1am UK Earth Tremor

2008 February 27
by Em²

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 shakingseismpgraph the sofa I was sitting on.

An Interesting start to Wednesday anyway.

——–

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

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42 Responses leave one →
  1. 2008 February 27
    Sue permalink

    We were woken up in bed at 1.00 this morning by the house shaking violently. We live in York.

  2. 2008 February 27
    Stuart permalink

    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

  3. 2008 February 27
    Claire permalink

    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

  4. 2008 February 27
    Frightened permalink

    I just heard that the Epicenter was Hull and Lincolnshire i think…

  5. 2008 February 27
    Miss Marzipan permalink

    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…

  6. 2008 February 27
    Stuart permalink

    I live in Loughborough

    We felt it

  7. 2008 February 27

    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.

  8. 2008 February 27
    Rachel permalink

    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!

  9. 2008 February 27

    I’m in Northamptonshire

  10. 2008 February 27
    Sofia permalink

    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…

  11. 2008 February 27
    conrad permalink

    Felt it in London! must have been quite strong near the epicenter….

  12. 2008 February 27

    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.

  13. 2008 February 27

    Good post… 4th on google! :)

  14. 2008 February 27
    Adam permalink

    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

  15. 2008 February 27

    i live in rochdale. felt it as well, someone on my blog felt it in ealing in london.

  16. 2008 February 27

    two after shocks here too in Kirkby In Ashfield, Notts..at 1am

    Frightening the cats are scared!!

  17. 2008 February 27
    Claire permalink

    Is anyone else now feeling too scared to sleep?

  18. 2008 February 27

    holy shit! that was a craker, first time i’ve felt the earth move (preston) x

  19. 2008 February 27
    PAUL KNIGHT permalink

    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

  20. 2008 February 27

    oh my god i’m wide awake now !

  21. 2008 February 27
    PAUL C KNIGHT permalink

    whats the chances eh -two paul knight’s leave a reply!!

    PCK

  22. 2008 February 27
    Faarea permalink

    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!

  23. 2008 February 27
    Rachel permalink

    haha i thought it was the exorcist shaking my bed aswell!

  24. 2008 February 27
    Joy & Gazz. Dudley. permalink

    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!

  25. 2008 February 27
    Sharpie permalink

    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.

  26. 2008 February 27
    Sue permalink

    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.

  27. 2008 February 27
    dawn permalink

    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.

  28. 2008 February 27
    Linda permalink

    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.

  29. 2008 February 27
    Claire permalink

    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!

  30. 2008 February 27
    Claire permalink

    Market rasen. Remembered in the end lol

  31. 2008 February 27
    miss p permalink

    sounded like someone had droped a heavey set of dumbells upstairs , the vibration was scary, Sparkhill in Brum

  32. 2008 February 27
    Sonia. permalink

    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.

  33. 2008 February 27
    dawn permalink

    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.

  34. 2008 February 27
    Sonia. permalink

    As tied as I feel, I won’t go to bed now, does anyone else feel the same as I do?

  35. 2008 February 27
    Nigel permalink

    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 . . . !!

  36. 2008 February 27

    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.

  37. 2008 February 27
    Paul Feaviour permalink

    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…

  38. 2008 February 27
    Denis Turner permalink

    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.

  39. 2008 February 27

    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.

  40. 2008 February 27

    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!

  41. 2008 February 27

    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.

  42. 2008 February 27
    canoerib permalink

    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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