EARTHQUAKE IN LANCASHIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21359, 12 June 1931, Page 10

EARTHQUAKE IN LANCASHIRE

SLIGHT DAMAGE TO PROPERTY. (Per United Press Association.) LONDON, May 7. ' It is not often dbe hears of an earthquake in Great Bfitain, but the publie had a reminder on Sunday that the Home Country is not immune from • them. , ; The tremor occurred shortly after 9 a.m., when 1 many people were at breakfast. It was felt in Manchester and throughout a considerable area of Lancashire. Furniture and crockery were, rocked and rattled, without warning, while’ pictures fell from walls. At Pemberton; people were almost thrown off their feet, and in the Broughton area of Salford many slates were dis- j lodged from roofs., The tremor led to a rumour which spread rapidly; that_there had been an explosion 1 in one’of the; coal mines in the Pemberton neighbourhood, and many anxious inquiries from relative* of employees were made. At 'Broughtdp the tremor was so severe that a number ; of people rushed into the street their; houses. $ • The tremor was particularly severe in the Eccles district. Property all oyer the borough suffered, and the "Eccles Fire Brigade was kept busy . throughout, the day pulling down chimney pots, tiles, and portions of buildings which had become unsaffc. • - This i story is also told. ■ On the Ghorlton golf links a putt by an .early golfer stopped within an inch -of the hole. As his Opponent ■ was making "his shot the tremor was sufficient to-move the first ball and it dropped into, the hole. . The opponent is wondering whether arjy provision ■is made in the laws .of golf for such a contingency. . CAUSE OF THE DISTURBANCE. Mr W. G. Jenkins, of 'Godlee Observatory, Manchester, stated that he had arrived at the .conclusion- that the tremor was due to the slipping of a large area of rock which extends below the earth’s pur- , face from- Pendleton, North ; Manchester, and Salford to LevChshulme., ' l '*• • ' “There is a large wedge of rock,’” he told a press representative, “ which cuts in between the general strata. It is called the ‘Pendleton fault.’ This’wedge slipped, and in doing so , caused the tremor. The last occasion- on which a similar occurence took place-in the vicinity was in 1905.” > , ; . ’