On Wednesday, 27th February at 1am the largest earthquake in over 25 years struck Lincolnshire. The epicentre was located approximately 30km NW of the Badleys office with tremors being felt as far north as Aberdeen in NE Scotland and as far south as Truro in the SW part of England. The duration of the earthquake at the surface was felt for roughly 10 to 30 seconds. Damage to buildings was reported from several areas. Fortunately, there were only a few minor injuries.

The magnitude of the quake is estimated at 5.2 on the Richter scale making it the largest earthquake in the UK since 1984. Earthquakes of this size occur in the UK roughly every 30 years or so.

The earthquake occurred at mid-crustal depths (about 18km) on an old fault system associated with the Carboniferous Gainsborough Trough, which runs WNW/ESE through central Lincolnshire. The focal mechanism solution indicates oblique thrusting on E/W or N/S trending faults. More information on this earthquake can be found here.

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