Earthquake Shakes Southern England (1 Viewer)

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syscom3

Pacific Historian
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Jun 4, 2005
Orange County, CA
An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 4.3 has damaged homes and disrupted power supplies in southern England.

The quake struck at 8.18am, with the British Geological Survey placing the epicentre 7.5 miles off the Dover coast.

Householders said they felt the tremor as far afield as East Sussex, Essex and Suffolk.

Walls cracked and chimneys toppled onto buildings and pavements in at least four streets in Folkestone.

Sky News - Earth Tremor Shakes Southern England

A 30-year-old woman was taken to hospital with minor head and neck injuries.

Kent deputy chief fire officer Bill Feeley told Sky News: "Miraculously, we've had no more injuries than that."

He said Kent Fire and Rescue Service had been inundated with more than 200 emergency calls.

About 130 firefighters were making a number of damaged buildings safe.

Kent Chief Superintendent Alasdair Hope warned people to "be vigilant" and report any suspected gas leaks or structural damage.

Dangerous property emergency number: 01303 853 566/853 567.

Local energy supplier EDF Energy reported that thousands of its customers had lost power.

However, supplies have now been restored in the Folkestone and Dover areas.

More than 100 people who fled their homes were comforted by the Salvation Army with shelter and refreshments at a church in Folkestone.

Eurostar said the quake had not affected services across the Channel.

Residents said, when they heard the initial bang, they feared an explosion at the Dungeness nuclear power facility.

Bill Byrne, 47, from Folkestone, said: "There was a big rumble and roar at about 8.15am - the noise that was coming from my roof felt like it had caved in.

"We all came out and looked around to inspect the roof and other people's roofs and at that point saw the destruction."

Kent County Council chief executive Peter Gilroy said building engineers from across the county will be "systematically checking" properties in affected areas for structural damage.
 
Heard about this this morn. About 60 miles outside of London? I assume this is rare?

Well any sane person can draw on of two conclusions from this incident.


1) Bush did it, or;

2) It was caused by Global Warming. [see also (1)]
 
:evil4: You crack me up Matt. Earthquakes are very rare in Britain. I hope everyone is okay and the damage is minimal. Homes and buildings here in California are all up to seismic code. Obviously, things are a little different in the UK.
 
:evil4: You crack me up Matt. Earthquakes are very rare in Britain. I hope everyone is okay and the damage is minimal. Homes and buildings here in California are all up to seismic code. Obviously, things are a little different in the UK.

You would be quite suprised how many we have. Although they are very minor.

We also have more tornadoes than any other country. Only they are normally extremely small and occur in the countryside.

BBC - Science Nature - Hot Topics - Natural Disasters
 
You can always rely on Britain to grind to a complete standstill when anything remotely out of the ordinary occurs. You should see what happens when it snows; everything just stops working :)
 
syscom I agree that the US has more tornados than any country but you would be surprised. Here in Germany we get ones that are just as big as those in the United States (I know because I have seen Tornados, I used to live in Alabama). Last year there were a few destructive ones and one that even went through parts of Hamburg.

As for the climate not being conducive to tornado formation, you obviously have not been to Europen over the last few years and seen the climate change that has happened.

This year alone there has been three F-3s and two F-2s and many small ones.

Last year there were 108 tornados in Germany (granted that is nothing compared to the aprox. 1000 that happened in the US in 2006) but for a country the size of Germany that is quite a bit. Infact last year there was a tornado in Nurnberg about 30km from my house.

Below are pics that someone took of the F2 that hit Nurnberg last year.
Schäden in Nürnberg am 28.08.2006
 

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The US has more tornado's than any country in the world.

The climate of the UK and Europe is just not conducive to tornado formation.

We had for this country a nasty one in Birmingham.

BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Tornado injures 19 in Birmingham

As I said we do have numerous tornadoes but they are extremely mild compared to the US. I have seen a couple while walking(I am not talking about ripping up trees or fences but more grass or crops being thrown around.)

Unexpected twists
 
As I said above Germany gets a little over 100 a year. Most are between F2 and F3 (on a scale between F1 and F5). About 2 to 3 a year are F4 and F5's.

When you take the size of Germany and England and the ammount of Tornados that each country recieves and then compare that to the size of the US and the ammount, that is quite a bit of Tornaodos and as your report said you are more likely to see a Tornado in Germany or England than you are in the US based off of that.
 
It has only been thisway for the last 10 years or so. Before now there was only an average of about 30 to 40 Tornados and mostly small ones. The Climate Change though over the last 10 years has increased them.
 

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