• Question: they say that the earthquakes are getting closer to the uk what is the probability of one directly effecting us (tsunami, earthquake)

    Asked by eevee to Adam, Geoff, Rob, Sheila, Suzie on 21 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Geoff McBride

      Geoff McBride answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      There are lines in the Earth’s crust this is known as ‘The Ring of Fire’ this is were we see the really bad earth quakes and volcanoes. The good news is the UK is not on one of these lines so I think we’ll be fine.

    • Photo: Adam Tuff

      Adam Tuff answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Very, very unlikely – We live far from what are the techtonic plate boundaries – the points where all the earth’s surface plates join up – these are the major earthquake zones. We are lucky to live in a place where natural distasters are extremely rare, although we do have to put up with flooding.

    • Photo: Sheila Kanani

      Sheila Kanani answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      We had some when I lived in Manchester! They were only small ones though so nothing to worry about.

    • Photo: Suzie Sheehy

      Suzie Sheehy answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Who are “they??”
      I’m not an expert in this, but I believe that the UK is in a particularly safe spot in terms of tsunamis and earthquakes. Most big quakes happen near the edges of tectonic plates but we’re not really close to the edge. There can be quakes on the main parts of plates as well, but usually these are smaller and are just a result of the plates flattening out or sorting themselves out!

      Interestingly, one of the questions with climate change is whether or not it is increasing the chances of extreme weather events, like heatwaves or cyclones. I know this isn’t directly what you asked, but I know people are actively trying to calculate the probability of dramatic weather events here in the UK as a result of climate change. It’s tough because you can’t do experiments with only one Earth!

    • Photo: Robert Simpson

      Robert Simpson answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Earthquakes are caused by two tectonic plates moving against each other. The UK is not near any known plate boundary so as far I know they’re not getting more likely or frequent.

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