Earthquake hits Manchester’s gay village
Residents in Manchester were woken today by the sixth earthquake in a month to hit the city.
Residents living near the city’s gay village, Canal Street, were amongst those who felt the earthquakes tremors early this morning.
People reported wardrobe doors rattling and buildings creaking as the earthquake measuring an initial 2.4 on the Richter scale shook the city centre at about 5:45 a.m, according to Reuters.
A spokesperson for the British Geological Survey (BGS) told PinkNews.co.uk:
“BGS have received many reports from the media and from residents in the Manchester area, of a felt event at approximately 05:46 BST.
“The felt reports described a weak-moderate shaking, enough to make beds and wardrobes rattle, and faint rumbling.”
Julian Bukits, assistant seismologist at the British Geological Survey, reassured residents that earthquakes of such size would not cause damage.
“You need a magnitude of about 4.5, verging on 5, for any damage,” he told Reuters.
It was the sixth earthquake to hit the city in the past month, all measuring between 1.4 and 2.5 magnitude.
A swarm of 150 tremors occurred in the same area between October 2002 and January 2003.
Seismologist Dr Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey said: “An earthquake of this magnitude is not unusual in the UK and you would not expect any structural damage as a result of this earthquake”.
The BGS records approximately 200 earthquakes in the UK each year on its monitoring stations. The nearest station in this case was about 20km from the epicentre.
Approximately 25 earthquakes in the UK are felt by people each year.
