A late-night earthquake with a magnitude of 3.3 rattled parts of north-west England, sending shockwaves through a Lancashire community and prompting a flood of calls to emergency services.
‘Violent Shake and a Loud Bang’: Residents React
The tremor, recorded by the British Geological Survey (BGS), occurred at 11.23pm on Wednesday, December 3. Its epicentre was located off the coast of Silverdale at a depth of approximately 3 kilometres. The seismic event was felt across a wide area, from Morecambe and Carnforth to Kendal and Blackpool.
Local resident Ben Anslow, 23, described the sudden jolt. "It was like this really violent shake and a loud bang. At first I thought something had exploded," he said. "Everybody came out on the street to see what had happened. It was quite a shock." His sentiment was echoed by 71-year-old David Moore, who was in bed at the time. "I thought something had hit the house because it was that loud," he recounted, initially believing the noise to be a sonic boom.
Doorbell Cameras Capture the Moment
The precise moment the quake struck was captured on home security cameras, with one Silverdale resident sharing doorbell footage that showed the sudden disturbance. The visual evidence corroborated widespread reports of a brief but intense rumbling sound.
Charlotte Fotheringham and Michael Winder, antique shop owners, were in bed when they felt a "weird rumble." Michael said, "It felt more like an explosion, your initial reaction isn't that it's an earthquake." Charlotte added that their bed shook, accompanied by a noise like a "really bad vibration and then a bang."
Emergency Response and Wider Impact
Police and emergency services were inundated with calls reporting a loud explosion or bang in the Carnforth and wider Lancaster area. In an early-hours statement, a Lancaster police spokesperson confirmed the cause was a minor earthquake near the Lancashire and Cumbria border.
Officers, along with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and North West Ambulance Service, conducted checks but found no reports of injuries or significant damage. The public was asked to report any property damage via the 101 non-emergency number, quoting log 1613 of December 3.
This event marks the second earthquake recorded in the UK this month, following a smaller, 1.0-magnitude tremor in Newport, South Wales. The BGS notes that the UK experiences between 200 and 300 detectable earthquakes every year, though most are far weaker than the Silverdale event.
