‘Powerful’ late-night 3.3-magnitude earthquake rocks northwest England
The British Geological Survey has confirmed that a 3.3 magnitude earthquake late on Wednesday night caused tremors in homes in northwest England.
The tremor, which occurred shortly after 11.23pm, was felt widely across Lancashire and the Southern Lake District, and also affected towns such as Kendal and Ulverston, located 12 miles from the epicentre.
The data shows the seismic event occurred just off the coast of Silverdale in Lancashire, at a depth of 2.86 miles.
Residents told BGS that it “felt like an explosion underground” and was “so powerful it shook the whole house.”
Map of where the earthquake hit:
The Volcano Discovery website, which tracks global seismic activity, received more than 1,100 reports from individuals in the affected area, with most describing the tremors as “mild” or “weak.”
Although the BGS detects between 200 and 300 earthquakes a year in the UK, only a small proportion of these (typically between 20 and 30) are strong enough to be felt by the public.
Most pass unnoticed, are recorded only by sensitive devices, and rarely cause serious damage.
The most recent earthquake exceeding magnitude 3.3 occurred on October 20 and affected the Perth and Kinross regions of Scotland.
BGS noted that the earthquake occurred at 7.25 in the morning and the epicenter was Pubil in the Glen Lyon region.
Last week, the US state of Alaska was shaken by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake.
The earthquake struck shortly after 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day near Susitna, about 60 kilometers northwest of Anchorage.
Tremors were felt about 350 miles north of Anchorage, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or deaths.
Alaska sees more earthquakes than other parts of the United States, and the second largest earthquake in recorded history hit the state in 1964.
The earthquake measured magnitude 9.2, but last week’s Thanksgiving morning quake was the largest earthquake to hit south-central Alaska since 2021.
