A new map shows the top 10 strongest earthquakes to ever hit Britain after two smaller tremors struck only this month.
While spared the more serious quakes seen elsewhere in the world, the UK is no stranger to seismological activity, with between 200 and 300 earthquakes located within our borders every year according to the British Geological Survey (BGS).
Around 20 to 30 of these are typically strong enough to be felt by humans.
One such detectable earthquake came only last week when a 3.7 magnitude tremor in the North Sea rocked homes in Norfolk, with one resident describing the impact as "like an underground train going under our bungalow".
Another resident said it felt "like a piece of large furniture" falling over in their house, as reports said people in coastal settlements such as Sea Palling, Happisburgh and Mundlesley may have felt the tremor.
Essex residents meanwhile reported being woken up by a loud noise that 'sounded like a bomb' earlier this month in what was later confirmed as a tremor of 2.6 magnitude.
The small quake at 5.05am on February 9 had a recorded depth of 8km (4.9 miles), with its epicentre located in the village of Bicknacre.
But the largest earthquake to ever strike in the UK happened at Dogger Bank in North Sea in 1931, with a considerably larger magnitude of 6.1 when compared to the tremors.
Located 60 miles offshore, it was strong enough to cause minor damage to buildings on the east coast of England, with Filey being worst hit.
The quake was felt as far away as London, and even caused the head of the waxwork of notorious killer Dr Crippen at Madame Tussauds to fall off.
The UK's second strongest quake can be traced back much further to 1580 in the Dover Straits, where an 5.8 earthquake struck after previously hitting the same spot almost two centuries earlier.
A 5.2 magnitude earthquake near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire back in 2008 was famously felt in many parts of England, and marks the most recent entry on the list at number 10.
One man was hospitalised in Barnsley, South Yorkshire as a result of the quake when a chimney collapsed and fell into his bedroom, while police in Lincolnshire reported being briefly inundated by emergency calls from confused residents in the early hours of the morning.
It came after bricks and debris were left strewn across pavements in Folkstone, Kent one year earlier when the town was struck a tremor on a scale of 4.3.
Despite not making the top 10, the most destructive quake to ever hit British shores was the Colchester ‘Great English Earthquake’ of 1884, which with a magnitude of 4.6 damaged over 1200 buildings and reportedly left at least three people dead.
A number of church spires were toppled in the East of England, with some of the worst affected villages said to have every single building suffer some form of structural damage.
Earthquake magnitude scales are measured using the Richter scale, with the most severe being categorised as 'great' at 8.0 or larger. A devastating earthquake which left 45,000 people dead in southeast Turkey and Syria this month came in at 7.9 on the scale, making it 'major'.
The BGS says the largest earthquake possible in the UK would have a magnitude of only 6.5, which has the potential to cause some damage to buildings.
The Top 10 largest earthquakes to ever hit the UK:
- North Sea, 7 June 1931, magnitude 6.1
- Strait of Dover, 6 April 1580, magnitude 5.8
- Strait of Dover, 21 May 1382, magnitude 5.8
- Channel Islands, 21 May 1926, magnitude 5.5
- Lleyn Penn, Wales, 19 July 1984, magnitude 5.4
- Channel Islands, 17 July 1927, magnitude 5.4
- Derby, 11 February 1957, magnitude 5.3
- Hereford, 17 December 1896, magnitude 5.3
- Caernarfon, 9 November 1853, magnitude 5.3
- Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, 27 February 2008, magnitude 5.2
