British Earthquakes between 1700 and 1849
We tend not to think of Britain as being an earthquake zone but in fact earthquakes happen fairly regularly, admittedly being only minor or light in intensity. Every so often we get a moderate earthquake but they are not common.
The following information is sourced from a defunct page from the British Geological Survey which I found via web.archive.org. I have munged this together with information on the current BGS site to get the earthquake magnitudes.
For any given earthquake you can find out where it was noticed in surrounding areas, and how intensely it was felt by visiting this page on the current British Geological Survey site. For example, the Portsmouth earthquake on 18th March 1750 was also felt at Bath, Bridport, Chester, Cowes, East Sheen, Guernsey, Hackney, Havant, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Lymington, Newport, St Helens and Titchfield.
Earthquake Intensity
| Magnitude | Description | Mercalli intensity | Average earthquake effects | Average frequency of occurrence (estimated) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 2.0 | Micro | I | Microearthquakes, not felt, or felt rarely by sensitive people. Recorded by seismographs. | Continual/several million per year |
| 2.0–2.9 | Minor | I to II | Felt slightly by some people. No damage to buildings. | Over one million per year |
| 3.0–3.9 | Minor | II to IV | Often felt by people, but very rarely causes damage. Shaking of indoor objects can be noticeable. | Over 100,000 per year |
| 4.0–4.9 | Light | IV to VI | Noticeable shaking of indoor objects and rattling noises. Felt by most people in the affected area. Slightly felt outside. Generally causes none to minimal damage. Moderate to significant damage very unlikely. Some objects may fall off shelves or be knocked over. | 10,000 to 15,000 per year |
| 5.0–5.9 | Moderate | VI to VIII | Can cause damage of varying severity to poorly constructed buildings. At most, none to slight damage to all other buildings. Felt by everyone. Casualties range from none to a few. | 1,000 to 1,500 per year |
| 6.0–6.9 | Strong | VII to X | Damage to a moderate number of well-built structures in populated areas. Earthquake-resistant structures survive with slight to moderate damage. Poorly designed structures receive moderate to severe damage. Felt in wider areas; up to hundreds of miles/kilometers from the epicenter. Strong to violent shaking in epicentral area. Death toll ranges from none to 25,000. | 100 to 150 per year |
List of Earthquakes
| Date | Epicentre | Mag | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 December 1703 | Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England | ~4.2 | This earthquake was felt over Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire, and caused very slight damage in Hull. The epicentre was probably in the Humber estuary. |
| 25 October 1726 | Dorchester, Dorset, England | ~3.3 | Felt Dorchester, Ilchester, Weymouth, Portland and Bridport and other places in the vicinity. At Dorchester doors were unlatched and church bells "rattled". It was felt on board ship at Weymouth. Possibly the epicentre was offshore, but the existence of a foreshock only at Dorchester suggests a local epicentre. |
| 19 July 1727 | Swansea, Wales | ~5.2 | The epicentre of this earthquake was east of Swansea, near Margam. The intensity was higher at Margam than elsewhere, and this was the only place where aftershocks were reported. Chimnies were thrown down, houses were untiled, and the water of the local river was rendered turbid. The shock was strong enough to wake people and to cause bells to toll as far east as Oxford, and the shock was also felt very slightly in London. The westward limits of the shock are obscure; one report refers to it being felt "beyond the sea" which may indicate Ireland. The shock was strong in Devon, and was also felt in Lancashire. It is possible that some of the reports of this event are somewhat exaggerated, since the size of the isoseismal 5 MSK as given here is rather large as compared to the overall felt area. |
| 1 March 1728 | Galashiels, Scottish Borders | ~4.2 | No damage caused.Epicentre between Galashiels and Selkirk; felt as far as far away as Fife and Carlisle. No damage or even strong effects. |
