Earthquakes in Britain

[rov1100]

Last week we had an earthquake in Britain measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale. Nearly 30 years ago there was an earthquake in North Wales measuring about 6 on that scale. Britain is far away from any tectonic plate. Therefore why do we get earthquakes in Britain?

[NazNomad]

Earthquakes can (and do) occur anywhere, they're not limited to the edges of tectonic plates.

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/

[ChuckFickens]

Yes it is to do with the fault lines that cross Britain.

http://www.esri.com/n...investigating1-lg.jpg

There are quite a few (though none near me :))

[rowanwitch]

we have lots of minor tremors and a few more noticeable quakes and there are a large number of fault lines running through the uk....in out ancient past we had volcanoes too. The movement of tectonic plates creates pressure in the fault lines that connect to them...these shift to relaese the pressure giving rise to seismic activity

[redman41]

The 19 July 1984 Lleyn event of North Wales, with a magnitude of 5.4 ML, was the largest onshore earthquake this century in the UK and was felt over an area of around 240,000 square kilometres

[wildwood]

Where there are mountains there are/were fault lines.

[Andyvon]

The Great Glen Fault in Scotland is the largest tectonic fault in the UK. It stretches across Scotland, includes Loch Ness and is the line of the Caledonian Canal. It's the fault that makes those lochs so long, narrow and deep.

The Great Glen Fault was formed at the time when Europe and North America were rifting apart before the Atlantic Ocean was formed. The fault then became stuck and the land masses above and below which form modern Scotland remained in place. However, the rocks of the fault do slip sometimes producing some of the largest earthquakes felt across the UK.

[rov1100]

Interesting about those fault lines which that picture showed clearly. Most it seems are on the Western side of Britain which I suppose caused the problems for the Lake District and Snowdonia.

What doesn't make sense was the earthquake in Essex on 9 Feb 04 where the community was shaken by a 5.8 one. No fault lines anywhere near.

[rov1100]

details of which:

http://vbulletin.thes...ndex.php/t-60691.html