?

yes, totally.

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

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

Yes Olly, it could. Ever is a long time!

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.

Here.

Yes.
But equally, one day they could be a boy born who could swim faster than a shark.

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!).

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.

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.

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.

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)

luked2 – brilliant! 😆

High 5s Luked 🙂

luked2 – it must be true – I just read it on STW forum. Inspired post that one 🙂

I survived the Dudley earthquake.

In fact, I slept through it 😕

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

If that does happen, can we anchor it somewhere a bit warmer pls.

Well, except for the fact that big earthquakes happen on plate boundaries …

Not always …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake

Full speed ahead Capt Luke – can we go South a few hundred miles?

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

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.

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.

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.

If Leeds hadn't gained promotion on Saturday we could have had one – epicentre Elland Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire.

They think a large movement of plates of southern Ireland caused a tsunami to devastate the Somerset levels a few hundred years ago.

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 🙂

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!)

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

Geologists know their stuff ok, but they seem pretty bad at web design.

At the risk of swelling his head, further repsect innit Luke. 😀

So which tyres for a 4.7 earthquake?

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.

yeah….but u will probly be dead before it happens…

it could happen given enough geological time as indeed could almost anything given enough time….. except you seeing sense that will never happen

Q. which tyres for an earthquake?

A. Specialized Ground Controls

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! – earthquake info but is that not still a sign that a 'large' earthquake could happen?

What is the definition of 'large'?