Shake it ... shake it all about in Kent

[muckshifter]

An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 4.7 has shaken buildings in parts of Kent.

The fire service said it had received calls from people in Folkestone and nearby areas reporting large cracks in house walls and chimneys falling down.

The tremor at 0818 BST, which lasted a few seconds, was felt as far afield as Essex, East Sussex and Suffolk.

The British Geological Survey said it was the largest British earthquake since the one which hit Dudley in 2002.

Randy Baldwin from the US Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes, said the tremor had a magnitude of 4.7.

He added that the epicentre of the tremor was measured as being located 15 miles (25km) south of Canterbury and had a depth of 6.2 miles (10km).

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre's website said a tremor of 5.0 magnitude had been recorded at around 4.3 miles (7 km) south east of Ashford ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6602677.stm

Anybody shaken, but not stirred ?

 

[crazylegs]

Yep sitting on me bed drinkin me coffee this morning and the double glazed windows started vibrating, I thought it was a lorry or something outside that was ticking over and resonating and making the windows vibrate but there wasn't anything outside and all was quite...I thought that was weird and carried on drinkin me coffee and getting dressed...

I thought nothing of it as it only lasted about ten seconds and only realised it was a quake tremor when I saw it on the news an hour later, it measured 5.0 on the richter scale and bought chimneys and parts of buildings down....

I'm probably no more than about 45 miles from Ashford as the crow flies...

 

[cirianz]

Just remember if you're coming to live in NZ to avoid the North island
Not inclined to go live in a major earthquake zone myself
But have to say that a earthquake that small would barely make the news over here.
Only ever felt a few tremors way down here myself, with pretty much the same degree of effect as you mention, when something big happens up North or off the coast.
Been a long time since they've had anything big up there in an inhabited area,
But I'll still stick to my staid, stable island I think
It's funny though,
even as a kid I grew up with earthquake safety adds on TV (same as the fire safety type adds) & always took them for granted. I'm guess you don't have them up there?
I wonder if they bother mentioning to all those busloads of imigrants that're flooding over here that those cute looking cone shaped mountains up north are still active underneath all that snow?
Had to close off the main highway & evacuate a town up north a few months ago when one of them 'burped' ash everywhere.
& although we haven't had anything serious down here in forever... Anytime you live under a 'young' tectonic mountain range (ie the southern alps) you really are moving into an earthquake zone.
Never really thought about it before.
you just bolt your bookcases to the wall & forget about it.
Not trying to offend, just curious about how much what i think of as 'common knowledge' is actually a result of all those adds I grew up with,
But how many of you know 'off the top of your head' what to do if there's an earthquake?