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[Closed] Could a large earthquake ever hit britain

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[#1591071]

?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:37 am
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yes, totally.

the watford gap is the second most active fault line in Europe.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:46 am
 Olly
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oh please.

this has to be a wind up.
getting bored of stupid questions now.
has someone "borrowed" kaesaes account to troll with?

No Kaesae, it couldnt


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:48 am
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Yes Olly, it could. Ever is a long time!


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:49 am
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I don't think so.

Lots of little earthquakes due to the country slowly springing back into shape after having been squashed by lots of ice during the ice age (no, not last Winter).

But we're not near the edges of any tectonic plates.

[url= ]Here.[/url]


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:51 am
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Yes.
But equally, one day they could be a boy born who could swim faster than a shark.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:03 am
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Well it could but would be so far off into the future it wouldn't affect you - we aren't close enough to any Techtonic plates to feel proper earthquakes - we do feel aftershocks and very small quakes but not ones big enough to do proper damage.

As the Techtonic plates keep moving (one is being pushed under the other) - we are slow moving towards the edge of a plate and then we could well discover the joys of big quakes - but it's so far off into the future it isn't something we need to worry about as we'll be long gone and well past worm feed by then (assuming you don't believe in reincarnation in which case it will get you at some point!).


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:03 am
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Ever is a very long time.

Edinburgh Castle on the plug of an extinct volcano. The north western tip of Scotland was once part of the North American plate. Loch Ness is on the line of the Great Glen Fault and they reckon that the highlands of Scotland were once higher than the Himalayas.

Why couldn't it happen? There is no proof that it couldn't.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:05 am
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Actually it could happen, and quite soon.

As any student of history knows, huge amounts of coal, iron, lead and other minerals have been mined out of this country over hundreds of years.

It is a badly kept secret in the higher echelons of government that this has now reached a critical level, such that Britain is now only a few thousand tonnes away from starting to float.

Were this to happen, there would of course be huge "earthquakes" as Britain slowly sailed off into the Atlantic (or crashed into France, depending on the prevailing winds).

Fortunately, Steps have been Taken.

When the gravity of the threat was first realised, the Channel Tunnel was immediately put in place as part of a top secret deal between Britain and France to anchor our country firmly to Europe. To allay public suspicion it was explained away as being needed for "transport", but this was just a ruse to prevent widespread panic.

If that fails (as is widely expected) then "Plan B" is to utilize the vast numbers of propellers (ingeniously disguised as "wind turbines") that have been placed around the country. These will guide the country in whatever direction is desired. All that is needed for this to happen is to reverse the direction of flow of current from the National Grid. A single flick of a switch and we will finally control our own destiny.

Our great country will become a true seafaring nation, as it sails majestically around the oceans of the world, and a new era of British sea faring dominance will have begun.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:17 am
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Why couldn't it happen? There is no proof that it couldn't.

Well, except for the fact that big earthquakes happen on plate boundaries, and we're not near one. In a few hundred million years, perhaps, but in anything approaching a human timescale it's extremely unlikely.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:26 am
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luked2 - I salute your creativity in the field of paranoid fantasy 🙂

(unless you weren't being tongue in cheek, in which case you're mad as a box of hats)


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:32 am
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luked2 - brilliant! 😆


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:41 am
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High 5s Luked 🙂


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:44 am
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luked2 - it must be true - I just read it on STW forum. Inspired post that one 🙂


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:49 am
 Haze
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I survived the Dudley earthquake.

In fact, I slept through it 😕


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:49 am
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Our great country will become a true seafaring nation, as it sails majestically around the oceans of the world, and a new era of British sea faring dominance will have begun.

Brilliant


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:50 am
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If that does happen, can we anchor it somewhere a bit warmer pls.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:52 am
 DrJ
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Well, except for the fact that big earthquakes happen on plate boundaries ...

