Cumbrian & Japanese earthquakes - December 21st 2010.

With me half way through a course on the subject of volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, there has been interesting news this week about earthquakes in Cumbria, England and Japan.

The Cumbrian quake, a relatively modest magnitude 3.5 ML is unlikely to have caused significant damage, but was nevertheless felt throughout Cumbria, in Galloway and southern Scotland. Detailed info can be found at the British Geological Survey website here.

Meanwhile, on the same day, a more potentially destructive quake was experienced in the Bonin Island region of Japan with a magnitude of 7.4 at a depth of 14 kilometers. While we Brits might get excited by an admittedly infrequent but modest 3.5 quake, the Japanese have had to endure an alarming succession of 86, yes, eighty-six quakes between Tuesday 21st and Thursday 23rd December and all of them have been in excess of 4.7! I know aftershocks are likely after any earthquake, but 86? Scary stuff! Take a look at the list of mgnitudes on this website.

This will all be of use later in my course I'm sure.

Cheers for now,

Alyn.