A 4.2 magnitude earthquake has struck Swansea, Wales, with tremors also reaching south-west England. The US Geological Survey says the seismic event struck at a depth of 11 kilometres about an hour ago.
Residents in Bristol and Cornwall have reported to have felt the tremor as well, with some posting on social media about their experiences.
Baglan resident Meyrick Sheen told Wales Online: "We have lived here for 40 years and we have never experienced anything like this before, it felt like a massive explosion under ground.
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"The walls shook, the lights flashed and the pictures were shaking. It was frightening."
Ann Lewis, from Aberdare, also told the newspaper: "I'm just a bit shook up, it was very strange. I've got quite a lot of glass furniture that was not cheap, so I hope it does not happen again."
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This earthquake is by no means the most powerful to hit the UK this century, but it's not far off.
That title goes to a 5.2 tremor that was registered in Lincolnshire in 2008 and was felt across England and Wales.
Today's quake actually comes in fifth on the strongest seismic events since 2000. Four earthquakes have hit Wales, four in Scotland and 21 have struck England.
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Dyfed-Powys Police has written on Twitter: "We are receiving an extremely high call volume reporting some sort of earth tremor in the area - we are receiving reports from across the whole of Wales (we felt it in our control room too!).
"For now - it is unexplained - but there is nothing to worry about."
While most people would find it strange that Britain would experience an earthquake, they're not as uncommon as you might think. The British Geological Survey, on its website, says: "Between 200 and 300 earthquakes are detected and located in the UK, by the British Geological Survey annually.
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"Although distant from the nearest plate boundary, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, earthquakes occur as crustal stresses within the tectonic plates are relieved by movement occurring on pre-existing fault planes.
"The risk from these earthquakes is not insignificant and must be considered when engineering for sensitive installations."
The UK usually experiences a quake registering 5 or higher on the Richter scale every eight years, 4-4.9 magnitude every two years and then it increases in frequency the lower it goes.
. Interestingly, there are about 140 earthquakes between
1 and 1.9 in magnitude, but one of that level wouldn't register much in terms
of shakiness or anything like that.
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More to come
Topics: Earthquake, England, UK, Wales
