A History of British Earthquakes

Davison, Charles

doi:10.1038/052174b0

Cited by 6 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…The Times (1892a) also reports this event in the river Yealm as well as stating that "about the time of the earthquake there was a rapid rise in the River Fowey [an estuary in Cornwall] as a great tidal wave, but this immediately subsided" (p. 4). Davison (1924) does not believe that the waves observed in Milford Haven and those along the south coast of Devon and Cornwall are linked. Indeed, The Times (1892b) report thunderstorms in the English Channel on the 18 August that may have spawned meteorological tsunami (Montserrat et al, 2006) along the English Channel coast, as later occurred with tragic consequences at Folkestone in July 1929 (Douglas, 1929).…”

Section: Near-coastal Low-magnitude Seismic Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…20 m in southern Cornwall (NERC, 1991), and the highest tsunami arriving in Mount's Bay in the 1755 event was recorded at ca. 2.4 m (Davison, 1924), it is likely that any tsunami signatures from the 1755 event, other than sand layers preserved in back-barrier settings, would have been lost or "overprinted" due to subsequent intense storm activity. Dawson et al (2000) indicate that "there are no known reports of the progress of this tsunami NE along the English Channel" (p. 61), and DEFRA (2006) do not include the English Channel or North Sea in their models.…”

Section: Far-field Tsunamimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mechanism for such sediment disturbance and entrainment may include the submarine propagation of the ground waves observed on land, submarine slides triggered by the earthquake, or tsunami passage. Davison (1924) reports a relatively low-magnitude earthquake occurring on 18 August 1892 at 00.24 a.m. in the Bristol Channel near the Pembrokeshire coast. Musson (2006) estimates a local magnitude, M L , of 5.1 for the main earthquake that occurred about 1.5 h before the time of high tide (Table 1).…”

Section: Near-coastal Low-magnitude Seismic Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figure 1 shows the locations of places mentioned in the text, and Table 1 summarises the events reviewed. Davison (1924) presents contemporary accounts, including Holinshed (1587), of a strong earthquake with an estimated local magnitude, M L , of 5.75±0.25 (Varley, 1996) that occurred on the 21 May 1382, which "was so vehement, and namelie in Kent, that the churches were shaken therewith in such wise, that some of them were ouerthrowen to the ground" (Holinshed, 1808, p. 754). There was then a second event on the 24 May when "earlie in the morning, chanced another earthquake, or (as some write) a watershake, being so vehement and violent a motion, that it made the ships in the havens to beat one against the other, by reason whereof they were sore bruised by such knocking together" (Holinshed, 1808, p. 754).…”

Section: Tsunami-like Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Historic tsunami in Britain since AD 1000: a review

Haslett

Bryant

2008

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The British coast is not considered at particular risk from tsunami, a view that is supported by a number of recent government reports. However, these reports largely ignore some written historic records that suggest southern Britain has experienced a number of events over the past 1000 yrs. This study briefly assesses these records and recognises four groups of events: 1) sea disturbance and coastal floods in southeast England linked to earthquakes in the Dover Straits (e.g. 1382 and 1580), 2) far-field tsunami reaching the coast of the British Isles, for example, from earthquakes along the Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zone offshore Portugal (e.g. 1755), 3) tsunami associated with near-coastal low magnitude earthquakes (e.g. 1884 and 1892), and 4) a flood event in AD 1014 that has been linked to comet debris impact. The seismogenic events range from minor water disturbance, through seismic seiching, to small and "giant" waves, suggesting near-coastal, low-magnitude, shallow earthquakes may be capable of triggering disturbance in relatively shallow water, as supported by similar occurrences elsewhere, and that the British tsunami risk requires a more careful evaluation.

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Section: Near-coastal Low-magnitude Seismic Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Far-field Tsunamimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Near-coastal Low-magnitude Seismic Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tsunami-like Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Historic tsunami in Britain since AD 1000: a review

Haslett

Bryant

2008

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…While it was considered in the past that this fault might be an active source of earthquakes (e.g. Davison 1924), since many epicentres are off the fault zone itself, it is more likely that the fault creates a zone of weakness of some width (Musson 2007).…”

Section: Recent Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting intraplate tectonics for seismic hazard: a UK historical perspective

Musson

2012

J Seismol

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It is notoriously difficult to construct seismic source models for probabilistic seismic hazard assessment in intraplate areas on the basis of geological information, and many practitioners have given up the task in favour of purely seismicity-based models. This risks losing potentially valuable information in regions where the earthquake catalogue is short compared to the seismic cycle. It is interesting to survey how attitudes to this issue have evolved over the past 30 years. This paper takes the UK as an example, and traces the evolution of seismic source models through generations of hazard studies. It is found that in the UK, while the earliest studies did not consider regional tectonics in any way, there has been a gradual evolution towards more tectonically-based models. Experience in other countries, of course, may differ.

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A history of British seismology

Musson

2013

Bull Earthquake Eng

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The work of John Milne, the centenary of whose death is marked in 2013, has had a large impact in the development in global seismology. On his return from Japan to England in 1895, he established for the first time a global earthquake recording network, centred on his observatory at Shide, Isle of Wight. His composite bulletins, the "Shide Circulars" developed, in the twentieth century, into the world earthquake bulletins of the International Seismological Summary and eventually the International Seismological Centre, which continues to publish the definitive earthquake parameters of world earthquakes on a monthly basis. In fact, seismology has a long tradition in Britain, stretching back to early investigations by members of the Royal Society after 1660. Investigations in Scotland in the early 1840s led to a number of firsts, including the first network of instruments, the first seismic bulletin, and indeed, the first use of the word "seismometer", from which words like "seismology" are a back-formation. This paper will present a chronological survey of the development of seismology in the British Isles, from the first written observations of local earthquakes in the seventh century, and the first theoretical writing on earthquakes in the twelfth century, up to the monitoring of earthquakes in Britain in the present day.

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A History of British Earthquakes

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Historic tsunami in Britain since AD 1000: a review

Historic tsunami in Britain since AD 1000: a review

Interpreting intraplate tectonics for seismic hazard: a UK historical perspective

A history of British seismology

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