The residents of a rural Welsh village were subject to a rude awakening as Wales was hit by its third earthquake this year.
The tremor was centred on the village of Capel Carmel in Gwynedd, North Wales and hit a magnitude of 1.8 on the Richter Scale.
According to the British Geological Survey, the earthquake occurred at 3:43am on December 20 at a depth of 11.8 miles (19km).
Frightened residents said the tremors sounded like ‘thunder with a bang’.
The quake was strong enough that it was even felt two miles away in the hamlet of Rhydlios.
The tremor was centred on the village of Capel Carmel in Gwynedd, North Wales and hit a magnitude of 1.8 on the Richter Scale
Residents of Capel Carmel, shown here, say the tremor sounded like ‘thunder with a bang
Taking to a local Facebook group, the residents said the quake was ‘nothing like past quakes.’
They added that the shaking ‘sounded like it was in the sky’.
Even in the nearby hamlet of Rhydlios one resident reported that their ‘house trembled and vibrated like thunder rumble.’
According to data collected by the British Geological Survey, this is the third tremor to disturb Wales this year.
Back in October, a tremor measuring 1.3 on the Richter scale shook the village of Llanfigael on the nearby island of Anglesey.
Seismographs operated by the British Geographical Survey recorded the tremors as they shook the area. The blue spikes on this graph show the ground’s movement
On February 24, an even bigger quake occurred just three miles North of Merthyr Tydfil in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales.
At midnight, a tremor measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale alarmed residents who found their ‘whole house shaking’.
This quake was so strong that locals reported thinking an explosion had happened.
One resident near the epicentre said the quake was so noticeable ‘it felt like the roof was falling off’.
There was also another, smaller quake at 10:08am on February 4.
This was picked up by seismographs at a depth of eight miles (13km) at only 0.9 on the Richter scale.
The coastal area of Gwynedd, pictured here, is no stranger to tremors as a 1.3 Richter scale quake hit the nearby island of Anglesey
The Richter scale measures the energy produced by earthquakes.
While the scale has no upper end, the most devastating tremors reach levels over eight and the most powerful ever recorded reached 9.4–9.6.
Every year there are millions of tremors less than 2.5 on the Richter scale, though these are usually not felt.
This latest earthquake comes after an unusually active year for tremors in Britain, including a 1.5 magnitude quake in Cornwall and a 3.8 magnitude event off the coast of Great Yarmouth.
Residents also reported ‘rumbling’ after a 3.3 magnitude earthquake hit Staffordshire in March.
Wales hasn’t been the only place affected by earthquakes this year as large tremors have hit parts of the UK from Blackpool to Essex
The UK actually experiences about 200 to 400 earthquakes each year. On this map, each quake from 2000 to 2020 is shown by a red circle with its size indicating its strength
Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust move against each other.
As the plates move in the opposite direction they stick and then slip suddenly, releasing vast amounts of energy.
The areas where Earthquakes are most common are located over points where the plates actually meet, called fault lines.
These fault lines are also often sites of exceptionally high volcanic activity as magma forces its way through gaps in the Earth’s crust.
The UK is situated on a tectonic plate called the Eurasian Plate – but the nearest plate boundary to the UK, the Mid Atlantic Ridge, is around 1,000 miles away.
However, tremors can still occur even in the middle of a tectonic plate and the UK experiences between 200 and 300 each year.
Most of these are far too small to notice and only about 20 to 30 can be felt in any given year.
According to the British Geological Survey, a magnitude 4 earthquake occurs roughly every two years while a magnitude 5 quake occurs only every 10-20.
Research suggests that the biggest earthquake that could theoretically hit the UK is around magnitude 6.5.