| 25 October 1734 | Portsmouth, Hampshire, England | ~4.5 | Also felt in France.This earthquake is very well documented thanks to a study conducted by Dr E Bayley of Havant for the Duke of Richmond, the papers of which still survive. It was felt along the S coast of England from Lulworth in the west to Hastings in the east, but not far inland, except for one report from Coleshill, near Birmingham. Houses shook, and a church bell rang at Havant (near Portsmouth). It was also felt at Bayeux, Le Havre, and on the south side of the R Seine in France. The epicentre was therefore in the central (or south of central) English Channel. |
| 30 April 1736 | Ochil Hills, Scotland | ~2.7 | Aftershocks also felt on 1 May.The earliest known Ochill Hills event, but very poorly documented. Felt at Stirling and the villages along the line of the Ochil Hills, it "rent some houses" and caused many people to run out in alarm. It was obviously severe (intensity 6 MSK) but the actual extent of the felt area and thus the magnitude are obscure. |
| 1 July 1747 | Taunton, Devon, England | ~3.5 | The epicentre was probably south of Taunton; the shock caused considerable alarm at Taunton and some people out of doors had trouble keeping their balance. The felt area extended from the Bristol Channel to Lyme Bay and as far as Exeter. |
| 17 May 1749 | Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England | ~3.4 | Earthquakes in Dorset are rather rare. This one was said to have been felt for twenty miles around Wimborne Minster. Pewter was thrown from shelves at Eastbrook, close to Wimborne. |
| 8 February 1750 | London, England | ~2.6 | Although not large, these two events are of considerable importance since they demonstrate the existence of an active fault directly underneath central London. The recurrence of activity on this feature today might have serious consequences. Both events occasioned intense interest, with the result that documentation is good. The first shock was the smaller of the two. The felt area was largely confined to the limits marked by Eltham in the SE, Edmonton in the N, and Richmond in the SW, although it is also reported that the earthquake was felt at Hertford and Gravesend. The shock was strongest in the East End, at Limehouse and Poplar, where some chimneys were thrown down. There was also minor damage at Leadenhall Street, in Southwark, and a few other localities. The second shock was more severe and damage was more widespread. Tiles fell from houses as far away as Croydon. Various chimneys were damaged, part of a house in Old Street and two uninhabited houses in Whitechapel fell. The top of one of the piers on the N side of Westminster Abbey fell down, with the ironwork that fastened it. Part of a roof at Lambeth collapsed. At least two people were injured. The felt area extends as far south as Epsom. Epsom and Stanmore are the most westerly places where the shock was reported. To the east, it was felt at Ilford but not at Hornchurch. To the north, however, it was definitely felt at various places in the Hatfield-Hertford area, possibly also in Hitchin and reportedly as far away as Linton, 10 km SE of Cambridge. A mad guardsman prophesied a third shock for 5 April which would destroy the metropolis, which caused much panic, and many who could left the city; an engraving of the departing processions exists. The event inspired many treatises and pamplets on earthquakes, including a satirical spoof account of the prophesied but non-occurring 5 April event, which concluded " ... the more rubbish is removed, and the deeper they go into it, the more persons of distinction are found at the bottom of it." |
| 8 March 1750 | London, England | ~3.1 | The last earthquake to have an epicentre in London. |
| 18 March 1750 | Portsmouth, Hampshire,, England | ~4.3 | This event is similar to the 1734 Channel earthquake; effects were strongest in the Isle of Wight (objects thrown down) though one non-contemporary report alleges damage at Portsmouth. It was felt very weakly at Bath and near London, and one very dubious report comes from Chester. Details from France are lacking, but it seems to have been felt in the Channel Islands. The isoseismal areas given for this and the previous event are necessarily very approximate. |
| 2 April 1750 | Chester, Cheshire, England | ~4.0 | Felt over an elliptical area from Lancaster to Shrewsbury; epicentre somewhere near Chester. Little substantiated damage - a few bricks fell in Chester. |
