NationStates Jolt Archive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7267567.stm
New information, the Quake will cost huge amounts of money to fix and.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) said it had received reports of people having felt the tremor from as far as Bangor in Northern Ireland, Haarlem in Holland, Plymouth and Edinburgh.

Scientists said while the tremor was small on a global scale, they described the earthquake as a "rare beast" and "significant" for the UK.

They said they believed the earthquake could have been caused by an old fault line in the East Midlands rupturing.

So if you live in the East Midlands, look out for more earthquakes eh?

BBC news say Earthquake
Anyone here been in an Earthquake before?
Previous Quakes in UK
April 2007 - Folkestone, Kent (magnitude 4.3)
December 2006 - Dumfries and Galloway (3.5)
September 2002 - Dudley, West Midlands (5.0)
October 2001 - Melton Mowbray (4.1)
September 2000 - Warwick (4.2)
April 1990 - Bishop's Castle, Shropshire (5.1)
July 1984 - Nefyn, north Wales (5.4)
June 1931 - in North Sea near Great Yarmouth (6.1)
Dumfries and Galloway? I don't remember that, probably too weak to feel.

Anyway what's your thoughts?

I thought the UK was pretty safe from Earthquakes, seems i was wrong.
(I'd prefer to avoid the whole, "God did it to smite them" idea, but add it in if you really really feel like it)

EDIT: ARRG I misspelt Earthquake, a typo okay i'm sorry!
EDIT EDIT: New information.

If I understand it correctly, nowhere's really safe from tremblors.

I've been through a quake or two. Worst one was the Dai-Hanshin quake of 1995, AKA the Kobe Earthquake, in which several thousand people died.

Everytime I feel one, I'm expecting something worse - the next Great Kanto Quake. When (NOT if but when) that one happens, expect Very Bad Things (tm) to happen around the world.

We had a little tremor in Georgia a few weeks ago. I thought my stomach was just rumbling alot or that I was hallucinating, but then I noticed that my desk and electronics rack were wobbling from side to side. It kind of blew my mind a little.

We had a little tremor in Georgia a few weeks ago. I thought my stomach was just rumbling alot or that I was hallucinating, but then I noticed that my desk and electronics rack were wobbling from side to side. It kind of blew my mind a little.

Do you usually think there's an earthquake when your stomach rumbles?
Or does your stomach rumble when there is an earthquake?
<.<spooky>.>

Slept through one in Paignton before. Just like this thread. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=550588):)

Oh....didn't see that, oh well it's not identical, though it has the main story the same it's slightly different.
but thanks for telling me.

EDIT:psst, don't tell anyone.

I've never have experienced an earthquake. But I've seen what it can do on TV.:(

Slept through one in Paignton before. Just like this thread. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=550588):)

Anything above about a 4.0 can be felt pretty noticeably. Below that it's probably ignored if you feel it at all.

Yeah, I used to live in a village in the area where the wasach meets the rockies, and we would feel the quakes quite often. they say that our little valley was created by a place where two fault lines met. I have felt little tiny ones in California too, and even a couple where I live in the Midwest now. The one I am alwas wondering about i the next big one from the New Madrid Fault. You just wait. That will be disasterous for the US.

Thankfully the UK isn't likely to see a major Earthquake.

*touches wood*

*realises wood is actually veneer*

Thankfully the UK isn't likely to see a major Earthquake.

*touches wood*

*realises wood is actually veneer*

But what if it had a Major in the military called Earthquake? then it would see one. Oh....you mean the earthquake as in moving tectonic plates.
That's something else that makes me wonder, why do tectonic plates move anyway? why don't they just stay in a ball of well earth?

Thankfully the UK isn't likely to see a major Earthquake.

*touches wood*

*realises wood is actually veneer*

Tsunami resulting from an earthquake/large displacement into the sea on the other hand.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vieja

It's related to Geography. Therefore it cannot be simple. :D

:p
Perhaps, i heard that we know very little of the earth's insides, hmm that's another thread for me sorted.
I wonder why so many people like the idea of space travel, when the furthest down we've been in our own planet is something like 10KM i think that was in Russia (from a trivia book so don't take this as gospel truth).
I think that earth travel downward would be more valid type of travel than outer space.
I mean gravity already pulls you down, so all you need is to dig a big tunnel to say Australia with some er uh....really heat, gravity, pressure resistant shuttle. Can't be any more dangerous than space can it?
Wow i've got to start a thread on this, in fact i will.

But what if it had a Major in the military called Earthquake? then it would see one. Oh....you mean the earthquake as in moving tectonic plates.
That's something else that makes me wonder, why do tectonic plates move anyway? why don't they just stay in a ball of well earth?

It's related to Geography. Therefore it cannot be simple. :D

California gets earthquakes and after shocks constantly. We had one yesterday. You get use to them though. Its funny as hell when you see someone who has never been through one and they freak out. it sadistic, but it's hilarious.

