Earthquake

[vampireuk]

DaveW or any other brits, did you feel that quake last night?

I was just about to go to sleep and the damn house started shaking

[volt]

wow man, for real??
that's some crazy stuff

London - An earthquake rocked many parts of Britain early on Monday, knocking out electricity and phone lines in some areas, but there were no reports of serious damage.

"It measured 4.8 on the Richter scale and the epicentre was around Dudley in the West Midlands (central England)," said David Galloway of the British Geological Survey.

"It was relatively strong and we would expect this to happen only every 10 or 12 years," he said.

Structural damage to buildings was unlikely. "Plaster cracking, that kind of thing, but no major damage," he said.

Buildings are only at risk when earthquakes reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5 on the Richter scale, the government's Environment Agency website said.

Tremors were felt by people as far afield as Wales in the west and London in the southeast shortly before 01:00 on Monday.

"We have had hundreds of calls from people saying their houses were shaken and that buildings were wobbling," a spokesperson for West Midlands police said.

"Some electricity and phone lines went down," he said.

In London some residents called out the fire brigade.

"We have attended a few buildings, four or five in London after people in them phoned saying they were worried," a spokesperson for the London fire service said.

"Car alarms have also been set off, but there has been no serious damage," he said.

Britain is not troubled by major earthquakes but it does experience a moderate rate of seismicity, according to the government's Environment Agency website.

It said around 200-300 low to medium earthquakes were detected each each year, although only 30 or so are strong enough for people to feel.

Britain's strongest earthquake, in 1931, measured 6.1 on the Richter scale but damage was greatly reduced because the epicentre was in the North Sea. It was felt all over Britain, northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of Norway and Germany.

:eek:

[vampireuk]

yeah, it scared the hell out of me I had no idea what it was until a few minutes after:eek:

thats a rather large one for here, I have never felt one before

[Stavros]

I felt one (earthquake that is!) when I was on holiday in Greece many years ago, we were in a town square and the ground started to shake. All the shop workers all ran out into the square and grabed hold of trees that were dotted about. After it finnished they all went back into their shops like nothing happened. Really bizzare!

[DaveW]

DaveW or any other brits, did you feel that quake last night?

I am a Brit, but live in the USA, so no :)

But I do remember quakes in the midlands, usually an old mine collapsing. I used to live in the stoke-on-trent area and they say that no matter where you are, there is always an old mine below you somewhere.

[Philibob]

I never felt it.
I didn't even know about it until about 5PM when my dad told me.

[Mod]

Originally posted by volt
wow man, for real??
that's some crazy stuff
....

Are you d1rx ? :confused:

[LoRD.MuAD'diB]

Heh. I grew up in California. I've slept through earthquakes stronger than that. ; )

[volt]

Originally posted by Mod


Are you d1rx ? :confused:

yea ;)
it's still on my avatar, and will remain there for few more days :)

[McBane]

Pfft....don't bother me with earthquakes unless it > 7.0 on the scale....

:P

[sytaylor]

Originally posted by Philibob
I never felt it.
I didn't even know about it until about 5PM when my dad told me.

same here :D

[LORD-eX-Bu]

I've been thu my share of earthquakes, eh, Northridge, San Francisco, the one in Hemet(pretty freakin' strong, well, kinda like yours, I slept thru it tho, bah!) and some others courtesy of the San Andreas fault.:D LOL, once in Long Beach, I used to live there, a few miles fron an oil refinery and it blew up! well, not really, there was this huge explosion there however, and it was like one of those daisy cutter bombs going off it was huge! You could the the flames from miles away in the city! it broke every single window in my house(two story, pretty big house) and broke every glass object in the house as well. Stupid me fell down the stairs. HAHA! Luckily, ARCO was nice and reimbursed everyone for the damages caused by their "surprise". So hey, be happy everyone! Its a great time to be alive! :D

[LoRD.MuAD'diB]

Lol we have a word for earthquakes that register 4.8. Aftershocks.

[crainger]

The new earthquake shock this up!

[sytaylor]

Wow, now thats a thread revival.

See how old skool I am :p

[LORD-eX-Bu]

::rofl: