The Dogger Bank earthquake

My next novel in my Radwinter series is probably going to be entitled ‘Earthquake’, which will be a literal as well as metaphorical event… my fictitious actual event happens in 1931, when part of my mystery is set, and in reality there was an earthquake felt in the *United Kingdom in that year, centred on the Dogger Bank.

Dogger Bank, ( Doggersbank in Dutch, Doggerbank in German and Dogger banke in Danish) is an area of the North Sea which was once above sea level and is the area between north Europe and the British isles – which were once part of the mainland. Doggerland, the name given to the area when it was dry, fascinates me, but the Dogger Bank is where the centre of an earthquake was in 1931.

On June 7th, 1931, at about half past one in the afternoon, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom sent shock waves out, all along the eastern coast of the country. It is fortunate theat the earthquake which measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, was out at sea because had it been on land it might have caused significant damage. The ‘quake’ was also felt in the Netherlands and Belgium, but in Britain  Filey on the coast of Yorkshire was worst afected and a church was twisted; elsewhere chimneys fell off roofs, and cliffs crumbled into the sea. It was even felt in London and supposedly  Dr Crippen’s head fell of at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum.

My fictional setting for my stories is a noon-defined coastal area, and being fiction, I can have an earthquake wherever and whenever I like… However, I will be mentioning the Dogger Bank Quake!