Earthquake registered off the Lincolnshire coast - with 'mild shaking' felt in Skegness and Mablethorpe areas
The sea off the coast of Lincolnshire was rocked by an earthquake on Friday.
Residents across coastal areas including Skegness, Chapel St Leonards, Ingoldmells, Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea all reported feeling some shaking.
With a magnitude of 3.3, the offshore earthquake struck at 1.04pm on September 18 – with the epicentre registered as 20km east of Sutton on Sea in the Southern North Sea.
The earthquake was at a depth of 11km, with some along the Lincolnshire coast reportedly feeling a weak tremor.
The VolcanoDiscovery website reports the quake “had a very shallow depth of 11km (seven miles)” – but that weak shaking was “reportedly felt by some people near the epicenter.”
“Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface,” a spokesperson for VolcanoDiscoery said. “Weak shaking might have been felt in Chapel Saint Leonards located 22 km from the epicenter, Ingoldmells (22 km away), Mablethorpe (23 km away), and Skegness (25 km away). Other towns or cities near the epicenter where the quake might have been felt as very weak shaking include Louth (41 km away).”
Although news of the quake may sound alarming, seismologists say Britain experienced 17 quakes on magnitudes up to 3.3 in the past 30 days alone, with two quakes registering above magnitude 3.