Blimey.That’s a new life experience for me. We’ve just been hit by what seems to be Earth tremors circa 1am. The radio tells a similar tale across the south east of the UK including Bedfordshire and over a wider area including Leicestershire, Sheffield, Norfolk ,Birmingham and Manchester. We’re yet to hear where the epicentre was but all we experienced here was around 6 seconds of steady vibration like somebody was shaking
the sofa I was sitting on.
An Interesting start to Wednesday anyway.
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UPDATE:Thanks everyone for your continuing comments and experiences.As we now know this was felt over a wide area of the UK with the epicentre in Market Rasen in Lincolnshire with a magnitude of 5.3, the largest quake in the UK for 25 years. No serious damage reported I believe other than some structural incidences.
Photo by djwudi under this creative commons license
42 Comments
February 27, 2008 at 1:59 am
We were woken up in bed at 1.00 this morning by the house shaking violently. We live in York.
February 27, 2008 at 2:01 am
Hi
Yes, I live near Loughborough in Leicestershire
Not much scares me, but that did!
My whole house shook for about 40 seconds
Apparently, the epicentre was near Hull
February 27, 2008 at 2:01 am
That was scary! I’m in Eyam, my boyfriend’s in Sheffield and my sister’s in Liverpool and we all felt it! Lincoln was the epicentre according to sky news and bbc
February 27, 2008 at 2:01 am
I just heard that the Epicenter was Hull and Lincolnshire i think…
February 27, 2008 at 2:02 am
Yeah! I thought we has poltergeist activity so I called the local police station. Poor guy answering the phones had 5000 call backlog of people reporting same thing…
February 27, 2008 at 2:03 am
I live in Loughborough
We felt it
February 27, 2008 at 2:04 am
I felt it too. At about 3 minutes to 1am I woke up to feel the house shaking. At first I looked up thinking a very large animal was on the roof. Then I guessed what was happeneing. Picture in the room were moving and I lept out of bed. The floor was shaking and I wondered what was going to happen next. Things suddening went quiet though some electronic gadgets in the house were bleeping!
It’s on the BBC news already which is impressive.
February 27, 2008 at 2:05 am
I’m in London and i had the fright of my life when my things started shaking! About 8 of my friends felt it too!
February 27, 2008 at 2:05 am
I’m in Northamptonshire
February 27, 2008 at 2:05 am
I’m in the centre of Birmingham, near Aston University Campus. The whole of our student accommodation shook, and we could hear the wall cracking. We were just watching a film and the sofas shook for about 6-8 seconds. We were left speechless. Sky News has been reporting it, says the epicentre was 15 miles from Lincoln, at a depth of 6miles and 4.7 on the richter scale…
February 27, 2008 at 2:06 am
Felt it in London! must have been quite strong near the epicenter….
February 27, 2008 at 2:07 am
I was just sitting on my bed here in Norwich useing my laptop when the tremor hit.
I nearly dropped it on the floor just managed to grab it that was more scary than the tremor.
February 27, 2008 at 2:09 am
Good post… 4th on google!
February 27, 2008 at 2:09 am
i live in Ball Green, Stoke on trent and i also felt the tremor at 1:00am. There is only me up and i thought what was shaking my sofa, this is not the first one have have felt as a few years ago i felt another one when i was in bed
February 27, 2008 at 2:09 am
i live in rochdale. felt it as well, someone on my blog felt it in ealing in london.
February 27, 2008 at 2:11 am
two after shocks here too in Kirkby In Ashfield, Notts..at 1am
Frightening the cats are scared!!
February 27, 2008 at 2:12 am
Is anyone else now feeling too scared to sleep?
February 27, 2008 at 2:13 am
holy shit! that was a craker, first time i’ve felt the earth move (preston) x
February 27, 2008 at 2:13 am
we live in market weighton and got woken up by the house/bed shaking. to us it seened to last about 15 secs but time slows down when you are experiencing something like that.
very scary and i sincerley hope i never have to experience it again
15 miles nr lincoln seems to be the epicentre
paul
February 27, 2008 at 2:13 am
oh my god i’m wide awake now !
February 27, 2008 at 2:14 am
whats the chances eh -two paul knight’s leave a reply!!
PCK
February 27, 2008 at 2:19 am
I live in central Leeds on the 3rd floor of a university halls. The tremor lasted about 4-5 seconds, my bed shook slightly, like a vibration, backwards and forward, but not side to side. I felt it go through my stomach, and I was sure the walls tremored from the force too. Very scary, i thought it was The Exorcist ghost, but what an experience!
February 27, 2008 at 2:28 am
haha i thought it was the exorcist shaking my bed aswell!
February 27, 2008 at 2:36 am
Felt slight tremor.Didn’t hear any noise tho.Unlike Dudley one which was v.loud & felt much worse-obviously cos we were closer to that one.Can’t understand how people in London r sayin this 1 really loud & worse tremor cos we’r further North than them!
