So says a BBC reporter about Britain’s biggest quake in a quarter of a century. The Times calls it huge.
Huge? Initial USGS readings put it at magnitude 4.7. British seismological readings have it at 5.2.
It hit in the middle of the night, 200 miles north of me, so of course I slept through it. But I heard reactions on the news this morning. “It was horrible.” “It was quite severe.” “I thought I was probably going to die.”
Meaning, specifically: “The blinds were visibly shaking.” “Stuff fell off the shelves.” “The cat went doolally.”
The banter among the TV morning show hosts has been amusing. Who knew we were near tectonic plates? said one. (Ssh - don’t tell him they’re everywhere. And only a few miles down.) Another shook her head: People say they felt it in Amsterdam. How could that be? Is that possible? Her co-host nodded. It must be aftershocks. More nodding. Aftershocks.
Ooh - somebody watched the TV disaster flick 10.5: Apocalypse and picked up the jargon! Though not, sadly, the science.
Sorry. I shouldn’t make fun. There were some minor injuries, and tremors are indeed eerie. But I’m a quake-jaded Californian. I can tell you what happens when the earth shakes beneath old, unreinforced brick buildings: walls and chimneys fall down. This is how people get hurt, especially people who run outside to see what’s happening. What’s happening is that chimneys are falling on people who run outside.
My kids are bemused. Says my son, the cynic: No wonder people freaked out. They got hit by bricks, but didn’t hear soccer yobs yelling “Come on, you reds!” or see a single football hooligan throwing the things at them.
My daughter, who right now is one mile from the San Andreas fault in California, is incensed. “NOT FAIR!” she IMs. “Man, I miss all the best disasters.”
And what did that BBC reporter mean by a “very British” earthquake? “Everybody’s talking about it, but actually it was quite mild.” As a senior seismologist at the British Geological Survey put it, “It’s an extremely large earthquake in UK terms but not large in world terms; we’d classify it only as a light earthquake.”
I’m glad people are okay.
15 responses so far ↓
megs_webmaster // February 27, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Well, I was awake, in bed when it hit. It was a very surreal thing to experience. At first I thought my wife was having a nightmare beside me and was thrashing around in the bed. The house moved and everything in the bedroom rattled. The rumbling continued for around 20 seconds, fading out very slowly. But I’m under no illusions - this really was a non-earthquake in the scheme of things. But then we Brits love a bit of excitement that we can go on about as if it was the end of the world. The rest of my family slept though it.
megs_webmaster // February 27, 2008 at 12:04 pm
*through* it, dammit.
djpaterson // February 27, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I don’t live that far from the epicentre and awoke thinking the heating pipes were banging rather loudly. A quick check of the airing cupboard showed the heating not to be on, so went back to bed after saying, “Must be an earthquake” to my wife.
She has phoned to report the only casualties to be some cuddly toys who tumbled from the top of the kids’ wardrobes.
Patti // February 27, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Quakes get the same kind of reaction here. Sitting squarely atop the Canadian Shield, we’re not used to a lot of activity beneath our feet. There was one a year or two ago, also early in the morning, but the effect in my house was little different from the rumbling and rattling when a large snowplow goes by out front.
It’s cold (-20C), the middle of the long month of Farch, and I’m heartily sick of snowplows, by the way. Thank you for your kind attention to that mid-winter whine.
Jonathan Fox // February 27, 2008 at 1:49 pm
The epicentre of silly news stories seems to increase the closer you get to London as per usual. I live 80 miles west of the quake and it was at most unsettling, at best mildy exciting and ensured I had a few extra Flickr visitors
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanfox/2294532969/?addedcomment=1#comment72157603994412092
I now await the 1cm of February snow that will fall on London which can thus be labelled “Snow bound Londoners caught in white out that locks down capital”
C.D. Reimer // February 27, 2008 at 3:11 pm
That’s nothing. The Lome Prieta earthquake in 1989 was a 7.1 that shook the San Francisco Bay Area and stopped the Battle of the Bay World Series between the SF Giants and Oakland A’s. Now that’s an earthquake. The British might have something to complain about if an earthquake stopped a soccer game.
