Damage bill runs into millions as biggest earthquake since 1984 rocks Britain

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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At approximately 1am British time yesterday, Britain was rocked by an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale - relatively small in international terms but huge in British terms. It is the biggest quake to hit Britain since a magnitude 5.4 hit in 1984.

It was a typically British earthquake - not for us utter devastation as whole cities are razed to the ground, but rather a few chimneypots and slates falling from buildings. And then, after the ground stops shaking, a cup of tea to steady the nerves.

Only one person was known to have been injured, a student in Wombwell, South Yorkshire.

Britain does not lie near a major fault such as the San Andreas, so it is a bit of a mystery as to what causes British earthquakes. Britain is criss-crossed by hundreds of tiny fault lines, so one of them may have been the culprit. It also could have been the Ice Age that caused it - the huge weight of ice on Britain during the ice age pushed down the crust. After it melted the ground in Britain is still slowly rising back to its normal position and yesterday's earthquake could have been a sudden jolt of the crust that is still rising upwards slowly.

The quake was felt throughout virtually the whole of England, and parts of Scotland and Wales. Even a few areas of Holland felt it.

Damage bill runs into millions as biggest earthquake in 25 years rocks Britain

By JAYA NARAIN and PAUL HARRIS
28th February 2008
Daily Mail

The biggest earthquake to hit Britain for 25 years shook homes yesterday.

Thousands were woken at about 1am by the ten-second tremor.

Blackpool Tower quivered like a tuning fork, while chimneys and masonry came crashing down elsewhere.

Measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, the epicentre was near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire.

But the effects were felt as far away as Scotland, Wales and the South-East.


Shocked: Grimsby resident Ruth Starr, 22, was woken by the earthquake and horrified to discover the destruction




And the damage bill could also be large, topping £10million, the Association of British Insurers said.

In Wombwell, South Yorkshire, a student who was asleep in his attic bedroom narrowly escaped death.

The chimney crashed on to David Bates, 19, breaking his pelvis.

At Barnsley General Hospital, he said: "Everything started shaking and I knew it was an earthquake.

"My wardrobe was shaking and it lasted for several seconds and then it all seemed to stop and I was laying there thinking, 'What do I do now?'

"Then all of a sudden it all went dark and there was a noise like smashing plates as something came crashing through the ceiling.

"Then this big piece of concrete fell on me and landed on my hips. It was really really painful, it fell on me with a big crunch."


Horror: David Bates was sitting on his bed watching TV when the chimney smashed through the roof. The debris crashed onto his hips and he broke his pelvis



Terrifying: David was almost killed when the chimney crashed into his bedroom



Shock: Kleber Afonso in the attic of his house next door to the one where David was injured in Wombwell, South Yorkshire




Widespread damage was reported to houses and cars elsewhere, but no one else was badly hurt.

Others woken by the tremor told of their confusion.

Ayoob Khan, 33, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said: "I almost thought there was a stampede of bulls running round my house."

Catherine Major, from York, said: "I was standing in my front room talking to my husband when the doors started to rattle and shake.







"I felt the floor underneath my feet vibrate to such an extent that I had to put my hand out to steady myself. It lasted for about ten seconds."

Dr Brian Baptie, of the British Geological Survey, explained that tremors of this size are relatively rare: "An earthquake of this size, of magnitude five or thereabouts, will occur roughly every ten to 20 years in the UK."

The Survey recorded an aftershock with a magnitude of 1.8 at about 4am.


Earthquake: The UK was rocked by the quake which hit 5.2 on the Richter scale




Smashed: A car's window is hit by falling debris in Hull



But it said the main quake was the biggest since 1984, when a tremor with a magnitude of 5.4 was recorded in North Wales.

Scientists take note of about 200 earthquakes a year in the UK. But only one eight can be felt.

The largest recorded in the UK was beneath Dogger Bank in the North Sea in 1931.

At a magnitude of 6.1, it was ten times stronger than yesterday's tremor and generated a small tsunami.





How residents at the centre of the quake woke up ... and then went back to sleep

Something very strange was happening in Fanny Hands Lane. There was a loud bang, a terrifying rumble - and several seconds of terror when it seemed as if a plane might crash through someone's roof in this dead-end street of pretty cottages.

Harry Johnson came running out in his underpants. A chap over the road had a torch.

One by one, the lights went on all over Ludford, part of a cluster of towns and villages at the heart of the tremor triangle which nature carved into Lincolnshire yesterday.

Then ... silence. Martyn Gray turned to his wife Ann and muttered: ' Earthquake.' Then they went back to sleep.

In the morning, the residents of Fanny Hands Lane found they had been at the epicentre of the biggest quake for more than 25 years.

Mr Johnson, a 77-year-old ex-Royal Navy engineer, couldn't help noticing that one of his pictures was a bit skewwhiff.

But in houses all around him, barely a plate had been broken.

