UK: Earthquake shakes Cumbria Region of North West Britain alarming residents
0 views
Skip to first unread message
Pastor Dale Morgan
unread,
Dec 21, 2010, 8:50:45 PM12/21/10
Reply to author
Sign in to reply to author
Forward
Sign in to forward
Delete
You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to Bible-Pro...@googlegroups.com
Great Earthquakes
In Diverse Places
UK: Earthquake shakes Cumbria Region of North West Britain
alarming residents
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:02 AM on 22nd December 2010
An earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale shook Cumbria
tonight, geologists said. The tremor happened just before 11pm,
according to the US Geological Survey. Cumbria Fire and Rescue
service confirmed the quake.
The tremor lasted up to 20 seconds, according to people in the
area. Hotelier Alan Robertson, who was in his 30-bed hotel in
Eskdale, near Whitehaven, described how the entire building shook.
'I was watching TV and there was this sort of really loud rumble.
Then the entire building shook,' he said. 'I ran out of the front
door, only to be confronted by my guests running out of their part
of the house. We couldn't believe it.'
Scene: U.S geologists pin-pointed Coniston in Cumbria as the
epicentre of the earthquake late on Tuesday night
The 36 year old, who had six guests at the Bower House Inn
including a pregnant women, added: 'The tremor must have last 15
or 20 seconds. It was sizeable enough to shake an old and
well-established building. If I lived in a city, I would have
assumed it was an explosion. I am still in shock. I can barely get
my thoughts together.'
A spokesman for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service said: 'We have had
confirmed reports from officers around the county. It happened
around half an hour ago. We felt it here in Cockermouth.
'We have had no requests from members of the public. At the
moment, we don't believe there is any structural damage.'
A resident in Kendal told Sky News: 'My house started to
shake...we went to our patio windows and the neighbours, they were
out. The first storey physically shook. My girlfriend said a
similar thing happened early last year. I looked it up on Google
and sure enough, it has happened before.
'Last year when it happened we had bits of plaster come loose but
nothing fell down this year. I do vaguely recall the one last year
but this one I particularly felt it. It was a little bit
exciting...something happening.
'It wasn't sort of life-threatening or anything like that, it was
just a bit of a shock really.'
Susan Potter, geophysicist at the US Geological Society, said that
in the last 40 years, six earthquakes had been recorded within
50km of the latest quake.
Of those two have been of a magnitude of 3.7 - in 1988 and 2009.
'This general region has had earthquakes of the same magnitude in
the past,' Ms Potter said.
Data from the British Geological Survey showed the location of the
quake as Coniston, Cumbria. The area appears prone to earthquakes
at this time of year.
Nearby Dumfries in Scotland suffered a tremor measuring 3.5 on
Boxing Day in 2006. Hundreds of people in the Dumfries area
reported their houses shaking violently at around 10.45am.
Seismologists said the tremor, which lasted around 10 seconds, was
the largest in the UK that year.
Kent also saw a quake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale in April
2007. Homes were damaged as chimneys toppled, walls cracked and
masonry fell as the tremor hit Folkestone.
Describing tonight's quake to Sky News, a Kendal resident said:
'We were just sitting there quietly watching the TV and suddenly
there was a thumping noise.
'It sounded like the next door neighbours running upstairs, that
kind of distant thumping. It just got louder and louder. The house
started to physically shake. A few things that were in the room
above us in the spare room fell off the tops of wardrobes.'
Karen Dickinson, of North Lancashire, told Sky News: 'It was just
a real herd of rumbling, which sounded like thunder.
'The furniture started shaking in the house. The children were
upstairs playing on the Wii and came running down. They were quite
scared.
'We didn't realise what it was. We thought perhaps it was some
kind of explosion. Then we assumed it was an earth tremor. This
one definitely felt stronger than the one in previous years. It
wasn't that bad but it was quite scary at the time. The room
actually moved.'
A spokeswoman for Dumfries and Galloway Fire and Rescue Service
said tonight people in their control room in Dumfries had felt a
'small tremor' and there was a 'bit of noise' at the time of when
the tremor was reported.
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said they had reports of people
feeling a tremor in Dalbeattie.