Earthquake Rocks UK, Shakes Up Humour In Kent Residents.

The biggest earthquake in seven years hit Britain in the early hours of Friday. The tremor that lasted around 10 seconds did not make much of an impact, with majority of the residents hardly feeling the ground move. UK residents have gone on social media to shame the earthquake.

An earthquake measuring about 4.2 on the Richter scale hit the Kent coast on May 22. Locals reported the quaking of shelves and tumbling of cups and furniture. In fact many folks slept through the quake and came to know about it through social media. The British Geological Survey, or BGS, received over 800 calls from residents who felt the quake. Many described it as a shake or as a “heavy object rolling over the roof.”

BBC reports that the quake has generated great interest on social media with British humour making the best of it. The residents posted “images of devastation” and memes which had tongue-in-cheek texts like “We will rebuild.” The hashtag #KentEarthquake has been trending on twitter.

According to The Telegraph, the biggest earthquake to strike Britain has been the 5.2 magnitude Market Rasen quake in 2008. Experts have reported that earthquakes of similar magnitude occur at least 4,500 times across the world. It was 260,000 times smaller than the 7.8 magnitude quake which struck Nepal. The Nepal quake was devastating, with over 8000 fatalities. David Galloway, the seismologist at the BGS, told The Telegraph that the whole of UK is criss-crossed by thousands of fault-lines that are not on the surface. "Fortunately we do not live on the plate edges -- for example, the San Andreas fault in California can actually be seen at the surface, but the faults in the UK are blind and most earthquakes happen at a depth of between 5km (three miles) and 25km,” he said.

Experts at BGS have warned that there might be over 200 minor quakes happening all over Britain every year. This minor quake did not have any aftershocks and the subsequent one may happen in one or ten years. Kent quake has not caused any damage except may be an internet data overload.

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