Englands/UK Earthquakes and Seismicity
England is located in the Northwestern section of Europe, far from plate boundaries causing only minor earthquakes every once in a blue moon since there are no active faults. The geology of England and primarily the UK overall is so old that it has "hundreds of millions of years across much of the west of mainland Britain – and it is riddled with ancient fault lines that were once very active but are now virtually extinct." The last earthquake to occur in England had a most severe recent earthquake, of "5.2 magnitude, struck Market Rasen in Lincolnshire in 2008 and was felt as far away as Newcastle and London." It looks like London hasn't had an enormous earthquake hit in a while (over a decade). Since earthquakes are not expected within England's area due to a lack of active tectonics and plates, the seismicity is shallow (shown below). The picture below illustrates the empty amount of seismic activity throughout the entirety of England/UK.
Sources:
University of Plymouth: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/news/are-uk-earthquakes-a-cause-for-real-future-concern
Seismic Monitor: http://ds.iris.edu/seismon/zoom/index.phtml?rgn=Europe
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/uk-earthquakes-highest-magnitude-a4524201.html
Even though this seems not a huge hazard risk for the islands, what mitigation measures they have in place to address them? (tip: the seismic hazard map is always a great resource!).. and if they don't have any you can find, what would you suggest them to have in place?
ReplyDeleteHi Christian,
ReplyDeleteI like how you explain that the fault lines were once active but are now extinct. I also think it is a very safe country to travel to because of the shallow seismicity.
Hey Christian, I found it interesting that England has fault lines that are several hundred million years old. I wonder if England is the only place where fault lines are so old they have ceased being active.
ReplyDelete