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QUAKE SPECIAL: Tremors 'very significant'
INTERNATIONAL earthquake specialists said today that the overnight tremors that affected much of England were "very significant" for a country not considered to be a seismic hot spot.
The epicentre of the tremors that struck just before 1am today has been located at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, by the British Geological Survey which registered the event at 5.3 on the Richter Scale - equivalent to tremors usually found in hotspots like California.
Witnesses from Liverpool to London also felt the effects.
Read the stories of Star readers who were rocked by the quake and tell us what happened to you, click here.
The United States Geological Survey had earlier recorded the event at 4.7 and a geophysicist from the agency claimed that, while the event was "light to moderate" on a world scale, it was "very significant", given the UK's relatively uneventful seismic history.
Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information service, said: "It was a light to moderate event in relation to what has happened in Indonesia recently.
"What is interesting about this event is that it was in an area where you would not expect it.
"In an aseismic area like this it is very significant. The UK usually has minor activity - it's not particularly seismic and usually falls in the range of two to three on the Richter scale.
"Usually something in the range of four to five is what you would expect closer to a tectonic boundary - Indonesia or California for example."
However, Mr Abreu said that no area could be immune from earthquake activity, saying: "Recently we had a 6.3 event in Nevada which was the first one there. These are events which are rare but one of those things that can happen.
"The truth is that it can happen anywhere in the world, any place in the world."
Mr Abreu said that just because a given geographical area does not have a tradition of earthquakes does not mean it can be considered immune.
"If you go back 30 or 40 years ago you did not have so many seismic stations around the world. So you can not know for sure what they had in the past.
"Now they are being processed and recorded so we can not be sure of previous history."
Referring to this morning's tremors, Mr Abreu said: "Basically the British Geological Survey gave it at that 5.3. When we located it we had it at 4.7 - so it was definitely in that range - four to five."
READ MORE OF OUR QUAKE SPECIAL:
Did the earth move for you?
Star readers rocked by tremor
Earthquakes: The facts
Main news index
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Light snow
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