back to article Quake rocks Britain

Houses shook across much of Britain as the country experienced its biggest earthquake for thirty years early this morning. Impressively, within ten minutes of the tremors, CSEM (EMSC), the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, revealed the cause: a 5.4 magnitude quake with an epicentre 10 miles north east of Lincoln, in …

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  1. Neil McAliece

    Stupid Earthquake

    I felt it in Coventry and it only lasted a few seconds, like someone was shaking my chair which would be hard as I was alone and it's a big heavy chair.

    I wonder if this is just a tremor before the main one in a couple of days

  2. Tim Brown

    Awwwww

    Did da Bwitish gets a little shaky quakey? 4.9 is nothing. Try 6.5: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4411670a6479.html.

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  4. Scott

    I thought I did put in a title

    try living in NZ - 4.9 wouldn't've even been noticed ;)

  5. Jeremy
    Coat

    The earth moved for me...

    (Sorry)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    only 4.9?

    this makes news?

    pansies.

    How could atmospheric warming cause or even contribute to an earthquake?

  7. Steve Evans
    Paris Hilton

    Eh? What? When?

    Well I've been up working all night, and here in Essex I haven't even suspected a HGV of doing some rather late deliveries, let alone been shaken from my bed or watched tins of beans making a bid for freedom!

    How anyone in London can claim to have felt it with the night buses running I will never know!

    Paris, well she might have made the earth move for someone.

  8. hannibal

    less accurate?

    To be fair, the USGS was more accurate with the initial mag estimate (4.7 as opposed to 5.4). I've now bookmarked the EMSC site - good use of Google Maps!

    I sent BBC London Radio a text with a summary of the USGS report 15 mins after the event. I too found it rather frustrating they were turning to callers for info as opposed to being a bit more resourceful themselves.

    Then again, I suppose it's understandable not everyone's aware of sites monitoring seismic events in the UK.

  9. Brett Weaver
    Happy

    4.9 Thats not an earthquake...

    4.9? Thats not an earthquake... Thats a truck going past...

    Now if you lived here in New Zealand..... :-)

  10. zonky
    Boffin

    www.geonet.org.nz

    has a real time shake-o-meter. But then i suppose we have more need for it.

  11. Stuart

    "Great Big Earthquake"

    There's a contradiction in your article. On the one hand, you say "a great big earthquake had happened, somewhere in Britain.", but otoh, you go on to say it was 4.9 (I've seen it listed as 4.7 through to 5.4).

    I hate to rain on your Pommy parade, but 4.9 is not "a great big earthquake". It's a moderate shake and might be mildly thrilling in the right circumstances, but "great big earthquake" just doesn't seem to fit with anything under 6.5

  12. Jesse McLaughlin
    Alien

    They're out to get me!

    I went home to Gisborne, New Zealand at the end of last year and was unlucky enough to get caught up in this: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4331457a6000.html . Having just returned to this fine country, I thought I'd be on safer ground. Apparently not. There must be other's in this boat. They're out to get us!

  13. Dean Burrows
    Thumb Up

    I will just sit back and wait...

    It is inevitable really...

    "Global warming to blame?"

    Of course it is... I give it till midday today before the Beeb trots out a line of 'experts' who say this is all our fault and We should stop driving our cars...

    Unless of course, Sky News beats them to it... and gets an 'expert' to phone in and tell us how he was asleep in bed dreaming of a green earth and it woke him up with the idea of a new carbon footprint scheme...

    All regrets though, the Ministry for Making Our Lives a Living Hell (or HMRC, DVLA... take your pick) didnt collapse or fall in and destroy the nanny state...

    Sympathies to the old gent in Yorkshire...

    "A man from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was taken to hospital after a chimney collapsed and fell through his bedroom roof. A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Ambulance Service said the man suffered injuries to his pelvis and was taken to Barnsley District Hospital."

    I dont know if he is gonna be angry that his house lost its chimney or that he will still be in the waiting lines this time next week when happily he can escape and read it all first hand on Google news...

  14. Patrick
    Stop

    7.3 for me

    7.3 is the highest I experienced, Landers California.. Not pretty 4.9 wouldn't have woken me from my sleep. California teaches you a lot about earthquakes and how to go back to sleep while its still shaking if you are woken up =)

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Earthquake? I thought it was the wife again...

    A 4.9 quake is not a newsworthy temblor. One gets more motion out of a mediocre rogering.

  16. Ian

    stupid people

    I dont know what's worse... The English reporting on an English story ... or all you yanks and Aussies going on about how 'that's nothing' etc...

    Who cares either way?

    Now terrorism on the other hand... An American just needs to fart and its reported in the news as terrorism..

    so STFU about your pansy comments and just keep in mind this is/was a British site

  17. Danny Traynor

    Noisy bloody animal

    My wife and I were woken up at around one. Can't say I expected it to be an earthquake :)

    I thought the cat was under the bed!

  18. Ros

    We're not used to this in Blighty

    I live in Lincolnshire, and this one woke me up. I'm not all that far from the epicentre.

    Some people might have lost loose roof tiles, or experienced carelessly placed items overbalancing. That's about the extent of the crisis.

  19. BoldMan
    Boffin

    Wow this is awesome!

    Posting comments to an Orlowski article!

    I was in bed and frankly I thought it was a bus going past, although it must have been a BIG bus or lorry. Either that or it was my upstairs neighbours having a good time in the bedroom! Bastards! (I'm in London by the way!)

  20. Daniel Bennett

    Thought I was Drunk!

    I felt like I was drunk lying in my bed.....

    Just at the same time things shaking a bit..

    I'm in Telford, West Mids - scared the absolute crap outta me!!!

  21. Mat
    Coat

    @ All the Kiwi's...

    .......... Yeah... But you shag sheep!!!!! lol!!!!11!!eleventyone!!11!

  22. Dave
    Alien

    'big men'

    would all you kiwi gits kindly stfu? It makes the news because its UNUSUAL... So would you kindly stop making out that you are big brave men by posting "only 4.9!!" You are not manly for feeling things shake.

    See, after a few pints you go to bed at 1.. then the building shakes..

    and it's like eh... wha? I was confused.. went back to bed.

    Although, being a non-retard I was quite capable of distinguishing this from a truck as it didn't do the engine noise thing.. like a truck does.. you know.

    So as this is the biggest in 30 years, or 25 according to beeb, why does beeb list this.. "September 2002 - Dudley, West Midlands (5.0)" I'm no earthquakeologist but.. 5 is bigger than 4.9 right?

  23. Anigel
    Flame

    Prevention

    Of course ID cards, a DNA database containing every single person in the country and 10 CCTV cameras per mile would have prevented this.

  24. John Campbell
    Unhappy

    Shaken but not stirred

    I've never experienced an earthquake. And then this one comes along and I sleep through the damn thing. I want another, bigger earthquake - preferably while I'm awake.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Global warming? Rubbish!

    It's Gordon McBroon.

    Or 'Europe'.

    And immigrants.

    McBroon, 'Europe', and the immigrants!

    </daily mail mode>

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  27. John Parker
    Coat

    I bought several coats this evening, butler...

    I was so scared last night when it happened, I was literally quaking in my boots. I couldn't get back to sleep so I player a few games of Quake III. Insomnia prevailed, so I had a warm bowl of Quakers Oats cereal. Even so, I was still wide awake, and felt a religious realisation - starting today, I would become a Quaker!

    Mine's the one under the falling rubble...

  28. Steven Butler
    Paris Hilton

    Brits get an Earthquake...

    ...Or just a mild shake.

    I slept thru it, but I'm blaming that on living in California for a while (you get used to these things eventually), but since the UK doesnt have a active fault line it's quite an event over here and will probablybe on the news for weeks to come until Jordon or Paris do something stupid again.

  29. John Parker
    Happy

    Lol - BBC News guy

    OMG just watched the BBC News segment on it here:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7260000/newsid_7266200/7266244.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1

    The first 'man on the street' who was at the epicentre is hilarious. He says something along the lines of: "We felt the earthquake the floor was shaking... first thing we though was that it may have been terrorists".

    Ha!

  30. Matthew
    Alert

    pffft :)

    thats nothing in New Zealand

  31. Steve-SCB
    Black Helicopters

    The earth shook ...

    I thought it was a chinook

    Comments on an Andrew Orlowski article, that's about as rare as earthquakes in the UK

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  33. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @ danny traynor

    my girlfriend woke up, looked round the room in panic and said 'what was that? was it the cat?'

    'cats', 'earthquakes' - so easy to confuse the two!

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Al-Qaeda did it!

    I'm waiting for the inevitable announcement from the gummint - not sure whether they'll say al-Qaeda or global warming are responsible, but expect appropriate knee-jerk legislation to protect us from shaky ground and the terrorists which will invariably emerge from the cracks.

    I don't see the big deal myself - Britain experiences quakes of around magnitude 4-5 every 10 or 20 years. As for me, I heard a fairly loud bang at around 1am, thought it was a couple of books falling off a shelf in the next room (never underestimate the noise a copy of the Camel book can make when dropped from 7ft or so), paid it no mind and went back to sleep.

    My ex-girlfriend often said I could sleep through an earthquake, but I proved her wrong. Ha!

    Also nice to see that Mr.Orlowski has the cojones to allow commenting on his articles.

    Paris - 'cos the earth moves for her quite a lot. Apparently.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    @Neil

    Did, the quake in Coventry cause much damage to the city centre?

    If so how much of an improvement has it made?

  36. Mark W

    Strange location for an earthquake

    [geoscientist hat]

    Seeing as Britain is smack bang in the middle of a plate, nowhere near any current volcanic activity, and checking the geological map of the british isles, the location of this earthquake isn't near any existing faulting, then it's strange. Although the two big quakes in the UK have happened pretty close to each other in relative terms (Dogger bank is almost a 100km straight line east of the current quake's epicenter).

    North Wales I would expect quakes cos of the massive amount of faulting there, but with the enormous sedimentary plateau's here, it's a bit more strange.

    However, who knows what's actually under all that Kimmeridge clay?

    [/geoscientist hat]

    However, it was bloody scary when you live not far from it. It did fair shake the house!

    I'll get me coat...

  37. Morten Ranulf Clausen
    Coat

    Sure it is!

    "How could atmospheric warming cause or even contribute to an earthquake?"

    Well, things expand when they get hot and so must the Earth that's basic science right GET IT - SCIENCE and so of course it's our fault and of course we should stop doing bad things RIGHT NOW and and and save the whales and the baby seals oh that was last year anyhoo...

    *cough* </sarcasm>

    I'm going, I'm going, no worries mates...

  38. Robert Harrison
    Alert

    Cor

    Yep the earth moved for me, phwoaargh. But anyway, good comment Andrew.

    Watching the news this morning they were saying along the lines of "Anyone with a story to tell or who captured images on their phone send them in to us". WTF? Why don't the lazy journo bastards go outside and actually do their jobs. I'm bored of the news becoming a flaky collection of badly taken video clips from someones mobe*.

    I'm also amazed by the amount of sound bites of people saying how terrified they were and that the sky was falling etc etc. I'm surprised that these people aren't running around on the streets like headless chickens rioting and looting. Surely most Brits in the affected areas were barely able to resume consciousness to notice, given that most of the poor buggers had to get up early for work this morning.

    * ALERT ALERT ILLEGAL WORD DETECTED SEND IN THE BLACK HELICOPTERS

  39. David Neil
    Dead Vulture

    The sheeple have spoken

    Some random in his pyjamas on the BBC just said he woke up and thought it was terrorism....

    In about 9 months we have gone from crashing a car to shaking the very earth, thank god the paddies never worked out how to build an earthquake machine.

    <--- He fell off his chimney

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quake...

    ...has been rocking Britain since '96.

  41. Andy

    Bomb Iraq!

    If ever there was a good reason to bomb Iraq this is it!

  42. /\/\j17

    BBC Breakfast (paraphrased) QOTW

    "If you have any pictures or video of the quake, send them in".

    WTF? How exactly does one photograph or video of a seismic event - or possibly more correctly what's the difference between a photo of a quake and one taken by someone with a bad case of the shakes?

