The UK was rocked by a 3.3 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday night, with people living in Staffordshire reporting “rumbling” and rattling windows and doors.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed the tremor, which struck at 8.21pm and had an epicentre 7.3km below the village of Tean.
Reports described “an initial rumbling, then a bang” and the earthquake “felt more like a shunt, like something had hit something”.
It is the largest of 21 earthquakes to hit the UK in the last two months, comfortably beating two 1.8 magnitude tremors felt on the Isle of Mull in May.
It falls some way short of the record earthquake in the UK, which the BGS records as a 6.1 magnitude tremor in the North Sea, about 75 miles north east of Great Yarmouth, on June 7 1931.
Filey felt the strongest effects of that earthquake, with a church spire rotated, which was felt as far away as Surrey, Norway, Denmark and Germany
Mark Begg, 30, told the PA news agency that he was at home in Uttoxeter when he felt “a very large shake”.
He said he checked “around the house to see if I could see anything” and “after noticing there were no signs of damage I concluded it was most likely a mini earthquake”.
Tom, 38, in Cheadle, Staffordshire, said: “I was sitting watching an episode of Only Connect with my wife on YouTube and as we opened another bottle of wine the whole house shook.
“I thought either one of the children had fallen out of bed or something else had happened.”
People took to social media to share their experience.
“Quite relieved to hear that there was an #earthquake in Staffordshire. I felt the movement – but had looked for other explanations,” wrote a user.
“Definitely felt in Uttoxeter – didn’t realise it was an earthquake thought the crash was something to do with the neighbours building work,” wrote another user.
The BGS says it detects and locates between 200 and 300 earthquakes in the UK each year.
