Spalpeen

This brilliant interactive map puts the Kent Earthquake into perspective across Europe. It’s a pretty big one for Europe!

Then, check it out across the whole world, and it pales into insignificance.

Only minutes after it happened:

http://twitter.com/pixeldiva/statuses/42816862

http://twitter.com/iKim1213/statuses/42809772

http://twitter.com/unefille/statuses/42831392

http://twitter.com/loudmouthman/statuses/42832672

http://twitter.com/richardbyrom/statuses/42845082

http://twitter.com/steveclifforduk/statuses/42845032

http://twitter.com/nocky100/statuses/42859152

http://twitter.com/dml/statuses/42849192

http://twittermap.com/search

The BBC was very late getting the twitter out, but their TV/web reporting pretty much kept up with my twitters. :-P

http://twitter.com/bbcvideo/statuses/42875822

http://twitter.com/Coneee

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/helicorder/heli_dir/SWN_SHZ_GB_00.2007042800.gif

British Geological Survey readout, pictured above.

EARTHQUAKE on 28/04/2007 at 07:18 (UTC)
ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM                7 km SE Ashford

MAGNITUDE: ML 5.0 

Data provided by: GFZ  IMP  LED  MCSM NEIC NEWS RNS  SED            

Latitude    =  51.11 N
Longitude   =   0.94 E
Origin Time =  07:18:07.7 (UTC)
Depth       =   2 Km
RMS         =   1.21 sec
Gap         =  85 degrees

http://georgero.bgdx.net/28/earthquake-in-england/

Romanian data.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007bsal.php

The US Geological Survey has chipped in too. They say 4.7 on the scale.

Just got this email from my dad:

“I’ve just been on the phone - I was waiting for your mother to bring me some tea (a rare event) twenty minutes ago when I felt an even rarer event - the room shook for about five seconds - I thought first that somebody had dropped something heavy in the attic but it kept on happening. I rang the environment agency and they had a report from someone in Romney Marsh - about twenty miles away [from Bridge], so not mining subsidence - must be an earthquake somewhere! Your sister’s rather scared…”

There’s sparse amounts of documentation of earthquakes in Kent on the web. Apparently a church in sandwich was damaged by one in the 16th Century. There was also apparently a large earthquake in Kent in the 14th Century.

UPDATE: Sounds like it was real. Sky News has a quick blurb on “earth tremors”, and the BBC is reporting that power is out, one person’s house slid for 10-15 seconds, and that one person thought it was “quite violent”