GREAT BRITISH QUAKE OFF Where was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the UK and are they very common?

People across the south-west of England and Wales say they felt tremors this afternoon - and earthquakes in Britain are more common than you'd think

BIG earthquakes in the UK are thankfully a pretty rare phenomenon, but they do happen.

Hundreds of tiny tremors - too minor to be felt or cause any damage - actually hit Britain every year- and people across the south-west of England and Wales say they felt tremors this afternoon.

When and where was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the UK?

But some of the quakes have been much stronger, causing serious damage and even death.
The largest known British earthquake occurred in the North Sea, near the Dogger Bank in 1931, with a magnitude of 6.1.
It was 60 miles offshore but still powerful enough to cause minor damage to buildings on the east coast of England.

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An elderly woman is helped from her home through rubble after an earthquake in Folkestone in April 2007, measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale.

While many of the stronger quakes in the UK are under the sea, like the earthquake which has hit 100 miles off Scarborough in January, some do happen on land.
An earthquake hit Swansea this afternoon with early indications of a magnitude of 4.2.
The most damaging UK earthquake was in the Colchester area in 1884, in which several people were killed and shockwaves were felt as far away as the Houses of Parliament.

How often do earthquakes happen in the UK?

While hundreds of quakes actually happen here every year, only around 10 are strong enough to be felt at all - and many of these are very minor.

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Most of the stronger earthquakes in the UK cause minimal damage - like this chimney stack in the Folkestone quake in 2007

A magnitude 4 earthquake - strong enough to be felt but causing minimal damage - happens in Britain roughly every two years.
We experience a magnitude 5 - which can damage buildings - roughly every 10–20 years.
Research estimate that the largest possible earthquake in the UK is around 6.5, strong enough to destroy homes.

How likely is an earthquake in the UK?

According to experts, there are "super deep" fault lines below the Home Counties linked to the San Andreas Fault which causes huge quakes in California.

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Damage to the roof in another bedroom in Wombwell, Barnsley, after the quake in February 2008

Some claim the UK is at an ever-growing risk of a big earthquake, with seismologists believing there may have been big quakes in Britain at some time.
Reports say the regions most at risk are Kent and the Home Counties, Essex, and Scotland - thanks to a major plate tectonic boundary between the Eurasian plate and the African plate.
In 2015, a quake measuring 4.2 hit Sandwich in Kent, with shockwaves felt as far away as Norwich 1oo miles away.

Where do quakes in the UK occur?

Most earthquakes occur on the western side of the British mainland, and there are hardly any in eastern Scotland and north east England or Ireland.

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Roof tiles torn off after the earthquake in Barnsley in 2008 - one of the strongest quakes in our recent history

But the North Sea is an earthquake hot spot, as well as the Llyn peninsula in Gwynedd, North Wales.
Llyn was the location for the largest recorded onshore quake in the UK on July 19 1984, when a 5.4 magnitude tremor damaged buildings and injured several.
Two smaller quakes – measuring magnitudes of 4.0 and 4.3 – rocked the area in the following weeks.
According to the British Geological Survey, other areas hit by big tremors include Kintail in the north-west Highlands, Folkestone, Melton Mowbray and Longtown in Cumbria.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2530661/strongest-earthquake-recorded-uk/