That's something else that makes me wonder, why do tectonic plates move anyway? why don't they just stay in a ball of well earth?
There is no "short" answer. Semi-short answer:

To a first approximation, the Earth is a sphere (gravity pulling everything down to the same level). To a second approximation, the Earth is an oblate spheroid (flattened at the poles, wider around the equator, from the centrifugal force of the daily rotation). To a third approximation, the Earth has a "pear-shaping": the North Pole is 90 miles higher, the mid-latitudes Northern Hemisphere 45 miles lower, the mid-latitudes Southern Hemisphere 45 miles higher, and the South Pole 90 miles lower than where they should be according to the best-fit oblate spheroid.

This means that Antarctica is trapped in the "well" of the South Pole (and trying to circularize itself), while all other southern continents (South America, Africa, and Australia) are sliding northward into the "lower" hemisphere; all the northern continents are trying to stay put, while avoiding the "peak" of the North Pole (and circularizing the Arctic Ocean while they do so). This would eventually settle down with all the continents forming a ring around the Arctic Ocean except for the isolated Antarctica, except that every few hundred million years the pear-shaping reverses: the last time it was settled down, all the continents joined into a Pangaea in a ring around the Antarctic Ocean, except for a few bits like Greenland trapped at the North Pole.

So why does this pear-shaping happen? LONG answer:

Beta-radioactive nuclei are atoms with an excess of neutrons, which decay by turning a neutron into a proton and an electron. However, there are certain particle-counts which have to be conserved: the total of protons plus neutrons stays constant (not a problem here), and the total of electrons plus neutrinos stays constant, so for a beta-decay to happen, either the nucleus has to take in a neutrino from somewhere so it can make an electron, or else it has to spit out an anti-neutrino. If it creates an anti-neutrino, that will cost a little energy and make the nucleus recoil randomly, in the opposite of whichever direction it shoots out the anti-neutrino. But if if accepts a neutrino, it gains energy and is kicked away from wherever the source of the neutrino was.

The likelihood of a neutrino being accepted depends on how well the frame of reference of the nucleus matches the frame of reference of the neutrino source. The largest source of neutrinos around here is the Sun, but, because the Earth has an orbital motion of 18.6 miles per second with respect to the Sun, solar neutrinos are hardly ever accepted by a nucleus in the Earth (the "invisible solar neutrino" puzzle baffled physicists for a long time). Nuclei in the Earth can accept neutrinos from many stars in the galaxy, however, since stars have all kinds of "proper motions" which have a reasonable chance of more-or-less matching the motion of the Earth.

The rotational motion of the Earth slightly affects the chances. A nucleus near the rotational axis of the Earth, where the rotational motion is small, has a somewhat better chance of accepting a galactic neutrino, and being "weak-force repelled" by the source star in consequence, than a nucleus near the equator. Since we are currently north of the galactic center, the rotational axis is punched northward, slightly more than the rest of the planet, by this weak-force interaction. This is an incredibly minute interaction, but since nothing counteracts for hundreds of millions of years (until we get to the other part of the Sun's orbit around galactic center, so that the kick becomes southward instead of northward), it gradually builds up.

I spent 1975-1979 in Fresno, California. As a K-3 grader, we had earthquake drills once a month.

Never had an earthquake of any appreciable size (to a 5-8 year-old) while there.

Moved to a small town northeast of Seattle (Lake Stevens) in March of 1979. May of 1980, Mt. St. Helens explodes, and we felt it rattle the windows some 125 miles north, and went through ash drills once a month in case the wind shifted or the mountain burped again.

Nothing happened.

Flash forward to February 28th, 2001 and the Nisqually earthquake (http://www.pnsn.org/SEIS/EQ_Special/WEBDIR_01022818543p/welcome.html). Despite it having been two decades since any drills or training of any kind, I immediately got under my desk at the Snohomish County Auditor's Office. Nobody else did anything but sit there while the whole building swayed back and forth and dropped what felt like six inches. Then they started heading for the exits, and I warned them not to go out unless they knew they weren't going to get clocked by a broken-off cornice, eave or overhang.

It was weird to know more about what to do (and what not to do) than the Divisional safety chairperson. We had a lot of motion for being 80 miles north of the epicenter.

Wait, or is this a thread about Tori Amos (http://www.last.fm/music/Tori+Amos/Little+Earthquakes)?

not directly, just a coincidence.

Wait, or is this a thread about Tori Amos (http://www.last.fm/music/Tori+Amos/Little+Earthquakes)?

That's something else that makes me wonder, why do tectonic plates move anyway? why don't they just stay in a ball of well earth?
Molten magma oozes up along the lines where some pairs of the plates (e.g. the European Plate and the North American Plate) meet, cools down at the surface, and solidifies into rock: The formation of this new rock pushes those plates apart, slowly & slightly, to make room for it.... and pushes some other edges of plates under their neighbours, so that the Earth's actual surface-area doesn't just keep on expanding because of the plates' growth along the lines where magma rises...

i think this warrants reposting here:

http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/13/1204118301/etchasketchquake.jpg

courtesy of Turquoise Days, originally posted on GM.

i think this warrants reposting here:

http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/13/1204118301/etchasketchquake.jpg

courtesy of Turquoise Days, originally posted on GM.

