Sunday, February 5, 2017

U.K. Safe and Sound

The United Kingdom doesn't have a long history of earthquakes, or any at all, because the the U.K. sits in the middle of the Eurasion Tectonic Plate.

Although, this country does have 50-60 earthquakes a year, the worst they get are only enough to crack windows or ruin a game of Jinga. This is because the faults below are are so far down and covered with such hard rock that they go unnoticed.

The worst earthquakes in the countries history include the more recent 1931 Dodger Bank Earthquake where a 6.1 quake hit off of the countries northern coastline toppling chimneys and older structures. One of the worst earthquake was the 1884 Colchester Quake that hit more towards the mainland and damaged around 1250 buildings and killed 4 to 5 people. Although, in 1580 what is known as the Dover Straights Earthquake measured closer to a magnitude of 6, but most of the information recorded involved individual testimonies and unsubstantiated data.

So, even though the country is safe and sound from earthquakes; floods, snow and heat are the worst this country has to deal with which is enough for any country to worry about.

Sources:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580014/Under-pressure-Why-we-get-earthquakes-in-Britain.html

1 comment:

  1. Hi, This post seems to be focused on quakes, which is what we are doing this week...I presume you haven't done yet post 2, about the relation between UK and plate tectonics...that should be posted before so it explains some of the hazards your country might or not have..

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