• Question: Does the uk get any earthquakes and if so how often?

    Asked by lucysugden to Davie, James V, Gemma, James P, Nuala on 25 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by bvbmonster, ivanovich9810, re09, remy123.
    • Photo: Davie Galloway

      Davie Galloway answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      YES, between 150 and 200 earthquakes are detected and located in the UK, by the British Geological Survey every year. Although we are distant from the nearest plate boundary, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, earthquakes occur as crustal stresses within the tectonic plates are relieved by movement occurring on pre-existing fault planes. The risk from these earthquakes is not insignificant and must be considered when engineering for sensitive installations.

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hi guys,

      Yep, we get lots of earthquakes, but most of them are too small for you to feel. It all depends on magnitude. You might be able to feel a magnitude 3, but it wouldn’t do any damage. Magnitude 4 might begin to do a small amount of damage, but mainly just knocking down some chimney pots and the odd roof tile. Magnitude 5 is where things begin to get a little more dangerous, but only near the epicenter. Davie probably has more accurate information, but as far as I’m aware, we typically get about 2 or 3 magnitude 3 quakes a year, we’ll get a magnitude 4 maybe every few years, and a magnitude 5 every 20 – 30 years.

      Magnitude is a logarithmic scale, so the amount of energy goes up 30 times for each magnitude (so a magnitude 4 earthquake is 30 times as strong as magnitude 3). The big earthquakes in other countries you hear about on the news typically have magnitudes of 7, 8 or 9, which means that they’re at least 1,000,000 times as powerful as our quakes.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      Hi lucysugden, bvbmonster, ivanovich9810, re09

      I can’t add anything to Davie or James V’s answers apart from the fact I missed the small earthquake in Leeds last year because of the amount of rattling of my house that my washing machine makes when it is on the spin cycle!

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