February 27, 2008 at 2:39 am
Has anyone else notices that there is a large RAF facility near the epicenter. Check out RAF Faldingworth on google earth between Lincoln and grimsby .
I nearly broke a guitar string when that happened.
February 27, 2008 at 2:41 am
I live in Leeds, woke up at about 1 o’clock when the bed shook and everything on the table was rattling. Really scary. Thought it could be a dream but I knew it wasn’t.
February 27, 2008 at 2:46 am
I live in south yorkshire and was awoken by the quake. being half asleep I didnt know what was happening and was absolutly terrified. I know how you feel claire I cannot sleep either now.
February 27, 2008 at 3:09 am
Well I”m glad it wasn”t only me who thought the ghosties were here and yes I can”t sleep now either. I live in South Yorks and it”s a long time since my bed shook like that. My neighbour phoned as she was terrified too.
February 27, 2008 at 3:10 am
BBC are now saying market reasin (big apologies for rubbish spelling, half asleep!) was the epicentre and it could have been as big as 5.1. Is there any way of predicting when an earthquake could strike? I dont want to turn my lamp off. So glad i was awake and had the light on when it happened!
February 27, 2008 at 3:13 am
Market rasen. Remembered in the end lol
February 27, 2008 at 3:19 am
sounded like someone had droped a heavey set of dumbells upstairs , the vibration was scary, Sparkhill in Brum
February 27, 2008 at 3:25 am
I was watching the F.B.I. Files, and just when a stick of dynamite exploded, I literally felt the after effects in reality, was this a coincidence?. . . . no, it was for real. I was completely shocked, the building shook not once, but twice, the second being for longer and was even much stronger than the first. I live in Leicester.
February 27, 2008 at 3:36 am
Several hot milk drinks later and I still cant sleep.
Gonna feel like crap in the morning when the kids get up for school.Four of them and I cant believe they all slept through it. Thats good though I suppose or we would all be up now wandering round the house like zombies.
February 27, 2008 at 3:36 am
As tied as I feel, I won’t go to bed now, does anyone else feel the same as I do?
February 27, 2008 at 3:48 am
We felt it too, in Evesham. Bizarre! Looked outside but I think we were the only ones awake in the whole of our neighbourhood. Everything was still apart from a burglar alarm going off. Just did a Google search and this site was the first that appeared! Glad we didn’t imagine it . . . !!
February 27, 2008 at 7:44 am
Thanks all for your comments and hope you all managed to get some sleep eventually. As we now know Lincolshire and Market Rasen was the epicentre with a magnitude of 5.3 which is the biggest quake in the UK for 25 years.
February 27, 2008 at 7:57 am
I felt it too, I live in Cambridge. A very odd sensation indeed. My wife thought I was going nuts when I woke her up to tell her…
February 27, 2008 at 9:01 am
Hi, I live in Bolton Lancs and felt it for about 5 seconds. I realized straight away what was hapening as I had been through a similar thing in Mexico 1999. No damage here as I know of.
February 27, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I live in barnsley,south yorkshire’ I wrote of my experience on my blog’the epicentre was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire with a magnitude of 5.3.
February 27, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Gosh, how busy it is here today. I feel all lost in the crowd.
I thought the earthquake was all part of a dream I was having as a result of something I watched on TV last night! I also slept through the Great Hurricane of 1987!
February 27, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hi RB- The last time the ‘earth moved’ around here(!) was the Buncefield depot explosion and even then a relative 12,000 miles away rang us up to ask as to our whereabouts and inform me of the source before I knew what it was (and that was a much longer noise -more a long whooshing which I kind of ignored) and then we looked outside to see the distant mushrooming cloud. That was quite apocalyptic. Circa 1am today I had the radio on as the tremor shook the sofa so was soon hearing others calling in to say they’d also felt something. Despite reports of animal alerts prior to the tremor our cat slept through it.
February 27, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I live in Alaska, which is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire…lots of volcanos, earthquakes and such. We have some duzzies over here. It is interesting to read comments from people who are new to the experience. Let me offer something which could save a life. Most people who live through major earthquakes do so by finding a ‘void’ space. Basically a void space is a space created next to soemthing that will hold up what may fall on you and crush you. If you are on a bed or couch, roll off and lie prone next to it–or better yet, snuggle next to a large heavy table, dresser or cabinet. People who are found alive in collapsed buildings are usually people who are in a void. One other thing, never stand inside a doorway holding onto the frame as the world rocks. Typically if a major quake hits, doorways fold and collapse, creating a sort of giant sizzors. So, get into a void–next to a heavy table, or even inside a big deep bathtub. I apologize for this graphic information. It may save someone–and it isn’t common knowledge.
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