Here I am at the forefront of a news story...
My house just shook... Wobbled, Rattled.. Hummed...
Low frequency sound, vibration, and a very strange feeling...
Unease, foreboding, maybe this is what spooks animals in these circumstances.
Timed at about 00:56 a.m. Duration about twenty seconds.
It took a while of searching seismographs online... yes, there are some.. The British Geological Survey's site was too busy.
But
It seems there was a quake measuring approx 5.2 on the Richter scale, about 40 miles west-south-west of here.
Much of England had a brief wobble along with it.
Ho hum. Nothing seems to have fallen down.
Move along, nothing to see here folks...................
Oh. And Reuters are reporting no major injuries or damage reported- at half an hour after the event.
They're probably right, but. I suspect they're a bit quick in publishing, because if there were major chaos going on, I think it might take longer than that to check and say everything is fine.
Back to bed then.
Good Night All.
Data from USGS http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/
| Magnitude | 4.7 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 53.321°N, 0.314°W |
| Depth | 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program |
| Region | ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM |
| Distances | 50 km (30 miles) S of Kingston upon Hull, England, UK 70 km (45 miles) NE of Nottingham, England, UK 80 km (50 miles) E of Sheffield, England, UK 205 km (125 miles) N of LONDON, United Kingdom |
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 6.8 km (4.2 miles); depth fixed by location program |
| Parameters | NST= 50, Nph= 50, Dmin=291.4 km, Rmss=1.02 sec, Gp= 54°, M-type=body magnitude (Mb), Version=7 |
| Source |
|
| Event ID | us20 |
British Geological Survey Seismology Report later in the day gives magnitude as 5.2 richter.
PRESS RELEASE
27 February 2008
England hit by Earthquake
The British Geological Survey (BGS) recorded an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 (ML) on the Richter scale near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire at 00:56 GMT. The BGS has been inundated with calls from the public, media and emergency services throughout England.
Summary:
DATE : 27 February 2008
ORIGIN TIME : 00:56 GMT
LAT/LONG : 53.39° North / 0.35° West
GRID REF : 509.9 kmE / 389.0 kmN
DEPTH : 10 km
MAGNITUDE : 5.2 Richter Scale (ML)
LOCALITY : Market Rasen, Lincolnshire
Yes! My Wife Cathy was sat @ the computer & the chair she was sat on jumped up in the air here in Hebden Bridge! (I slept through it!)
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Soub!
ReplyDeleteMy one earthquake experience came when I was in the Sinai. We were doing PT on the rugby field when I found myself having to step back and forth very quickly in order to stay upright. I was a bit confused because I wasn't badly winded and I had not hit my head or anything. Then I noticed everyone else having the same equalibrium problem. Then I noticed the lightpoles on the sides of the field all swaying about fifteen feet at the top and all in perfect unison. It probably lasted about 20 or 30 seconds.
The guys who were in their barracks rooms at the time said there was a high frequency shake for several seconds before the beds and desks started slamming back and forth. We didn't feel the shake outside.
I was pretty impressed considering that the epicenter was in the middle of the Gulf of Aqaba and I was all the way up in the North Sinai around El Arish and Gaza. I can't imagine the devastation it would have caused if it had struck closer to Cairo.
Cool stuff!
Tony, It is time to come clean:- There was no earthquake. it was all a big conspiracy, and Cathy is complicit in this deception. Some of us decided we would play a big trick on you sleeping innocents, and I have to say it might have been her idea.
ReplyDeleteI feel guilty and ashamed that I went along with it.
It was my job to send fake Reuters alerts to news agencies around the world. Also to jump up and down in my computer chair on cue with countless others to spoof seismographs worldwide
Well. That's it. I'm sorry. Confront her and demand the truth. tell her she's been 'rumbled'.
Dave:
ReplyDeleteThat's a great story! You should write it up and post it.
Would have been fun to watch a video of that. -I saw once some video of an earthquake from a camera at a Japanese basketball game, everybody on the floor started stepping in unison as the net pole swayed and the lights swung. It looked like fancy choreography, apart from the terror on the faces.
As for epicentres, the village closest to the quake suffered no damage, but buildings cracked and chimneys fell twenty/thirty miles away.
Only one serious injury, as far as I know, to a nineteen year old student who suffered a broken pelvis when masonry crashed through his bedroom ceiling and pinned him down.
No, the pointy bit did not wiggle!
ReplyDelete