Welsh homes shaken by earthquake

Feb 28 2008 by Sarah Miloudi, Western Mail

HOUSES in parts of Wales and England were yesterday shaken by the strongest earthquake to hit the UK for almost 25 years.

Residents in North Wales, Yorkshire, London and parts of Manchester reported feeling tremors lasting almost 10 seconds in the early hours of the morning.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the quake measured 5.2 on the Richter scale when its epicentre was recorded in Market Rasen in Lincolnshire.

Some householders in North Wales said the tremors were strong enough to cause beds and wall-mounted pictures to shake, while others living in England reported the roofs on their homes had shaken and said the noise during the quake had been “terrifying”.

Yesterday’s quake was the biggest to hit the UK since tremors measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale rocked the Lln Peninsula in 1984.

Staff at North Wales Fire Service yesterday reported a series of calls from confused and frightened residents in the aftermath of the tremor, although none were injured.

Sarah Roberts, of Ruthin in Denbighshire, told BBC Wales she and her partner felt their house shake during the quake.

She said, “Having settled our daughter to bed at 12.30am, we were both drifting off to sleep when there was an odd noise then a strong tremor. There was a rumbling noise and it just felt like the whole room shook.”

Sian Fairlie, of Deeside, also felt the tremors and described them as “rather scary”. She said they lasted between 10 and 12 seconds, and were the strongest she had felt in years.

However in other parts of the country, only weak tremors were felt.

Keith Roberts, who lives in Anglesey, said he didn’t think anything out of the ordinary had happened.

Mr Roberts, 54, said, “I was heading to bed at the time and just thought a car was passing the house. I would never have thought it was an earthquake, and wasn’t aware there had been one until I heard the news.”

So far only one injury has been reported following the quake.

David Nates, a 19-year-old student from Wombwell in Barnsley, suffered a suspected fractured pelvis when part of the roof masonry fell through the ceiling of his attic bedroom and landed on his legs.

Police in the Midlands said they recorded more than 5,000 calls following the incident, and officers in Dudley, in Birmingham, said 12 people walked into police stations in the area still in their pyjamas because they were worried about the incident.

Experts yesterday said that while the earthquake did not bring the level of destruction associated with tremors in other parts of the world, its rarity made it extremely interesting for geologists.

Dr Geraint Owen, of Swansea University said, “We get these kinds of earthquakes from time to time in Britain. They are not large by world standards, but we do get them about once every 30 years.”

Dr Owen, a geologist at the university, said more frequent and serious earthquakes are experienced by countries around the Mediterranean and in the Himalayas.

These countries lie on the edge of the Earth’s plates – large pieces of the Earth’s crust which shift causing earthquakes as a result.

Dr Owen added, “It is not anything people should be concerned about. They are not becoming more frequent and are not affected by climate change.”

Dr Simon Jones, of the University of Glamorgan, added, “It is interesting rather than terrifying. Interesting because one measuring five is big for the UK. There are about two hundred earthquakes here each year, but not many are felt, and a similar sized quake led to the collapse of Lincoln Cathedral in the 1700s.”

Typically, tremors measuring between eight and nine on the Richter scale are classed as large quakes. The Sumatra earthquake measured nine in magnitude, and triggered the 2004 tsunami which killed an estimated 225,000 people.