Residents were shocked by what appeared to be an “underground explosion” after England's worst earthquake in two years affected towns and villages across the area. Lancashire and Cumbria.
A magnitude 3.3 earthquake was felt 30 miles from the epicenter near the coastal village of Silverdale in Lancashire shortly after 11.23pm on Wednesday, with reports of aftershocks being felt in Blackpool.
Lancashire Police said in an online statement: “There have been no reports of any injuries or damage caused, but we have officers in the area as well as colleagues from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and North West Ambulance Service.”
People across the region said their homes shook, with one saying it felt like the area had been “bombed out.”
The British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed that it was the strongest earthquake on record. England following another magnitude 3.3 event in Staffordshire in 2023, and the second to occur in the UK this month, following a magnitude 1.0 event in Newport, South Wales, on Monday.
Earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater are relatively rare in the UK. According to BGS, only a tenth of the 200–300 seismic incidents recorded annually were strong enough for people to feel.
The spokesman said the UK experiences two or three earthquakes of similar magnitude each year, but Wednesday's event appears to be the strongest in north-west England since a magnitude 3.7 earthquake rocked Morecambe Bay in 2009.
Residents wrote online that it “looked like an underground explosion” and was “so powerful it shook the entire house.”
The Volcano Discovery website, which also collects information about earthquakes, received more than 1,100 reports from residents in the area, and emergency services reported numerous noise calls before the quake was confirmed.
Most reports detail “mild” or “weak” disturbances. Residents in Carnforth, about five miles south of the epicenter, described feeling their homes shake. There were also reports that the shaking caused dogs to panic and bark incessantly, and that alarms in shops went off.
Sarah, a local pub owner, said the earthquake caused glasses behind the bar to shake. “Luckily nothing broke, but it was so weird,” she said. “I've never felt anything like this, but there was no real damage on our part.”
One resident wrote online that she felt like the town had “just been bombed” and another said they initially suspected an explosion at the nearby Heysham nuclear power station in Morecambe.
Liz Unsworth, a Silverdale ward councilor, told the BBC the earthquake was “really scary” and that she felt like her house was falling apart around her.
“I was relaxing before going to bed and suddenly I felt like my roof was collapsing and my house was shaking,” she said. “All my neighbors were outside, we didn’t know what it was.”
The last earthquake of magnitude greater than 3.3 was felt in parts of Perth and Kinross in Scotland on October 20. BGS said the impact occurred at 7.25am and was centered at Pubil in the Glen Lyon region.
