Think I felt a small earthquake today (UK)

[Foxgloverr]

I'm in SE England and at about 6pm this evening I was at the kitchen sink washing some vegetables when I swear the ground rocked side to side twice. I've felt an earthquake before when I was in Greece and it felt the same.

But no one else seems to have felt it and I checked on earthquake websites and nothing was recorded. Can't see anything on local Facebook or anything either.

It's really weird! Just wondered if anyone else experienced it?

I'm in good health, no dizziness or feeling faint or anything in case anyone is wondering. Haven't felt it before or after.

England has lots of earthquakes. Two were reported yesterday, but none at 6pm.

So that means it's either you, perhaps balance problems?

Or something outside where you live shaking the house, so building equipment, vibrations for very low sounds and so on.

I see an earthquake off Dieppe in France was reported yesterday. Could have been that?

Are you anywhere near the South Downs vaguely Dorking area?

We had a small one here in Northern California yesterday (4.2) that made my big armchair buck and roll. It is always a surprise when it happens - and then we get hyper vigilant in case it is a warning shake.

myshake app shows all the reports, perhaps what you felt is on there now?

I’m in New Zealand where we do have earthquakes and my experience is that you would hear things if it’s an earthquake. Mainly things like glassware in the cupboards, windows, maybe pictures on the walls, etc … you would hear them rattling. Especially if you were in the kitchen, as there would be quite a lot there to rattle.

The Earthquakes in England are usually very slight.

The only one I’ve known of, where I live in England, made the bedroom doors rattle.

NZ and US posters might enjoy this podcast on the underwhelming nature of UK earthquakes. A 4.0 earthquake in the UK would BIG news.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p063j89m?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Any quarries nearby? Exploratory fracking sites?

Quite a few in the last 60 days

https://earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html

@MoanasTummy thank you for the link, it was both funny and irritating because no one uses the Richter scale apart from him.

I live in Dorking where we had a 'small' earthquake a few years ago. It was very obviously an earthquake albeit just for a few seconds, first I heard what sounded like a massive booming explosion in the distance immediately followed by the house shaking. The doors rattled in their frames, the crockery all clinked together and the lights swung from their fixtures!

It wasn't dramatic at all, a very slight shaking. But similar to what I felt in Greece and that was a big one but very far away so it was just a rocking of the ground, nothing rattled.

Nothing is showing up on the websites so maybe it was a local building site or something dropping something heavy. I'm sure I didn't imagine it!

There was once an explosion in our villiage in a local factory. That caused a shudder. But surely if it happened others close by would have felt it.

I'm no expert but I've experienced a few earthquake (some small and some bigger) and there was always a sound of some sort from either objects in the room or from the building itself.
Even small ones, there was always some sound.

If there are no reported earthquakes in your area OP, it must have been either something to do with your balance or an explosion somewhere?

I felt several ground shaking moments yesterday which was due to the MOD testing explosives at Shoeburyness - what’s your proximity to there? I’m a good 60 miles away and could still feel it shaking the house. Have a look at their Twitter page, it explains when they’re doing it.

I remember that. We live a few miles from Dorking but the house trembled as if really heavy lorries had just rumbled by.

Get the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app. You can report your experiences there as someone did yesterday across the channel - it's possible this is the same event that you noticed.