‘Radiator rattling’ earthquake hits Lancashire village for second time in two weeks

A village in Lancashire has been hit by a “radiator rattling” earthquake for the second time in little over two weeks.Residents of Silverdale, a small coastal village located five miles south of the Cumbria border, reported the now strangely familiar feeling of rattling and shaking in their homes at 5.03am as a 2.5-magnitude earthquake hit the area with its epicentre 1.6 miles (2.6km) off the coast.The village and its surrounding areas had previously been struck by a 3.3-magnitude earthquake on 3 December, which had been the strongest earthquake in England since another magnitude 3.3 event in Staffordshire in 2023. There have been no reports of injuries or damage to property.The British Geological Survey (BGS) has said that the more recent earthquake was an aftershock from the quake felt earlier in the month and that it was “not unusual” for tremors such as these to come in the weeks or months after bigger earthquakes.People in the Morecambe Bay area have described the quake with different levels of severity, with some saying there was “a quick sharp shaking jolt” and that it “made a thunder noise”, and others posting that it made a “a huge bang” and there was “a loud boom and the bedroom window shook” and “the radiators and pictures rattled”.Online, one resident posted: “Woke me up. Sounded like a short rumbling in the distance, like it happened a few streets away. Only lasted a couple of seconds. Nothing like the intensity of the previous one. I didn’t feel the need to check for damage, but because of the last one, I definitely knew it was an earthquake.”Earthquakes in Britain are far rarer than many parts of the world, and of the between 200 and 300 the country experiences every year, only 10% of them are strong enough to be felt or noticed without specialist equipment.