Not always ...
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake[/url]


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 10:08 am
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Full speed ahead Capt Luke - can we go South a few hundred miles?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 10:42 am
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We're nearer to a plate boundary than you think. How do you think the Alps and the Pyrenees were formed?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 10:43 am
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oh please.

this has to be a wind up.
getting bored of stupid questions now.
has someone "borrowed" kaesaes account to troll with?

No Kaesae, it couldnt

How's it a 'stupid question'? Perfectly reasonable one to me, and one that could lead to some interesting and enlightening responses. It's your response that's stupid, if you ask me.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 10:56 am
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The simple response would be "we're not on a fault line, any quake would be minor".

We're nearer to a plate boundary than you think. How do you think the Alps and the Pyrenees were formed?

Plenty distant enough to dissipate quake energy to the point where we'd bearly feel it.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 10:58 am
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I know where the plate boundaries are!

Depends what you mean by big I suppose:

Research suggests that the largest possible earthquake in the UK is around 6.5.

From the BGS website.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 11:04 am
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If Leeds hadn't gained promotion on Saturday we could have had one - epicentre Elland Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 11:05 am
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They think a large movement of plates of southern Ireland caused a tsunami to devastate the Somerset levels a few hundred years ago.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 11:41 am
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The original church on top of Glastonbury Tor was demolished by an earthquake. Either it was a big quake, or building regs were still in their infancy 🙂


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 11:51 am
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why Kael?
You thinking of putting some of your special grease in the faultline to make the plates slide over each other easier? 👿 😀

(sorry couldnt resist getting in there before someone else did!)


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 12:02 pm
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Our great country will become a true seafaring nation, as it sails majestically around the oceans of the world, and a new era of British sea faring dominance will have begun.

And we shall indoctrinate the world with political correctness, force foreigners to become health and safety obsessed and we'll ensure everyone has free healthcare and an unbelievable raft (groan) of other benefits.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 12:12 pm
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erm - have you all forgotten the earthquake last year? It was something like 8 on the richter scale and made lots of chimneys fall down. Lots of people were shouting about it the next day, but i managed to sleep right through it (and was only about 8 miles from the epicentre).

So - yes - large earthquake could and did hit britain.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 2:23 pm
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Lol! 8 on the Richter scale is the same as the 1906 San Francisco one and the 2008 Sichuan that killed 68,000 people. The one you slept though was NOT a big earthquake, otherwise by definition you'd have woken up and it'd have toppled more than a few chimney pots!

How could it have been large and so benign?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 2:28 pm
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The UK is on a fairly stable piece of continental crust, and unlike the Pacific, the North Atlantic isn't ringed by subduction zones.

Iceland is one of the nearest plate boundaries to us, but as this is on the mid Atlantic mid ocean ridge it is a constructive plate margin (ie volcanic activity leading to the production of new crustal rock) rather than a destructive plat margin (subduction zone).

The Alps are indeed the result of active plate movements - the African Plate colliding with Europe - much of the volcanic and seismic activity with this collision is associated with the various micro-plates in the Mediterranean.

So in geological timecales - yes, but likley to be very far into the future.

In human timescales - very very unlikely


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 2:39 pm
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the 2008 quake (biggest in 25 yrs) was 5.2 not 8

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/
thats alot more than I would have thought in last month
(although all only a similar intensity to my wife having a good fart!)

http://www.geologyshop.co.uk/ukequakes.htm
The average recurrence the UK may expect can be described as follows:
an earthquake of 3.7 or larger every 1 year
an earthquake of 4.7 or larger every 10 years
an earthquake of 5.6 or larger every 100 years.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 2:40 pm
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Geologists know their stuff ok, but they seem pretty bad at web design.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 2:50 pm
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At the risk of swelling his head, further repsect innit Luke. 😀


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 3:01 pm
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So which tyres for a 4.7 earthquake?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 3:07 pm
 DrJ
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The average recurrence the UK may expect can be described as follows:
an earthquake of 3.7 or larger every 1 year
an earthquake of 4.7 or larger every 10 years
an earthquake of 5.6 or larger every 100 years.

That may or may not be right, but it's based on a very small database and may not be correct. The New Madrid event that I mentioned above would not be expected from an analysis like that.


