Last week there was an earthquake in England, today an earthquake in France which is only about 10 miles or so from us so we got a shaking too.

The French one was stronger than the English one, about 5.5 - very strange to have two so close together when we are not used to having any.

Oh Sue, when I saw the title of your post, I thought something else entirely. What a shame it was just an earthquake.

I assume they weren't strong enough to do any damage?

I don't know how much damage was done in France, it was six times the strength of the English one. To be honest I didn't notice it, I was trying to think what I was doing at the time to have NOT noticed. People were saying it woke them, it must have been fairly strong, perhaps I was on an exercise machine - one of those things where you walk suspended above the ground.

In reply to:

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Copyright JEP - 30 September 2002.

ISLANDERS were woken by an earthquake this morning, with aftershocks from a tremor in Brittany reaching the Channel Islands.

The Brittany earthquake measured between 5.3 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale, with its epicentre thought to be around 75 nautical miles from the Island. It was around six or seven times stronger than the earthquake recorded in Dudley last week.

Principal meteorological officer Tony Pallot said the effects had been felt across the Island. He said: ‘It has been felt quite widely around Jersey and the department has received lots of reports from people both here and in Guernsey.’

He added that it was believed to be the largest earthquake in Brittany since 1981 and that the epicentre was around 20 miles south of St Brieuc.

The initial tremor was recorded at 7.44 am this morning (pictured), followed by tremors after seven minutes, and again after 20 minutes.

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I was thinking, too, Sue, that this was more than we needed to know! However, you just had an earthquake! My! I was wondering, since the epicentre was in the sea...do you have tsumani warnings? Was there a tsunami? We had a big scary tsumani warning a few years back, and absolutely nothing happened! I live at the top end of a big channel and apparently this is a very dangerous place to be if a tidal wave every heads our way!

Not to worry, people in Brittany are reporting a few cracks in the very old structures but everyone's kind of amused more than anything else.
Experts say it's actually normal seismic activity.

I forgot about the tsnuami warnings, now those are scary out in the islands! I mean you're five hours from the continental states by plane and you have this warning, or worse yet "watch" meaning imminent...and you just wonder if it will pass!

The epicentre of this one was in France, not at sea, they just measured the distance in nautical miles for some reason.

So, how was your first earthquake ?
I being from Claifornia have slept through more earthquakes than I can remember I was in Okaland, California
the day after the big one in 1989. I guess familiarity breeds contempt, I've had people tell me they'd rather go
through a Hurricane or six Tornados rather than an earthquake !!
It dosen't sound to serious, but I guess it could be a bit unnerveing if you've never been through one before
take care !

There was one which was closer about 13 years ago, the epicentre was about 3 or 4 miles from my home, that one woke me but was only 3. something so not very large..... just large for us!