Which was a lucky escape indeed, on this: A very bad day for crockery.

Tons of it must have been sent crashing to the ground when the tremor struck homes at about 1am.

First it was the cocoa cups, rattling in their saucers, then the ornamental plates.

Next came the wardrobes, walking across the room ... armchairs bouncing on their castors ... beds vibrating in a way that beds shouldn't.

Tiles and chimneys fell from rooftops as the quake spread, and a few unfortunate souls were injured when masonry came tumbling into their homes.



Clearing up: A homeowner in Hull sweeps up after brickwork was brought tumbling down



Perhaps the most amazing thing was that no one appears to have lost their life in what might, in different circumstances, have become a national catastrophe.

But one worrying question remained yesterday. If an earthquake can strike in Lincolnshire, where's next?

Experts said the tremor began in a triangular area bounded by Market Rasen, Ludford, and the honey-stone village of Tealby, on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

That so little damage was caused here is not remarkable. The epicentre of a quake often escapes the worst effects, which usually happen as the shock spreads outwards.

But thousands were shaken awake to witness the spectacle and its aftermath.

"It was pretty horrendous," said Sue Hunter, landlady of Tealby's 13th century King's Head pub.

"There was an almighty bang, followed by a terrible rumble.

There are no street lights here and everything was very, very black - we had no idea what was happening at first. I was very scared."

Sarah Tyson, who runs the village shop and post office, told me: "It probably lasted for about ten seconds. It takes a bomb to wake me up, but I certainly didn't sleep through that.

"The dog went absolutely ballistic, and the cat was creeping around the house as if there was a rottweiler in the next room."

Yet there were no reports of injury among her customers as they trickled into the shop during the morning.

Biggest casualty was that day's supply of freshly-made sandwiches.

The quake caused a crate of milk to topple on to them at the caterers and ruined the lot.

Three miles away in Market Rasen, camera teams scoured the streets for talking heads with tales of terror, and TV helicopters circled the streets in search of damage.

Sooner or later, they found the parish church of St Thomas. The quake shook the 900-year-old stone building so relentlessly that a large stone cross snapped off the gable end of the roof, crashed through the slates and into the vestry. An act of God?

Act of nature, was the phrase preferred by the vicar, Michael Cartwright, who wore a bobbled jumper and a brave smile as he surveyed the rubble.

And no, he didn't organise the earthquake just to get the ancient roof repaired.

One theory to emerge locally was that secret underground testing of a new bomb at a Government research station - or explosions nearby from the former air base at Faldingworth recently - might have provoked the subterranean shock wave.

Or maybe it was an alien force (There were quite a lot of excited folk out in their front gardens, and imaginations knew few bounds).

Back in the real world, one of the most fascinating aspects of the tremor was the window it opened on modern Britain at 1am on an otherwise ordinary weekday.

Wine sloshed about in glasses in West Norwood, a trusted correspondent dutifully reported.

A young woman in Nottingham was trying on sexy new underwear before going on holiday, she told a radio phone-in programme.

And too many couples to count will have taken the opportunity to bring out that old joke about the Earth moving for them.

Even I heard the rumble, in a leafy London suburb nearly 200 miles from the tremor triangle. But I thought it was just a council street-sweeping lorry, and went back to sleep.

Quakes of this magnitude happen on average every ten years. Compared to other parts of the world, thankfully, they are rare. But earthquakes are unpredictable things.

Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Centre, where they know a thing or two about tremors, said: "What is interesting about this event is that it was in an area where you would not expect it.

"In an aseismic area like this, it is very significant. The UK usually has minor activity - it's not particularly seismic and usually falls in the range of two to three on the Richter scale.

"The truth is that it can happen anywhere in the world."

And - as Britain found out yesterday - at any time.

Why DO quakes happen in Britain?


An earthquake is caused by a build-up of pressure in faults running between the tectonic plates which cover the earth's crust like a jigsaw.

As rocks crack or slip by one another, energy is released in seismic waves - and the ground shakes.

Professor Bob Holdsworth, of the University of Durham, said: "Most potentially damaging earthquakes like this occur near to plate boundaries such as the San Andreas Fault in California, but the UK lies in the interior of a plate, so this is quite unusual."

"The causes and controls of UK seismicity are poorly understood, but it is possible that it reflects the reactivation of an old fault zone that has lain dormant for tens or hundreds of millions of years."

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Lester

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Sep 28, 2007
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A gal on the news last night said it was the first time the earth moved when her and her husband were in bed( gotta love the brit wit)

Lester
 

dancing-loon

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Oct 8, 2007
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Well... I didn't feel anything over here, Thank God!:smile: But we surely have had some activity here in the Toronto area as well. I can remember once lying on the couch when it was moving, buckling. A close relative had just passed away and I thought that might be him underneath the couch! I went down on the carpet, flat on my tummy and checked.... nobody there!! Next day I read about it in the paper!! Too bad it wasn't a ghost!!8O:lol: