so.... did anyone else in the UK feel the earthquake last night?? It occurred at 12.58am and the epicentre was 15 miles from where I was staying! It hit magnitude 5.2 on the Richter Scale for those interested and was fairly shallow at 10 miles deep. The biggest for 25 years it seems.

I studied geology for 7 years and am a little obsessed with keeping up-to-date with all things seismic as I really wanted to work in geophysics as a seismologist or volcanologist (that's volcanoes not men with pointy ears!)

I'm curious to know if anyone in the UK on here felt it and to get descriptions of what they saw/felt and also to see if anyone on the continent felt it as well. Also is anyone else interested in geology or geophysics at all?

5.2 on the richter?? pathetic! you should come here sometimes, we have a 7.5 or so quake every 30 years and one like this almost every 3 years or so

I was asleep... yeh, so that is slightly annoying. seems to have woke everyone up but me
but yeh, the center was right here in Lincolnshire

I've always wanted to feel what it is like in an earthquake so this is slightly annoying indeed.. oh well, I still have the simulation of an earthquake in a Japanese shop that is in the Natural History Museum to go by... hahaha

I remember feeling an earthquake when I was a student in the Northeast of France, near the Germany border. It was around 4 in the morning, I was asleep, and I remember I was more or less waken up by everything shaking in my room. But, I was in that half-dreaming state of someone who's been stirred off sleep and the only thing that came to my mind was that my - usually very noisy - above neighbour was having a very brutal shag. So I mumbled "my God, can't they fuck less violently?" and fell asleep again.

The morning after, my mom called me and anxiously asked if I was ok. I didn't really understand why she asked, so she told me "there's been an earthquake during the night right where you are". "- Oh, so that was it!!"

Well, I live in a country constantly striked by earthquakes, actually, the strongest one ever recorded devastated the south of the country in 1960 (9,5 in Richter).

I had personally lived only one big earthquake (8,0), but I was only 1 yo so obviously I don't remember anything, but I had been told that I almost died in that one... My mother was in a library with me and I was laying in my cradle when it began. She took me outside the store and then all the books fell, I would had been crushed by them.

A 5,2 "earthquake" is just an average temblor, we're all the time feeling them, and our cities are actually built to resist earthquakes so nothing below 7 is really dangerous.

An interesting fact about the "rating" of earthquakes is that they're exponential. That means that a 6 earthquake if 10 times more destructive than a 5 one and etc.

On the other hand, I find them kind of exciting. I hate it when they stop.

Written by [user id=5080] on 27.02.2008 at 18:02

On the other hand, I find them kind of exciting. I hate it when they stop.

that is until a bowling ball falls on your head lol

In 2001 (when I was 16) there where two earthquakes, one on jan 13 and another on feb 13!!!, those killed a lot of people, and even a mountain fell off and buried hundreds of people, killing them instantly or in a brutal asphyxia, there's a curious fact about it cause I used to live there until 1998, and my former house was the last house to be buried by the mountain, I could die there!. The only "good" thing was that we lost over three months of schools because of the state of emergency.

I just forgot, the jan 13 EQ was 7.2 ritcher and the feb 13 one was 6.0, the main problem with the last one was the land which was still fragile because of the first.
Anyway, at least once a month there are "tiny" quakes 2 - 5 richter.
We got volcanoes too!!

we studied the El Salvador quakes from 2001, i remember the mudslide it caused as well. it's fascinating for me but they must be terrifying for those involved i'm sure.

being totally obsessed with all things seismological i'd love to live somewhere that was seismically active even with the risk. i know 5.2 doesn't sound so big in the global scheme of things but in the UK it's a huge event! in fact the spires on our cathedral (previously the biggest in the word i think) were knocked down by the biggest quake in UK written history.

that's right, the Richter Scale rises in the form of 1, 10, 100, 1000... etc. it is gradually being replaced by the MM Scale as the Richter scale is not acurate for larger quakes over about point 8 on the Richer Scale whilst the MM scale is much better for higher intensities.

Barry, you could sleep through a train wreck! haha

I don't live near a fault line, so I don't really worry about earthquakes. Instead, I worry more about tornadoes.

blimey, that does sound rather a lot. i can't remember how much the last large quake abroad cost to repair. i'll go looksie.

How safe it is to live in Finland, no worries on nature catastrophies. So we can focus on complaining other things.

I'd been playing on me PS2 until about 12 and then I couldn't get to sleep... then at about one I felt like me bum was being wobbled, it was wierd, but I thought I just felt dizzy or something because I'm not well and couldn't get to sleep. The next day someone asked if I felt the earthquake and then I realised! And to all the other people who have earthquakes all the time you've got to realise that it's a big deal in the UK because we hardly ever have them.

I'm sure I felt the same thing last night... was there another one?

Written by Baz Anderson on 27.02.2008 at 13:44

I still have the simulation of an earthquake in a Japanese shop that is in the Natural History Museum to go by... hahaha

hahaha
Yeah,it sure has been a big disappointment for you.

But I would't actually overlook that 5,2 temblor (still don't want to call it earthquake). Of course it's not that big in termsof destruction or potential danger, but anything over 5 feels actually really shaking. I live in a highly active place in terms of sismic activity and, besides the big earthquake I lived wihen I was only 1 year old (a bit more than 8 in richter) I don't remember more than 2-3 temblors around 5 and yeas they're quite exciting.

i felt it but since im used to bigger earthquakes (i used to live in turkey) I thought it was just the wind shaking my bed or something, hahah

I'm kinda worried about the earthquakes in my country (portugal).. the last year I felt 4 or 5 earthquakes in the scales between 3 and 5,5 (last one was the stronger) which are very unusual quakes this strong here, and only in one year.. Before this I remember that I only felt just minor scale ones, with 2 years or more between them..
So independently if my theory is right or wrong, I'm mentally preparing for a major one.

I felt the Earthquake. woke me up with what felt like (but was probably exaggerated by the fact i was woken by it) quite sizeable shakings of the end of my bed, the part my feet where half hanging off. Then again as soon as it finished i didn't know what to make of it and hearing the calamity in the flat above mine i just assumed that people must have been having some sort of extremely violent and room shaking party hahaha

Written by [user id=5630] on 28.02.2008 at 00:22

I don't live near a fault line, so I don't really worry about earthquakes. Instead, I worry more about tornadoes.

Same here...I don't worry about earthquakes...I worry about floods and ice storms (and the occasional tornado...one ripped right through here a few years ago and took some cows)

Written by Graveshift on 29.02.2008 at 02:07

I felt the Earthquake. woke me up with what felt like (but was probably exaggerated by the fact i was woken by it) quite sizeable shakings of the end of my bed, the part my feet where half hanging off. Then again as soon as it finished i didn't know what to make of it and hearing the calamity in the flat above mine i just assumed that people must have been having some sort of extremely violent and room shaking party hahaha

haha you should have banged on the ceiling and told them to keep the noise down! at least YOU woke up!

Written by [user id=5080] on 27.02.2008 at 18:02

On the other hand, I find them kind of exciting. I hate it when they stop.

I agree with that jejeje
When I lived in Santiago it was some times disturbing when a "earthquake" about 5 or 6 [cuz we know that they are not that dangerous] started in my house... the windows almost exploted jajajja

The thing became more interesting when I lived in the 9th floor in a building.
I could feel the things that moves almost every week jajajajaj

when I experienced my first earthquake I was listening to "A Small Hour" covered by metallica.it was about 4 year ago, but i never forget it and i will never listen to that song again

we have a lot of earthquakes here in Greece the last few days. let's hope for a bigger one in Athens soon

I love earthquakes!

The houses in Iceland are pretty much.. "earthquake proof" so, no worries about dying or anything. Its just super cool to feel your feet somehow.. lift up.

I sound silly.

W e don't get a lot of earthquakes thankfully. There was one though.. a few days ago. Internet says it was 3.3 on the Richter scale. You could really feel it, it was quite a shake. But it's still really low compared to what happens elsewhere. I've never experienced anything stronger than this one.Hope I don't.

I havnt experience here eartquacke but once here was something shaking my freind even fall out of chair in school(whule sleeping in lessesn) but it was week

earthquake is somthing that noone can forget it. in my city where i live earthquakes r always under 4.but yes i remember 3 earthquakes here . when i was at highschool,an earthqake happend one of my shoolmates said : Sir its an earthquake and then all students and teacher stopped a second, the chalk was in teachers hand, then he threw the chalk !!! and escaped from class ! and then all students escaped from classroom. really funny when i remember my teacher's eyes when he escaped.he was a new teacher and young. they fired him cause of his bad reaction