  43. Chris Williams
    Flame

    @Kiwis

    Thank you for putting us straight on this, but rest assured that most Brits (even otherwise geographically ignorant sofa-bound chavs) are aware that on the other side of the world lies the most beautiful place in the universe, where mud bubbles from the heat of molten lava only inches from the surface, and that cities* are built on the rim of the continent's most active volcanoes just to show the rest of the world how it should be done.

    However, this is news for the UK as we rarely experience earthquakes that are noticed by anybody other than trained observers with equipment calibrated to within a nanometre of its life, and it did result in some** structural damage.

    This kind of "let's tell the British how stupid they are and how everything in the Antipodes is a billion times better" take on life I'd expect from an Australian, but I'd really expect more from natives*** of New Zealand.

    One of you would have been enough; the others could have read previous replies and thought "hmmm, somebody's already represented my views, perhaps I'll just read on", instead of making a post equivalent to "yeah... like what he said...".

    Personally, I think this is interesting, and it would have been derelict of news agencies not to have mentioned it -- to UK residents (I'm not saying give it top billing on CNN Worldwide).

    *cities: what you call a city, we call a village

    **structural damage: granted, the towns in question are largely still standing

    ***natives: well, you know what I mean

  44. Andy Worth

    Slept through it.....

    Well....mortar wasn't falling onto me, so it was never going to wake me up. Seriously, it was like most things in this country - just like we expect great things from our sports teams and then they turn out not to be as strong as we thought. This was exactly the same, we have an earthquake and everyone gets all excited but it turns out to be the equivalent of a fart to other countries hurricanes.

    *rolls over and goes back to sleep*

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not Fair

    Yes, I agree with all the other people saying this is news in the UK because we don't get earthquakes, from what I remember from GCSE geography (not a lot) but the region of the planet we're on is one of the geologically most stable on the planet, if I could remember what the region is called it would help, but someone far cleverer will know and probably post it, or a google will reveal it.

    Anyway, the reaction I have got from most people when the subject is broached is "no fair, I didn't feel it"

    I don't mind not having felt it because it means I'm most likely to stay alive by avoiding such things. To anyone who thinks that these things are great, go live by a volcano, have fun, I hope the pyroclastic flow doesn't get you, and to all saying "that's nothing" you're wrong, it's something.

  46. Richard Scratcher
    Alert

    Waking up amid the carnage and devastation

    To all those antipodeans suggesting that Britain is overreacting to this earthquake. May I remind you that several chimney pots came down (when are these architects and builders ever going to learn?) and one man was injured (though that toll might yet rise).

  47. Alan
    Alien

    typical

    Back to work with a shrug after terrorist attacks, but a slight shake at 1am and it's all i hear about all morning...

  48. Richard

    @All the "That's hardly a quake" comments

    You might want to look at how close we are to a plate boundary. We're not insane enough to live anywhere near a current one. Most of the faults we get quakes on round here haven't been plate boundaries since The Cheviot was taller than Everest, if ever (Hint: it's now been weathered down to less than 1000m so it's been a while).

    As it is, I slept right through it. I suspect it'll have to get up towards 7 or 8 before I even notice - I've slept through several car crashes within about 10 feet of my non-double-glazed bedroom window.

  49. James
    Joke

    Must be Al Quaeda...

    ..obviously an attack like this must be terrorist in nature. Something that can have such a widespread effect and place people in a state of fear and alarm or, indeed, terror (=terrorist caused).

    When can we expect the government to announce a clampdown on all earthquakes, those conspiring to cause earthquakes (God? Can we expect Gods representatives to be arrested in a series of dawn raids on cathedrals, churches etc).

    Just what are the anti-terrorist squads doing to prevent further earthquakes? (which have much greater potential for damage and loss of life than so-called terrorist activities).

  50. Richie M

    2nd time

    Yep woke me up, in Stoke-on-Trent.

    2nd earthquake I've experienced, and this was a lot stronger than the last.

    According to reports only one person injured due to falling masonary though.

    To all the kiwi's and yanks, STFU, as a rule we don't have earthquakes so this IS a big deal to us!

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