The LNER Encyclopedia

Hi All,

The recent earthquake in the UK caused quite a stir - well for most - I was a little disappointed 'cos I slept through it and never felt a thing, only to wake up just at the end, to the noise of the wardrobe doors rattling! And I'm only 16 miles away from the epi-centre!! Not that I want to be in an earthquake, but as I was there and there wasn't much damage, I would have liked to have at least felt the experience.

Apparently, it did rattle the house, but the gas lamps that I have made for the garden railway station platforms were stood up, loosely, on a shelf in the office and never moved!!

So, no damage - or so I thought! Then, when I was doing the final fittings for a new bridge near my rockery the following weekend, I found where the earthquake had hit. The viaducts at the rockery - here's the photo. The cracks definitely weren't there the week before. Still, it was the only pier to get the damage, so that was a relief - just a little "pointing up" should fix it.

Regards,

GeoffB

How does earthquake energy scale with models?

If linear (which I doubt), then 10x would push the "model earthquake magnitude" up by 1. So 7mm/foot would push it up by about 1.6.
An earthquake of "5. something" becomes close to a 7. Cracks would be reasonable for a non-earthquake proofed viaduct!

I've a feeling it is a square law rather than linear - it is probably possible to derive through wave theory. That would bump the magnitude up by about 0.8 - still in the 6+ range...


Richard (dubious model extrapolations R' us)

Hi Geoff

In New Zealand the earth moves for us over a 500 times a year, most are too small to be felt but we get some good ones, the last one that was felt on my model was 6.2 but as it was very deep it was felt as just a slight roll.

We have had them that shook the stock of the track.

You get used to them and when overseas you miss them.

TonyM

that pictue would get on the front page of a tabloid as sensational earthquake damage- they wouldnt mind it was a model!

Hope it fixes well. It would be a tragedy of freeze-thaw weathering got into that crack and pushed the front face of the pier off- a nasty little trick that frost plays!

Will

My father in law lives near Bawtry, and felt the earthquake. but he said that it was just beds banging, doors slamming and people screaming, in other words just a normal night where he lives!