Earthquake shakes Leicestershire

People across Leicestershire were woken by an earthquake in the early hours of this morning.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the quake, which measured 2.9 on the Richter scale, had centred 3km north west of Loughborough at about 5.20am.

Tremors were felt by people within a 30km radius, with reports from residents in Anstey, Groby, Syston and Coalville, as well as across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

BGS seismologist David Galloway said the earthquake had caused buildings to shake, but no serious damage was expected.

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"It was a fairly small earthquake in world terms and moderate in UK terms, but it would have been quite alarming for people who have never felt an earthquake before," he said. "A lot of people across Leicester, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire felt it.

"Some were woken from their sleep. We've had reports of houses shaking and windows rattling, but we're not expecting to hear about any damage or anything serious. We've had lots bigger earthquakes here that haven't caused any damage."

The epicentre of the earthquake was 13km deep. The deeper the epicentre, the longer it takes for the tremor to hit the earth's surface.

"If it's nearer the surface, it might be felt by a lot more people," Mr Galloway said. "Most earthquakes in the UK are between 5km and 20km."

The BGS records about 200 earthquakes a year in the UK.

"We live on a dynamic planet," Mr Galloway said. "Earth is made up of different plates and they're all moving about and crashing into each other, roughly at the rate that fingernails grow.

"We're in the middle of a plate, not the edge, so we don't get the big earthquakes like they do in places like Japan and California, but every now and then we'll get a little effort."

Mr Galloway said most quakes in the UK went unnoticed.

"About 10 per cent of earthquakes in the UK are felt by the public," he said. "It depends on the size, location and the time of day. An eartquake magnitude 2 in north west Scotland, where no-one lives, won't be felt, but the same earthquake in Nottingham might be.

"It depends, but usually at about 2.5 people start to feel it."

The earthquake made national news this morning, and scores of people were talking about it on Twitter and Facebook.

Daniel Plonczyk, of Charnwood,  Leicestershire, tweeted: "I knew I felt an earthquake this morning!! I thought it was the boiler clicking on at first!!"

Janet Howe wrote: "Must be getting old, never felt the earthquake #earthdidn'tmoveforme!"

Did you feel the earthquake? Tell us about it. E-mail newsdesk@leicestermercury.co.uk

The mini-earthquake felt in Leicestershire in the early hours of this morning (Friday, January 18) made the national news and there were plenty of tweets from people who had - and hadn't - experienced the earth moving. Here are just a few...