Earthquake!
We had an earthquake here at about 1am last night. We were 90 miles away from the epicentre and it had a magnitude of 5.2. The younger children and I slept through it - in fact, everyone did except Ali (17) who said it felt like the house was going to collape. I wasn't comforted by the fact he didn't wake us up to tell us this!
This morning we were all chatting about it and Tom realised Lyddie didn't know about plate tectonics, so he explained the theory to her. This gave rise to the question that should have been obvious earlier, but wasn't: Why did it happen in Lincolnshire? Surely that's not on a fault line?
I think some of us are Googling, reading and learning to try and find out why. I hope they explain it to the rest of us when they have! Tom referred me to this page, but it doesn't really answer the question I don't think.
Also going on here this week is a serious question of stop taps - specifically the lack of an internal one in this house. We have to go outside and dig through mud and sludge to turn off our water supply. And, on a similar, related subject - have we got sufficient fall in the gradient of the hill to join up the new house to the main drains? It seems that we haven't, so we're learning about septic tanks.
Very appropriate for an off-grid house.
This morning we were all chatting about it and Tom realised Lyddie didn't know about plate tectonics, so he explained the theory to her. This gave rise to the question that should have been obvious earlier, but wasn't: Why did it happen in Lincolnshire? Surely that's not on a fault line?
I think some of us are Googling, reading and learning to try and find out why. I hope they explain it to the rest of us when they have! Tom referred me to this page, but it doesn't really answer the question I don't think.
Also going on here this week is a serious question of stop taps - specifically the lack of an internal one in this house. We have to go outside and dig through mud and sludge to turn off our water supply. And, on a similar, related subject - have we got sufficient fall in the gradient of the hill to join up the new house to the main drains? It seems that we haven't, so we're learning about septic tanks.
Very appropriate for an off-grid house.
posted by Gill at 1:38 pm
8 Comments:
We got it but everyone was up. Quite a tiring night all in all. Thanks for putting the link to your new blog :)
Glad you're ok Ruth! We thought of you when we heard where the epicentre was xx
Hmmm... this explains how earthquakes happen typically at the edge of plates, and shows the UK sitting right in the centre of one!
It's because of our turbulent geological past which has resulted in faults in underground rocks, causing zones of weakness and stress, so the underground rocks slip causing these quakes.
Oh, clever you! Thanks :-)
Yes its all very exciting isnt it. I had visions of Homeschoolers up and down Britain rubbing their hands with glee this morning "right kids - guess what WE'RE reading about this morning - wahey a learning experience right under our feet!"
;-) Boss very much unimpressed by it all. But then he slept thru.
Max woke up,assumed the central heating had exploded and went back to sleep!!!!
Apparently it is referred energy from the plate edges of the one we sit on that occasionally sort of reflects inwards as we have weaknesses underneath us. At least, that's what the BBC news said; they probably have a graphic somewhere.
LOL Q! Was Boss annoyed about having slept through it? I was, and Tom was too. We were kicking ourselves for missing it!
And Merry - ah, thanks. It's all making sense now :-)
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