Wales is hit by 3.8 magnitude earthquake at midnight

A 3.8 magnitude earthquake struck Wales at midnight on Saturday, causing houses to shake and locals fearing their roofs were falling down.

The quake struck eight miles north of the Rhondda Valley in the final minutes of Friday, sparking panic as locals reported their beds started to move and walls shook. 

One resident near the epicentre said the quake was so noticeable ‘it felt like the roof was falling off’.

Resident Steve Pither said: ‘Made the bed shake here in the Rhondda, thought I was going nuts.’

The quake was recorded as being of a 3.8 magnitude, at a depth of one mile, the British Geological Survey said.

A 3.8 magnitude earthquake has hit Wales this evening, causing houses to shake and felt right through the West Midlands

Earthquakes with a magnitude between 2.5 and 5.4 on the Richter scale means they are often felt by residents, but do not cause major damage. 

Although the vast majority of earthquakes in the UK are extremely mild, some 200-300 tremors are felt on British soil each year. 

Another local said: ‘We just had an earthquake in South Wales , first one I’ve ever felt… thought there was someone trying to break into my house.’ 

A third wrote: ‘We felt our whole bed move. Inexplicably. Google tells us there was an earthquake in South Wales.’

‘Our house shook in Tredegar, crazy.’

Some close to the epicentre reported a ‘sonic boom’ which ‘went off like a bomb’, Wales Online reports – but others slept through the entire thing. 

Other reports of the earthquake filtered in from residents in Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff, Merthyr, Shropshire and Somerset. 

The furthest testimony recorded on the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre website was 193km away in Nottingham.

Other reports of the earthquake filtered in from residents in Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff, Merthyr, Shropshire and Somerset 

‘Felt in Nottingham, bed shaking,’ the person wrote. 

Others nearer to the epicentre said the vibrations only seemed to last a couple of seconds at most, and caused more confusion than damage. 

One resident said: ‘Felt the earthquake in Wales last night. Thought wife had fallen out of bed.

‘Whole floor and desk shook, didn’t think much more until a friend contacted and asked if their house was okay after the reports of an earthquake…’

Laura Ann Francis wrote on Facebook: ‘Can someone please explain how the hell we just had a mini earthquake in south wales.

‘It literally just scared me half to death, radiators [were] shaking the lot.

‘Since when do we have earthquakes?’

Some 38 kilometres from the epicentre in Clyro, one person wrote: ‘Felt a big tremble/shake that woke my family up. I woke up just before and felt it at midnight, fairly decent rumble.’

And from Mountain Ash a person reported: ‘Thought something had fallen upstairs, then my son came down to say his bed shook waking him.’

A Gilwern resident 25 kilometres from the earthquake reported what felt like an ‘explosion’ at the time of the tremors. 

The quake is not the first to hit the UK in recent days, according to the British Geological Society.

On February 24 a 1.5 magnitude quake was felt in Penryn, Cornwall at around 6.30am in the morning.

The last earthquake to be recorded in Cornwall had a magnitude of 0.5 and happened in late October last year. It occurred at 6.42pm in Penpol, near Truro, on October 25. 

There were also small tremors in the Scottish Highlands on February 19, as well as a 2.6 magnitude earthquake in Essex on February 9.