Coventry University earthquake expert on Leighton Buzzard earthquakes - The Coventry Observer

Coventry University earthquake expert on Leighton Buzzard earthquakes

Coventry Editorial 23rd Sep, 2020 Updated: 23rd Sep, 2020   0

COVENTRY University earthquake expert Dr Matthew Blackett has been talking about what may have caused three earthquake tremors in Leighton Buzzard.

On Tuesday (September 22) morning residents in the Bedfordshire town were awoken by its third rumble in two weeks – with a magnitude of 3.0. The town felt its first earthquake, which had a magnitude 3.5, on 8 September and its second, a magnitude 2.1 tremor, less than a week later on September 13. All three were deemed fairly low on the scale.

Dr Blackett, an Associate Professor and reader in Physical Geography and Natural Hazards in the university’s School of Energy, Construction and Environment, said: “It’s very, very odd.

“What seems to have happened is that this was an initial earthquake in a hidden fault, some stress or other has caused it.




“These two subsequent events are a readjustment of the fault lines to come back to some sort of stability.

“The crust has to adjust itself to become stable again, that seems to have happened to the poor people of Leighton Buzzard.”


He said there was nothing in advance to suggest that Leighton Buzzard would be hit by the tremors.

But Dr Blackett said people in the area should not be worried about further tremors.

He said: “It is quite possible that that sequence is now done, but it might be that there are still stresses there.

“If there are (further tremors), I think it will only be minor events.”

When asked if drilling or preparation works for the new HS2 rail link being built nearby may have caused the tremors, he said absolutely not as the only significant work has been in and around west London. Even then, he said, any work will not cause problems.

On its Twitter feed this Tuesday the British Geological Society said: “We’re receiving reports about the earthquake, which followed previous events in the same area on 8 & 13 Sept, with magnitudes 3.5 & 2.1. Reports describe “only lasted a couple of seconds” & “just felt a single jolt, a bit like being in a car that has done an emergency stop!””

They have asked people who live in the area to fill in their ‘felt report’ to help their seismologists – earth scientists, specialising in geophysics.

An earthquake is the fracturing of solid rock. The British Isles has moved north from its position near the equator over the last 300-400 million years, with periods of tectonic plate compression and suppression. But, today, the country is in a stable position in the middle of a tectonic plate. It means earthquakes are unlikely.

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