Yorkshire Earthquake

[Autocar Publicity]

Did anyone else feel this? I did, last night, wondered what was going on. We only felt a couple of back and forth shakes for two or three seconds, if I hadn't have had my hand on the table I'd probably have missed it. Until I saw the news, I thought I'd imagined it, after all, we just don't get earth tremors here...

Now I have a new excuse for imprecise painting on my models!

[steamingyorkshire]

Did anyone else feel this? I did, last night, wondered what was going on. We only felt a couple of back and forth shakes for two or three seconds, if I hadn't have had my hand on the table I'd probably have missed it. Until I saw the news, I thought I'd imagined it, after all, we just don't get earth tremors here...

Now I have a new excuse for imprecise painting on my models!

Never felt a thing over here in Leeds! I wondered what everyone was banging on about on Facebook until I saw the news...

[richard]

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

About 3.6M, west of Ripon. About the size of last week's Coniston earthquake.

Getting the tectonic map out, it looks like the Ripon EQ was probably stress release on the southern bounding fault of the Askrigg block (there are actually two southern faults -the Craven Fault that intersects the Embsay line, is the other one). These faults were mainly active in the past (perhaps 300Ma ago), but as they continue to be weaknesses in the crust, old faults like this still show small amounts of movement as they help relieve stresses in the crust.

I also thought of cave collapse (Ripon has caves and pot holes), but this would be at the large end - also the modelled depth (6+km, but probably with large error bars) is a bit deep for cave activity.

Richard

[Dave]

And I thought I was the only one that made the earth move..................

[Bryan]

Does this mean we may get another quake further east? along the fault line.
Is there any link in the fault lines to the fault across Knottingley station area?

We didn't feel it but the blackbird nesting in the bush outside the window was certainly disturbed at the time.

[richard]

Maybe eventually, but it doesn't increase the probability of such an earthquake.

No connection with Knottingley. I would have to check the maps out, but I know the BGS maps show a lot of very minor ancient east-west faults in the Yorkshire-Nottinghamshire coal field.; plus a few more medium sized ones (large enough that there's that I'd be able to infer their existence if I was on the ground!). Still generally smaller than the faults around the Askrigg (Wensleydale) and Weardale blocks. This is old stress stuff - not active any more. Often very small throws. And often there's little to show they even exist (Victorian surveyors were payed according to complexity, so Victorian geological maps tend to be quick to infer the existence of possible faults!).

Richard

[mr B]

big holes every where around Teesside, coal, lead, iron stone, potash next will be Dogger oil and gas...one day it will give up the goat!

mr B

[richard]

The UK has had a Mag.6.1 earthquake in the 20th century: and it was in the Dogger Bank area!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Dogge ... earthquake

"strong enough to knock the head off Dr Crippen in Madam Tussards"


Richard

[PGBerrie]

My mother in Horbury, Wakefield heard and felt a large bang and thought a lorry had driven into her wall - nothing else. Apparently there was more damage near Huddersfield (chimney pots, cracks in walls).

Earthquakes can also be man made, admittedly on fault lines. We had a series of tremors (about 3.5 on the Richter scale) two years ago when they were drilling for a geothermal power station in nearby Basel. As a result they abandoned the project and we've had peace ever since - although sooner or later Basel is due for a big one.

Peter

[richard]

Correlating drilling activity and/or well pumping with earthquakes is notoriously difficult although there are a number of well known examples. The Geysers geothermal plant in North California is one. Yes the Basel "Hot Rocks" scheme has been much talked about. "Hot Rocks" schemes promise quite a bit and we're pretty close to getting it working in a meaningful way. Doing it in an area experiencing crustal stress is a problem - as Basel demonstrated. They're going to try it again in Cornwall. Very little crustal stress, so there are high expectations. (the 1980s attempt had problems with the granite degrading and breaking up too quickly)

We've also had small earthquakes here in the Dallas Metroplex area due to "hydro-fracking" (sp) which is a method used to open up cracks in a gas reservoir. We're actually sitting on the US's largest onging hydrocarbon development. In this case the economic advantages currently outweigh the disadvantages although hydro-fracking has posed groundwater problems in other places.

Richard

[kudu]

My mother in Horbury, Wakefield heard and felt a large bang and thought a lorry had driven into her wall - nothing else. Apparently there was more damage near Huddersfield (chimney pots, cracks in walls).

Earthquakes can also be man made, admittedly on fault lines. We had a series of tremors (about 3.5 on the Richter scale) two years ago when they were drilling for a geothermal power station in nearby Basel. As a result they abandoned the project and we've had peace ever since - although sooner or later Basel is due for a big one.

Peter

I'm roughly between Horbury and Huddersfield but felt nothing here. These effects can be very localised. In a meeting at work some years ago people at one end of the room felt a tremor but those at the other end felt nothing.

Kudu

[strang steel]

I'm roughly between Horbury and Huddersfield but felt nothing here. These effects can be very localised. In a meeting at work some years ago people at one end of the room felt a tremor but those at the other end felt nothing.

Kudu

I tend to find that usually only indicates those who were actually awake at the time.