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The Earthquake in South Wales

Abstract

THE earthquake which occurred in South Wales on June 27 at about 9.45 am. ranks among the strongest shocks of which we have had any experience in this country. It was felt over the whole of Wales, and throughout the greater part of the west and south- west of England. Judging from the accounts which I have already received, the disturbed area must exresearch tend some distance to the north of Liverpool; towards the east it includes Northampton and Maidenhead, and approaches to within about twenty miles of London, while the southern boundary lies in the English Channel to the south of I)orset, Devon, and Cornwall. I have not yet obtained any observations from Ireland, but there can be little doubt that the shock was sensible over most of the counties of Wick-low and Wexford. A first rough estimate makes the disturbed area nearly circular in form, about 280 miles in diameter, and about 60,000 square miles in area. The shock, which affected a region greater than the combined areas of England and Wales, was naturally of considerable strength within the central district. It is too early to make any estimate of the total damage to buildings, but the first reports show that a very large number of chimneys were thrown down, especially in Swansea, where the number is said to amount to several hundred. From Kidwelly on the west to beyond Neath on the east, and from Glanamman on the north to beyond Swansea on the south, it will probably be found that few towns and villages have escaped some injury. The isoseismal line of intensity 8, or the curve which bounds the area of slight damage to buildings, seems to be roughly elliptical in form, about twenty-eight miles from east to west and eighteen to twenty miles from north to south, or a little more than 100 square miles in area.

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DAVISON, C. The Earthquake in South Wales . Nature 74, 225–226 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/074225b0

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