off to sleep when my bed just suddenly started shaking, and all around me I could hear the ominous creaking of the entire house shaking along with it. Since it had been a pretty windy day previously, my immediate thoughts were that we were experiencing a hurricane (also a pretty rare occurence in the UK, but they have happened - I like to think that the fact that I was awake during this particular phenomenon makes up for the fact that I slept through the infamous hurricane we experienced in 1987, though then again I was only two years old at the time, so I doubt I'd have been able to appreciate it all that much). Only as it was coming to an end did I realise that it was probably a seismic thing. It was pretty scary, particularly since I've never experienced anything of this nature before, but it didn't last long, and nothing appears to have been too badly damaged around us.

[pitbulllady]

I heard about that and wondered if any forum members experienced it. I can't see how anyone could sleep through a quake of that magnitude, though, since we had a 4.0 a few years ago, and that DANG sure woke ME up! I'm very curious as to just what geological processes are responsible for quakes in Britain, far from a plate boundry where quakes usually occur. Here in South Carolina, we've had some horrific quakes in the past, including one that nearly leveled Charleston in the late 1800's, which was estimated to have been in excess of an 8.0 in magnitude and was felt as far away as Boston, MA! We have, on average, over 200 quakes per year in this state, most of which are very small and undetectable except by sensitive seismometers. Geologists are only just now beginning to unravel WHY we have quakes, as being a two-fold process: one, the land here is still "rebounding" from having been weighted down by glaciers during the Ice Age, and this causes quakes in the western part of the state, while the crust nearer the coast is rebounding from that continental edge having collided with Africa a few hundred million years ago, like aluminum popping back out on a can when outside pressure is removed.

pitbulllady

[jekylljuice]

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

I heard about that and wondered if any forum members experienced it. I can't see how anyone could sleep through a quake of that magnitude, though, since we had a 4.0 a few years ago, and that DANG sure woke ME up!

Both of my housemates somehow managed it, curiously enough, though one of them did report the following morning that she remembered dreaming about being shaken throughout the night.