Last night the earth moved...

emma · February 26, 2008, 11:35:55 PM

Yes, the UK had an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale. It woke me up at 1am (GMT). The bed and roomm were shaking, my first thoughts were 'I'm awake, the room is shaking, I've not been drinking, but the room is still shaking!'

I thought it was a dream, it was only seeing the news that made it reality. The epicenter was about 80 miles from where I live, fortunately no-one has been hurt. It's the biggest quake in 25 years to hit the UK.

Jane · February 27, 2008, 12:35:56 AM

5.3 is a decent size, too! Congratulations!

I wonder about the damage bill, though. When we were in the UK we found it incredible the way ornaments were just resting on little shelves and mantle-pieces ... with nothing to hold them on in case of earthquakes. It looked pretty foreign to our eyes!

Vix · February 27, 2008, 02:14:36 AM

I wondered about my UK friends when I heard that on the news. I'm glad all went well with you.

Paula · February 27, 2008, 05:54:39 AM

Wow Emma!

I'm glad that Finland is not on earthquake area! (Althoug we could still have one, can't remember when we last had or how big (small)).

emma · February 27, 2008, 10:00:48 AM

It seems that nobody was killed. Only one reported injury - an man ran into the street and part of the chimney fell on him, he has a broken pelvis, and that was in a town about half way between me and the epicenter.

We shouldn't get quakes here - we're in the middle of a large tectonic plate, so there aren't any faults along the line of the San Andreas fault, but it seems that sometimes they just happen, apparently

Jane · February 27, 2008, 10:47:02 AM

New Zealand is on two plates - the Australian (North Island and the upper corner of the South Island) and the Pacific. Problem is that one plate is going under the other so they don't move smoothly.

We haven't had a 5.3 for over a month (last one on 20 Jan).

New Zealand Earthquakes

The last big one (that caused building and household damage) was in Gisbourne just before Christmas (20 Dec) - that was a 6.8.

Jane · February 27, 2008, 10:54:20 AM

I've been reading around and you guys have a lot more earthquakes than I realised.

Quote6.1 biggest ever recorded, about 120km off Great Yarmouth, 1931

5.4 biggest on land in Lleyn, north Wales, 1984

5.1 in Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, in 1990

4.2 in Warwick, Sept 2000

4.1 shook Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, Oct 2001

Eimi · February 27, 2008, 12:26:40 PM

oooooooooooooo The earth moved under your feet!

Sounds exciting lady!

emma · February 27, 2008, 01:04:35 PM

...and my bed too!... lucky me!

Yvonne · February 28, 2008, 09:15:52 PM

lol - you ARE a lucky lady, Emma! ;) I'm glad you're okay!

... and I've always been curious about what an earthquake would feel like. I live in the middle of a tectonic (sp?) plate so we never get the shakes.

Eimi · February 29, 2008, 07:34:08 AM

Think airplane turbulance but your feet are firmly on the ground and it sounds like someone is moving every piece of furnature in the room above you across the floor all at once, but the sound is coming from below you XD

And speaking of turbulance, Kyushu had some wicked turbulance today! Coming into Fukuoka we were about 45 minutes late landing because of the nasty weather. I could tell even the stewardess was sitting there wondering "When in the loving heck are we ever going to land?!"