Yay! That's a B3ta image :D I love monkeon.

I think earthquakes are fun. I'm from SoCal so have been thru a few big ones.

Once I saw the ground and street moving in waves like water.

Damn you

I was going to post that etch a sketch pic IR

*shakes fist at sky*

Basically everyone who lives on the Ring of Fire has experienced an Earthquake.

The most recent I've felt was the 6.8 quake that hit Seattle exactly 7 years ago today (Feb 28, 2001).

Basically everyone who lives on the Ring of Fire has experienced an Earthquake.

The most recent I've felt was the 6.8 quake that hit Seattle exactly 7 years ago today (Feb 28, 2001).

Uh...a bit late (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13486530&postcount=17), there, pal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7267567.stm
New information, the Quake will cost huge amounts of money to fix and.


I heard it was £30 mill. That's less than 1% of the budget for the London olympics.

I think earthquakes are fun. I'm from SoCal so have been thru a few big ones.

Once I saw the ground and street moving in waves like water.

really? it does that? i thought earthquakes meant the ground just tilts or splits, never heard of the moving ground stuff.

I heard it was £30 mill. That's less than 1% of the budget for the London olympics.

really?
I should pay more attention to the outside world.
That's fairly expensive.

really?
I should pay more attention to the outside world.
That's fairly expensive.

If my memory serves, it's right. I'm assuming that it hasn't been re-evaluted since I read about it.

Uh...a bit late (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13486530&postcount=17), there, pal.
I still felt it, regardless of whether you mentioned it earlier.

really? it does that? i thought earthquakes meant the ground just tilts or splits, never heard of the moving ground stuff.

Oh, the ground move for sure. :)

Shaking and ground rupture

Shaking and ground rupture are the main effects created by earthquakes, principally resulting in more or less severe damage to buildings or other rigid structures. The severity of the local effects depends on the complex combination of the earthquake magnitude, the distance from epicenter, and the local geological and geomorphological conditions, which may amplify or reduce wave propagation. The ground-shaking is measured by ground acceleration.

Specific local geological, geomorphological, and geostructural features can induce high levels of shaking on the ground surface even from low-intensity earthquakes. This effect is called site or local amplification. It is principally due to the transfer of the seismic motion from hard deep soils to soft superficial soils and to effects of seismic energy focalization owing to typical geometrical setting of the deposits.

Ground rupture is a visible breaking and displacement of the earth's surface along the trace of the fault, which may be of the order of few metres in the case of major earthquakes. Ground rupture is a major risk for large engineering structures such as dams, bridges and nuclear power stations and requires careful mapping of existing faults to identify any likely to break the ground surface within the life of the structure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake#Effects.2Fimpacts_of_earthquakes

California gets earthquakes and after shocks constantly. We had one yesterday. You get use to them though. Its funny as hell when you see someone who has never been through one and they freak out. it sadistic, but it's hilarious.

My favorite is people who come to California expecting the ground to be in constant motion. :)

I've been through about four memorable earthquakes, though there've certainly been many more I didn't feel or slept through. The most notable, of course, was the Loma Prieta in '89. I was only 6, but I still remember it very vividly. The last one that really shook the place a bit was in October or November.

Fun facts: My house and high school were built on a fault. In fact, my high school told us we couldn't use the tennis courts because they were directly over the fault, so they demolished them... and built the senior parking lot. :rolleyes:

In the midst of the frenzy, I dropped my biscuit and spilled my tea a little bit.:p

Since the crust of the Earth is never perfectly still, then yeah, earthquakes happen. Your best bet is to find a place that is pretty much in the middle of a tectonic plate, not above a hotspot, on solid rock instead of any of that sedimentary nonsense and hasn't been subjected to kilometres thick ice cover within the last million years.

Basically everyone who lives on the Ring of Fire has experienced an Earthquake.

The most recent I've felt was the 6.8 quake that hit Seattle exactly 7 years ago today (Feb 28, 2001).

Not quite - New Zealand is considered to be on the Ring of Fire, yet Auckland and areas north haven't experienced anything significant in terms of an earthquake (the one we had last year was minor, and I didn't even feel it, so I consider it to be one that I didn't experience).

Oh, the ground move for sure. :)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake#Effects.2Fimpacts_of_earthquakes

Cheers, and i thank other folks for posting, i have a few queries.

Are there any early warning systems available to tell folks about potential earthquakes, that are reliable? (I think they work by readings of tremors in the ground, but i'm not sure how these really work)

Any methods to reduce numbers of earthquakes? (i haven't heard of any)

Would it be possible to make a building available to the public (as in detatched housing) that was resistant to Earthquakes, and not too expensive either?