Jon // February 27, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I was amazed that the trains were running this morning. normally it’s any old excuse - too many leaves, too much rain, too much sun, too much lightning, wrong colour sky…
I haven’t heard that the earthquake was caused by global warming or carbon emissions yet but I suspect it’s just a matter of time.
Snart // February 27, 2008 at 5:12 pm
It will be interesting to see where the next quake occurs. Nothing, especially seismic activity, occurs in isolation. Given that England doesn’t typically have activity, I wonder what “gave” and where the next “give” will be.
Seeing as I’m sitting on the Rose Canyon fault, and I mean on it, the slope is under my office window, it’ll be a wild ride when the Rose Canyon moves again.
Anyone hearing about another unusual quake, let us know. We can begin to map them.
Kate, better start reviewing your disaster movies for some great lines we can use!
Meg // February 27, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thanks for the eyewitness reports, everybody.
DJ: Not the cuddly toys! Won’t somebody think of the toys!
C.D., I too used to up the ante with “You call that an earthquake? THIS is an earthquake,” stories, until a friend shut me up with his Anchorage 8.9 quake memories. “Did your house flip upside down? Then don’t talk to me about earthquakes.”
Jon, on the Telegraph’s web site this morning, somebody was blaming climate change for starting a cascade of natural disasters. They were demanding government action.
Snart, please set up a video camera so we can watch the fun.
Patti… Farch?
Good vibes needed « lying for a living // February 27, 2008 at 5:45 pm
[...] 27, 2008 · No Comments Andy Greig, my webmaster and eyewitness to the earthquake, has just been diagnosed with cancer. He’s getting ready to start chemotherapy, and [...]
Kate // February 27, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Snart - I will absolutely start watching the bad disaster movies and coming up with lines to be used in the future. 10.5 and 10.5: Apocalypse (6 hours of earthquake fun) are an excellent starting point.
Everyone else - Sadly, it’s not just the Brits who freak out at earthquakes. A few months ago there was about a 4.5 earthquake epicentered 30 miles south of me, in San Jose. The most it did was knock books off the shelves at a bookstore and cause a few ceiling tiles to fall. But everyone on the news (I don’t think they interviewed any locals) spoke of harrowing, near-death experiences that had them just about ready to move permanently away from California. Do they not realize that there are three major faults in the Bay Area, all of which are roughly “due” to produce quakes? And that said “predicted” quakes will most likely be at least a 7?
Hoever, my ultimate seismological disdain is reserved for the good people of St. Louis, Missouri. I’m willing to bet that very few of them know they live about 150 miles from the epicenter of the strongest recorded quakes on the continental US — New Madrid. In the winter of 1811-1812, the area (yes, it’s smack-dab in the center of the US, not near any plate boundaries) was hit by a series of earthquakes, the strongest of them recorded about 8.0 on the Richter scale. Historically, this area has been seismically active around every 200 years. You do the math.
**This is the end of your seismic public service announcement for the day.**
P.S. See, Mom and Dad — I really payed attention in that disasterology class I took!
Snart // February 27, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Disasterology?! Is THAT what they teach at Stanford?
I’ll take the earthquakes and fires…someone else can have the flooding and the tornados. I’d rather see books flying rather than houses and cows!
Patti // February 28, 2008 at 2:22 am
Yes, Meg, Farch. That’s the snowy, freezing, 59 (or 60 with leap year)-day month that extends from February 1 to March 31.
Meg // February 28, 2008 at 7:37 am
Kate, I do see that you paid attention in disasterology class. I’m worried about your attention span in spelling class, however.
djpaterson // February 28, 2008 at 9:41 am
Education costs, Meg, and it’s obvious that you’ve imbued that thought on Kate.
Leave a Comment