Earthquake shakes Ilkeston

View GalleryThe biggest earthquake to hit Britain for 25 years shook Ilkeston in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The earthquake - which struck just before 1am - measured 5.2 on the Richter scale, equivalent to the explosion of more than 1,000 tons of TNT, according to the British Geological Survey.

It said the epicentre was 6.2 miles from the Earth's surface under the hamlet of Holton cum Beckering, near Market Rasen - about 15 miles north of Lincoln.

Now the region is being warned to brace itself for possible after-shocks.

The BGS said it had been inundated with calls from the public, media and emergency services.

Many people reported their homes being shaken violently and furniture moving, for up to 30-seconds. Some took to the streets for safety and to check for damage.

Our sister paper, The Ripley and Heanor news received an email from a woman who said: "We felt the very heavy tremors in Ripley at around 1.00am or just after.

"I was at my computer and the room , chair and computer shook quite badly for a few minutes, though it seemed like forever."

Did you also feel the earthquake? Leave a comment below.

Glenn Ford, a senior seismologist at the BGS, said: "It's an extremely large earthquake in UK terms but not large in world terms; we'd classify it only as a light earthquake."

Experts at the United States Geological Survey received thousands of reports on their web site from people who had felt the tremor, from as far apart as Portsmouth to Edinburgh. One was 422-miles away from the epicentre, in Brussels, Belgium.

Buildings are deemed to be at risk from a quake over five on the Richter scale, according to the Environment Agency.

A spokesman for the USGS said: "Even though this is light to moderate in world terms, people should still be prepared for more tremors.

"Events of this magnitude in this part of the world are really, really rare. But from experience, they do tend to generate after-shocks."

The biggest on-land earthquake ever recorded in the UK measured 5.4 on the Richter scale in North Wales in 1984.

The strongest earthquake recorded in Britain was on June 7, 1931 and measured 6.1 with an epicentre north-east of Great Yarmouth in the North Sea.

It was felt across the British isles and in northwestern Germany. The quake killed one person.

A 4.6 magnitude quake in Colchester on April 22, 1884, was Britain's most damaging earthquake, knocking spires from churches and masonry from roofs.

Turrets and parapets also fell, and brick walls and chimneys collapsed. Two people were killed.

Between 200 and 300 quakes occur in Britain each year, but only about 10 per cent are strong enough to be felt.

Click here to read about how a Sheffield teenager narrowly escaped death from a falling chimney.

Leave a comment below about your quakey experiences, or contact us at news@ilkestonadvertiser.co.uk.