Saturday 28 April 2007

Saturday notes

Afternoon all from a brilliantly sunny Stornoway, with hardly a cloud in the sky. It's actually quite warm, and when I went to the shop a minute ago, I did not need a coat. First time this year.

Southeast England was shaken by a magnitude 4.3 earthquake at 8.18 am this morning. People ran out into the streets, masonry fell and a few homes were declared uninhabitable. It is one of the strongest quakes in the area for many years. Apparently, earthquakes in 1580 and the 14th century even claimed lives. The epicentre was located 7 miles south of Dover, in the Dover Straits. The quake was described as a "minor adjustments of rocks in the earth's surface". Full details on the British Geological Survey website.

Below are shown the seismograms for Plockton (about 650 miles from Dover) and Swindon (150 miles from Dover). The difference is striking. Both graphs courtesy BGS.



Swindon

6 comments:

  1. Never felt a thing and I am in the South East.  I see it centred on Swindon, at least I think so and that is in the South West.  Confused now, going to look at the website.

    http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/

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  2. Just across the water from me, surprised we never noticed anything. Hope it will not become a regular thing here now with the climate change.

    http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/

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  3. My sister lives in Deal in Kent Guido.  When I phoned her to ask her about the earthquake she told me she was in the middle of a supermarket carpark in Folkestone when it happened.  Her husband had just gone to get a parking ticket.  She said it felt like a loud underground explosion and then the ground shook quite hard.  She reached for the car handle to steady herself and became aware that the car was shaking too.  She was pretty scared by it all. Unfortunately she couldn't  complete the shop as the electricity stopped working so the tills etc couldn't work.  She ended up coming home to shop again in Deal. Shame really as she had big plans for emptying her husbands pockets too.  Lol!   Jeanie

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  4. Dan has an interesting opinion on the reactions to this earthquake:
    http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/entries/2007/04/28/shaky-english-understatement.../787
    I hope no one was hurt badly.
    Lori

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  5. I pray there are no injuries as a result of this earthquake.  I've been through several minor earthquakes during my stay in the Hawaiian Isles in the 1970's.  It is the wierdest sensation during a quake.  Nothing else like it and hard to describe.
    Sam

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  6. Wow!!!  Big doings!!!  Glad you are so north in Scotland and okay!

    be well,
    Dawn
    http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

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