Cornwall earthquake wakes up locals with rumble as houses 'shaken' by tremor

24 February 2023 , 11:27

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Cornwall has been hit by an earthquake this morning

Cornwall has been hit by an earthquake this morning as locals say they felt a "rumble".

The tremors were felt at about 6.31am about 9.3 kilometres south of Redruth.

It was recorded by VolcanoDiscovery and the British Geological Survey.

Its magnitude is said to be 1.5 on the Richter scale, but the depth of the earthquake was two kilometres.

Some reports say it was felt 14 miles away in Portleve.

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Residents took to social media to say they felt a "rumble" that sounded like a "large vehicle".

One resident said: "I heard a rumble and thought it was thunder."

The earthquake was registered at a 1.5 (Google Maps)

Another added: "I am more than 10 miles from Helston and definitely heard a rumble and felt a shake."

A third wrote: "It sounded like a great big truck was coming towards the house (even though we don't live by a road) and it got louder then the house shook and it went away."

One added: "I heard something but live along Clodgey Lane and just assumed it was a large vehicle."

The last recorded earthquake in Cornwall was last October near Truro and had a magnitude of 0.5.

It comes as a new map shows the top 10 strongest earthquakes to ever hit Britain after two smaller tremors struck only this month.

While spared the more serious quakes seen elsewhere in the world, the UK is no stranger to seismological activity, with between 200 and 300 earthquakes located within our borders every year according to the British Geological Survey (BGS).

Around 20 to 30 of these are typically strong enough to be felt by humans.

One such detectable earthquake came only last week when a 3.7 magnitude tremor in the North Sea rocked homes in Norfolk, with one resident describing the impact as "like an underground train going under our bungalow".

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Another resident said it felt "like a piece of large furniture" falling over in their house, as reports said people in coastal settlements such as Sea Palling, Happisburgh and Mundlesley may have felt the tremor.

Essex residents meanwhile reported being woken up by a loud noise that 'sounded like a bomb' earlier this month in what was later confirmed as a tremor of 2.6 magnitude.

The small quake at 5.05am on February 9 had a recorded depth of 8km (4.9 miles), with its epicentre located in the village of Bicknacre.

But the largest earthquake to ever strike in the UK happened at Dogger Bank in North Sea in 1931, with a considerably larger magnitude of 6.1 when compared to the tremors.

Alahna Kindred