UK:Manchester Rocked by Earthquake

PRESS RELEASE
30 August 2007
Manchester Rocked by Earthquake
The British Geological Survey (BGS) recorded an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.2 ML in Greater Manchester at 05:46 BST (04:46 GMT). The BGS has received reports from residents throughout Manchester. The reports described "we felt the house shaking and a strong vibration", and "the building started to shake for a few seconds".
Summary:
DATE : 30 August 2007
ORIGIN TIME : 04:46 UTC (05:46 BST)
LAT/LONG : 53.48° North / 2.18° West
GRID REF : 388.2 kmE / 398.5 kmN
DEPTH : 4.5 km
MAGNITUDE : 2.2 ML
LOCALITY : Manchester, Greater Manchester
This morning’s earthquake locates in the same region as five other events which occurred earlier this month between 10-23 August; the largest event having a magnitude of 2.5 ML. All of these events locate in the same region as a series of 150 events which occurred between October 2002 and January 2003. The largest event in that series, with a magnitude of 3.9 ML, occurred on 21 October 2002 and was felt throughout the region with intensities of 5 EMS.
Seismologist Dr Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey said:
"An earthquake of this magnitude is not unusual in the UK and you would not expect any structural damage as a result of this earthquake".
The BGS records approximately 200 earthquakes in the UK each year on its monitoring stations. The nearest station in this case was about 20km from the epicentre. Approximately 25 earthquakes in the UK are felt by people each year.
Figure 1. Seismograms of the Manchester earthquake of 30 August 2007
Figure 2. Historical and instrumental seismicity (all magnitudes) within 25 km of the Manchester earthquake of 30 August 2007 since 1777.
http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/recent_events/uk_special/manchester_30_aug_2007.pdf

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