Earthquake Felt Throughout Britain
MANCHESTER, England (AP) - An earthquake struck Britain early Wednesday and was felt across large parts of the country. Police reported some minor damage to homes but no injuries.
The 4.7-magnitude quake struck at about 1 a.m. and was centered about 125 miles north of London, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“It was scary,” David Somerset told The Associated Press by telephone from Driffield, around 60 miles from the epicenter. He was working on the computer at the time.
“It was a strange sensation as the room, ornaments and chest of drawers started wobbling and making a loud rumbling noise,” he said.
Many other people in southern, central and northern England reported feeling their homes shaken by the earthquake in a country where such tremors are uncommon.
Lincolnshire police said they had received dozens of phone calls about the temblor and that some minor damage to homes had been reported.
The North West Ambulance service said its crews had also reported feeling the quake but had received “no actual calls from the public,” said a spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the service’s policy.
John Jenkin of Bourne said the jolt knocked objects from the shelves of his home.
“I was woken up. It was hell,” he said.
A woman in Notting Hill, a wealthy section of London, reported that her radio was bumping up and down on a shelf for several seconds.
A quake of magnitude 4.7 is capable of causing moderate to considerable damage. The BBC said between 150 and 200 quakes occur in Britain annually, but only 10 percent are strong enough to be felt.
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drillanwr, you live around Lake Erie. Do you remember an earthquake that was center under the lake back in the middle 80s. I felt it in Buffalo. First and only one I ever felt. It wasn’t a shaker, more like a swayer, made you think it must have been something you ate. They say there’s an active fault line where you live.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:31 pmMaybe it’s God’s early warning system giving the Brits a wake-up call about the impending Jihad their facing
February 26th, 2008 at 9:01 pmthere have been 55 earthquakes of 2.0 or larger in Ohio in the last decade. not sure whats up with that, seems a little too active to me. according to the Ohio Seismic Network. there was a 3.1 magnitude underneath lake Erie back in January
February 26th, 2008 at 9:08 pmI’m about a mile from the Mississippi and we are all just waiting for the “big one” from the New Madrid fault so we can surf to Chicago. Looking forward to the “Great Inland Sea”! I’m up on nice solid stone shelf so I may have waterfront property. It’s not much of and investment strategy but its all I’ve got.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:31 pmheaven forbid, i was waiting for global warming to make the second city the first city, we don’t need no shaking going on in chicago but jerry lee lewis.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:12 amon the USGS web page i counterd 540 earthquakes so far this year…
February 27th, 2008 at 2:30 amI thought I felt a bit dizzy a couple of nights ago …
The Earth is on the move! Yee-ha!
February 28th, 2008 at 1:18 amShook the dress right off gran-mum…
Mike3481:
>early warning system giving the Brits a wake-up call
Yeah, wait’ll the Jihadis come to town… Oh, wait…
May 16th, 2008 at 11:53 pmThey’re *already* in town