Winchester
Earthquakes!
A recent earthquake in Winchester
appears to have led to subterranean shifts in the geology that have in turn
allowed remarkable sonic phenomena to be detected and recorded,
particularly in the area of Cathedral Close and the Pilgrim’s School.
The
earthquake of the 27 January 2015 occurred at 18:30hrs, with an epicentre
approximately 1 km northeast of the centre of Winchester. The instrumental magnitude was determined
at 2.9 ML.
Over 230 reports were received from members
of the public, almost all of them coming from within a 10 km radius of the
epicentre, covering Winchester and its surrounding hamlets.
Further afield, reports were received from
Southampton (20 km to south of epicentre), near Petersfield (30 km to east of
epicentre), near Newbury (30 km to north of epicentre), and near Bournemouth
(60 km to southwest of epicentre).
Over half the reports described the shaking
strength of the earthquake to be moderate, mainly with a trembling effect, and
described the sound strength as moderate
to loud. Over half the reports stated that windows rattled. Reports
described sounds that “felt like a
rhino had run into the house” and “A loud bang and feeling of impact as if a
lorry or vehicle had hit the building”.
One respondent reported that the sonic phenomena associated with the
earthquake were so pronounced that, “most of the other neighbours came out
into the street following the tremor”. Another said: “It felt like the chimney had fallen in or
someone fell down the stairs, there was a loud bang as if something heavy hit
the side wall”. In some areas, the sonic
vibrations were so severe that “items on the windowsill rattled and made very loud noises”.
Since this occurrence, there have been
numerous reports of ‘sonic aftershocks’ in
the Pilgrim’s School area,
suggesting that the earthquake has stimulated conversational, melodic, ambient and proto-historic sonic phenomena
through its disturbance of the underground strata.
This fortunate occurrence offers NISG an
opportunity to record and analyse one of
the most important field sites in Sonic Geology in the UK for the last 50 years.
Geology:
The Winchester-
East Meon Anticline is one of a series of parallel east-west trending tectonic folds in the Cretaceous chalk
of Hampshire. It lies at the western end of the South Downs, immediately to the
north of the Hampshire Basin and south-east of Salisbury Plain. The fold is around
35 kilometres (22 mi) long. In the Winchester area the core of the
anticline has been eroded to expose the older Cenomanian Zig Zag Chalk
formation. This is surrounded by progressively younger rings of the Turonian
Holywell Nodular Chalk and New Pit Chalk Formation (the 'Middle chalk') and the
Coniacian Lewes Nodular Chalk and Santonian Seaford Chalk Formation ('Upper
chalk').
This results in a near-complete ring of inward-facing chalk scarp slopes including
Magdalen (Morn) Hill to the north, Chilcomb Down, Cheesefoot Head and Telegraph
Hill to the east, Deacon Hill, Twyford Down and St. Catherine's Hill to the
south.
It is
suggested that this geological ring acts to focus subterranean sonic phenomena
in the manner of a ‘speaker cone’, allowing for detection of Deep Sound by
means of NISG Ear Trumpet technology, and that this should be the focus of NISG
investigations in the area.
The core of the anticline is also crossed
by the M3 motorway, completed in the 1990s. Homeley and Finch (NISG North
Hampshire (affiliated)) have suggested that this construction, which involved
deep earthworks within the anticline itself may also have released detectable sonic phenomena, in the manner of repeated
echo-type, induction, and auricular events.
To the east of Winchester the tectonic fold
swings southwards as the Winchester-Meon Pericline. This has a slightly
westward plunge. To the west of Winchester the fold runs on slightly southwards
through Farley Mount. To the south-west across the River Test is a similar
fold, the Dean Hill Anticline. As with other nearby folds, the structure is
controlled by movement of fault blocks within the Jurassic strata below. The
anticline has been explored for hydrocarbons, and as a site of potential
fracking operations to release shale gas.
NOTE:
Sonic
Geology clearly benefits from the
subterranean disruption caused by such commercial gas-mining in terms of the
release of new data and the stimulation of hitherto unknown Deep Stratum sonic activity.
However, some experts in the field also
believe that the phenomena themselves
could be permanently erased from the geological sound profile by fracking
activity. A recent, internally divisive, NISG motion led to a slim majority
decision that the Society should express its concern to the relevant
authorities on this issue.
Legend
and Fable:
King
Arthur’s Return:
King Arthur's messianic return is a recurrent aspect of Arthurian literature surrounding
the notion that he and his knights lie dormant beneath the ground and will one
day return to save the British people from tyranny. The possibility of Arthur's
return is first mentioned by William of Malmesbury in the early 12th century. A
number of locations were suggested for where Arthur would actually return from,
among them the mound beneath
Winchester Castle, where the Round Table still hangs on display.
NOTE: Subterranean
sonic phenomena have been detected in this area by NISG members, which might
offer a rational scientific explanation for longstanding local folkloric reports of music from below
ground, the sounds of swords on armour, minstrelsy and incantation that
have been associated with the King Arthur’s Return myth.
Archaeology
of the field site: Cathedral Close and Pilgrim’s school
Winchester has one of the richest histories of any
city in Britain. Occupation and activity in the immediate area can be traced
back thousands of years, from the construction of the Iron Age earthworks at
Oram’s Arbour and St Catherine’s Hill, to the establishment of the civitas
capital Venta Belgarum in the Roman period, Wintanceaster in the Saxon period,
through “medieval” to modern-day Winchester.
The Sounding
Space lies on the former floodplain of the River Itchen, before the river
was diverted towards the east on its present course (James 1997, 30-1). The
Iron Age oppidum of Orams Arbour lies to the northwest. The site lies within
the later historic walled city in an area which successively comprised part of
the Roman civitas of Venta Belgarum, the Saxon town of Wentanceastre, and the
medieval city of Winchester. The archaeological resource within the walled city
is recognised as being of national importance and the Cathedral Close is
regarded as of special archaeological value with an active status as a
Scheduled Monument.
Pilgrims
School sits on Holocene Clay. It was the site of a Mesolithic forest of
alder, lime, hazel and elm and later a marshy water meadow, drained by the
Romans, who diverted the river channel, grazed animals and grew figs and plums.
The Saxons gathered blackberries, hazlenuts and apples here, medieval monks
raised the ground levels as they built the nearby cathedral. Archaeologists
have recovered pottery, coins minted by the Roman Emperors Claudius II and Carausius,
transported from across the Roman Empire.
NOTE: A key research question surrounds
the extent to which archaeological
objects may emit charged sonic signals that have been stored within them as
a result of human possession and transportation.