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 3:50 pm
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yeah....but u will probly be dead before it happens...


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 5:49 pm
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it could happen given enough geological time as indeed could almost anything given enough time..... except you seeing sense that will never happen


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 6:44 pm
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Q. which tyres for an earthquake?

A. Specialized Ground Controls


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 7:33 pm
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OK - i was a little over enthusiastic about the scale (should have googled it first) i was just disappointed to have missed it when my parents 100miles away didnt! - [url= http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/recent_events/uk_special/market_rasen_27022008.htm ]earthquake info[/url] but is that not still a sign that a 'large' earthquake could happen?

What is the definition of 'large'?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:07 pm
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Evening.

By large I mean 6.5 to 7.5 on the richter. Isn't it a lot more likely that because of all the mining especially for oil that earth quakes will occur a lot more frequently.

After all doesn't the oil act as a large dampening unit for the crust, what woulds happen if a large piece of crust suddenly broke of and sank?

This is from my other thread but I thought you would be more likely to help me research it.

I've been having more of my crazy thoughts.

As I said the earth must realign its self to the cosmos and to do this it must tilt on it's axis.

Which is what it appears to be trying to do!

http://www.breakingnewsandsport.com/chile-earthquake-knocked-earth-off-its-axis/6191050/

What if this and all the other large scale earth quakes are just signs that this event is drawing closer.

Look at it this way, if we are seeing an increase in massive earth quakes and eruptions and also extreme weather it's because there is pressure building under the earth’s crust.

The magnetic north is also moving,

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2009/12/091224-north-pole-magnetic-russia-earth-core.html

We can see from every day events that there is something happening under the earth’s crust.

Are we to believe that these events and climate change are not related? That the amount of energy that is being produced at the centre of the earth has no effect on weather patterns?

Some of the energy that the core of the earth gives off will be in the magnetic and electro magnetic spectrum, it will therefore have an effect on physical matter.

I want to investigate what's happening. Why let a bunch of government lackies tell us what's going on.

I know I'm a brain farting idiot but I'm still prepared to have a go at finding out.

We all know that something is happening, I will stop mucking about and investigate this, for once single track will you work together to see what we can find out?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:28 pm
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Some strong but not too destructive in Ferry Meadows based in Peterborough with damaged roofs being the worst.

Sounds like someone rolling their wheelie dustbin out!

Wasn't there a constructive zone between England and Scotland?

I dunno but I ran out of my house when the Earthquakes have happened!


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:33 pm
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zaskar are the earth quakes happening more frequently and how much longer is their duration, a lot is being made about the intensity and nothing about how long they last.

Surely the amount of energy being released is decided to some extent by how long the quake lasts. How exactly does the richter scale work, anyone know?


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 8:38 pm
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Umm Kaesae.. do some reading up and you might find out why none of what you wrote makes any sense!

By the way there are a fair few experts on STW in various subjects like climate and geology. They are already good at finding out 🙂


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 9:55 pm
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Hey molgrips.

I've taken your advice and did some reading, turns out umm isn't an actual word?

That shows what you know!

I don't want to do loads of research, as you have said there are a lot of experts on here with years of knowledge and understanding.

I would simply like to add my capacity to investigate the situation and analyze information from an unusual perspective to the mix.

What's the point in me starting from scratch, when all I need to be able to do is ask the right questions.

That said here are three questions just now.

1) Are there forces within the earth’s crust or core of the planet, that we can determine from observing the frequency, intensity and duration of events like earth quakes or eruption and also tsunami like occurrences, that are increasing?

2) Is there a correlation between the increase in how frequent these events occur and the increase in unpredictable or extreme weather aka climate change?

3) Have events like this happened before in the earth’s past and if they have would they have left a trace anywhere that we could use to study the frequency intensity and duration of the event. Either in geology or similar sciences?

I don't need to be an expert all I need to do is ask the right questions, I would love to research this but I have more work on than I can do as it is. The bottom line is I have no time!


 
Posted : 10/05/2010 10:43 pm
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