I have just felt my first earthquake! We get here in New Zealand a lot but I feel a bit "freaked" by it, even though they say its better to have lots of little one rather than one big one. I would rather do without!! So no question - just wanted you all to share my little experience.
I've felt two in my life in Norfolk!! I remember one when I was about 10 and my mate was over and we both fell over, then the next one I was about 23 and It was about 5am and all my shelves in my living room started shaking. Thought I'd share that with you too. :-)
We had one in Leicester about 5 years ago. It sounded like a rumble of thunder and it shook the house a wee bit, it collapsed a few chimney pots and did some structural damage but that was all.
I remember the one in Leicester that john has mentioned. My lad was always a real livewire back then and always into mischief. I remember us sitting in the lounge and the house shaking we just thought "what the... is he doing now." he was coming down the stairs at the time and started saying "it wasnt me mum, honest" LOL!
pretty weird feeling though, everyone came out of their houses all wondering what was going on!
Ive experience two in Greece. First was quite small the bathroom door wouldnt open smoothly. The second was in an open restaurant with a small thin tent over on it - hehe only way I can describe it, the sky was purple, green and orange and the side of the restaurant turned into a river while the restaurant was slowly getting more rain water on the floor. During the earthquake, we had to hold our plates and cups down on the table and lifting our feet up so they wouldn't get wet. The whole restaurant moved several times, really shook our bodies alot. Hehe I'll never forget these earthquakes.
Found out that the quake was only 10 kms away but 20 kms down and only 3.5 on the richter scale - so only a small one! I didnt realise that the UK had so many. No rattling pots here just felt the floor move. Thanks for your replies.
I once walked across a small bridge in Rotorua and my son came after me - and told me there'd been a quake while he was on it because it suddenly shook quite a bit. I hadn't felt a thing. Totally insensitive, me. But as you'll know, Napier was rebuilt very prettily after an earthquake, and in Wellington they play cricket on a ground that was once a harbour basin.
In January 2001 I was on Holiday in Baga, Goa. One day we were sitting by the pool when everything started to shake quite violently,it seemed ages before everything setlled down and about half an hour latter one of the waiters told us that there had been a major earthquake in Gujarat, with a lot of people being killed. Gujarat is quite a long way from Goa and we felt it quite strongly, it just goes to show what mother earth can do when she's angry
not really anything to do with angry earth, it's just huge tectonic plates straining against each other, going opposite directions and eventually ripping apart. Places on the fault lines between the plates get plenty of quakes (like California, or NZ) but others get some too.
Not so sure about Leicester, though, perhaps the gods of Leicestershire got into a fight?