UK: Kent Woken By 4.2 Magnitude Earthquake

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4.2 Magnitude Earthquake

Kent was hit by an earthquake early Friday morning, measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale which shook homes for 10 seconds and woke up scores of residents. The  tremors hit just before 3am.

A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck Kent back in April 2007, damaging buildings and disrupting electricity supplies. Those tremor resulted in homes on five streets in Folkestone being evacuated, and a woman was injured.

The largest known earthquake in the UK was near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea in 1931, with a magnitude of 6.1.

Todays Earthquake was only the third to have breached the 4.0 mark in Britain since 2008.

Twitter seems to be taking it in its stride with hilarious show of ‘solidarity’ as the The Mail Online reports:

From spilt coffee cups to overturned garden furniture, Twitter is awash with images of the ‘devastation’ caused by a 4.2 magnitude earthquake which shook houses across southern England today.

Residents in the south east, particularly Kent, told how they were hit by tremors just before 3am , with the epicentre of the earthquake located just two miles west of Ramsgate.

The earthquake – which had a depth of three miles (5km) – was also reported to have been felt as far away as Watton in Norfolk, while there were also claims of tremors in Essex, Suffolk and Surrey.

Dozens of people took to social media to report their experience of the tremors, with claims of houses shaking for ten seconds and dogs and birds left distressed.

However, other posts made light of the incident, with one person uploading a photograph of an overturned wheelie bin alongside the caption ‘Never Forget. We Will Rebuild’.

Another, posted by Trumpton Police, showed an overturned plastic chair in a garden, with the caption: ‘Devastation in Kent after overnight earthquake. Damage estimated to be around 39p.’

One also showed a split coffee cup alongside the words #PrayforKent, while another of a water bottle on its side said: ‘Aftermath of the earthquake. #WeWillRebuild.’

Thomas Parker also made light of the earthquake, writing: ‘An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale has hit Kent – causing widespread mild peril and sending patio chairs scattering.’

Kent Police was inundated with calls about the incident, with the force taking to its official Twitter account to confirm it was aware of the earthquake.

A spokesman tweeted: ‘We are aware of reports of tremors being felt by residents in east Kent and are monitoring the situation.’

Melissa Budge, a resuscitation worker at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, was among those who claimed to have felt the tremors.

She told MailOnline: ‘Me and the staff nurse both felt it whilst we were helping a patient back into bed.

We both froze and looked at each other – meanwhile the patient had no idea what was going on around him, he didn’t feel or hear anything. I thought a bomb was going off. Scary.’

English literature student Katie Blackamore, 21, of Canterbury Christ Church University, also said: ‘I thought someone was shaking me to get up and then realised the whole bloody house is shaking.’

Retired administrator Terrence Forster, 71, of Worth, called into MailOnline to say that he had been woken up, adding: ‘We were asleep and felt the bed shaking – things on the bedside table were all ratting for seconds.’

Hannah Bland, from Margate in Kent, described the tremors she felt as a ‘terrifying experience’.

She told MailOnline: ‘I was so scared, I was praying it was going to stop, the noise was so loud, like a train going through your house.

‘It’s one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever witnessed. I’ve never felt anything like that before.

‘Lots of people were making jokes about it on Twitter but it’s a serious thing and it really makes you realise what those poor people must have felt like in Nepal but a thousand times worse. I will donate to the fund now.’

Meanwhile, Claire Edwards, from Herne Bay, said she felt the tremors while breastfeeding her four-month-old daughter.

She said: ‘I was actually scared. I felt a low rumbling, which felt as if it was coming towards “us” which then built up until we could feel the building shake from the ground upwards. I was very aware of the top floor above us shaking and the building moving.’

And pilot Simon Moores, 58, from Westgate-on-Sea, told Sky News: ‘There was a sudden violent jarring and shaking at about 3am.

‘Seagulls took the air and started making a noise, dogs started barking, all the crockery started moving. It lasted for about ten seconds.

 

 

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