| 4 May 1750 | Wimborne, Dorset, England | ||
| 23 August 1750 | North Sea | ~4.7 | A North Sea epicentre is presumed for this event, which was felt throughout Lincolnshire and in the Humberside area, more strongly towards the coast. Nowhere is there any evidence of strong effects, further increasing the likelihood that the epicentre was offshore. |
| 30 September 1750 | Leicester, Leicestershire, England | ~4.1 | Slight damage and considerable alarm was caused in the Leicester-Uppingham area, the maximum intensity being 6 MSK. Some contemporary descriptions of effects at Northampton were somewhat exaggerated, as local accounts show; the intensity in Northampton was 4-5 MSK. The felt area is elongated E-W, and bounded by Derby, Warwick and Bury St Edmunds. |
| 8 April 1753 | Skipton, Yorkshire, England | ~4.0 | Generally felt in the Manchester - Cheshire area and in S Yorkshire. Effects were strongest at Skipton, but there is a lack of any data from further north |
| 19 April 1754 | Whitby, North Yorkshire, England | ~4.4 | Generally felt between Stockton and Hull, and inland to the SW of Leeds. Possibly a Flamborough Head event. |
| 1 August 1755 | Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England | ~4.2 | An odd event. It was felt all over Lincolnshire, west as far as Nottingham and Leicester, and south as far as Rushden, Northants. The strongest effects, however, were all at the north end of the felt area. At four villages on the south side of the Humber "the walls of some [houses] fell down" suggesting an intensity of at least 6 MSK, but this may be anomalous. The epicentre cannot be located with any precision; one might suspect this was an offshore earthquake imperfectly reported, but the existence of an aftershock reported only from Lincoln argues against this. |
| 10 January 1757 | Norwich, Norfolk, England | ~3.3 | Felt in the Norwich - Diss - Great Yarmouth area. There is a good description of effects in Norwich; nothing more severe than pewter rattling. |
| 17 May 1757 | Todmorden, Yorkshire, England | ~3.2 | Felt between Preston and Bingley; pewter and glass rattled; felt outdoors. |
| 15 July 1757 | Penzance, Cornwall, England | ~4.4 | elatively well-documented thanks to a contemporary study by the naturalist William Borlase. It was felt throughout Cornwall and also in the Scilly Isles, but hardly any distance into Devon. There is one report of damage at Mount's Bay from a London paper, but Borlase says there was no damage. The epicentre is hard to judge on account of the narrow shape of Cornwall. Just east of Penzance is the most likely location, but west of Land's End and north of Newquay are other possibilities. ize and epicentre of this event are obscure. It was alarming at Holyhead where things were thrown from shelves, and also felt at other places in Anglesey. |
| 9 June 1761 | Shaftesbury, Dorset, England | ~3.4 | Felt Shaftesbury - Sherborne - Frome - Westbury. The only damage reported is from Shaftesbury where the end of a cottage came down. At Sherborne things leaning against walls were knocked down. Between Westbury and Wincanton many springs were made turbid, and new springs that were as black as ink appeared at Marston. |
| 6 November 1764 | Oxford, Oxfordshire, England | ~3.4 | Alarming in Oxford; doors burst open. Felt also at Wallingford, Cirencester and other, unnamed, places in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire |
| 15 May 1768 | Wensleydale, Yorkshire, England | ~4.4 | Documentation is poor, and the sparsely-populated nature of the epicentral area makes the epicentre hard to fix. The shock threw down field walls near Malham, and was alarming at Kendal. It was felt at Keighley in the south, and near Carlisle in the north, and the epicentre was probably near Upper Wensleydale. The shock was not felt at Manchester, contrary to many sources. |
| 24 October 1768 | Inverness, Scottish Highlands | ~3.4 | Felt at Inverness and Ruthven. |
| 21 December 1768 | Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England | ~4.1 | A little-known earthquake. It was felt fairly strongly in the Gloucester-Droitwich area, but also in Oxfordshire and as far east as Reading. The western limit was Stoke Edith, near Hereford; the north-south extent is obscure. In Gloucester many people ran from their houses, but it some parts of the city it was less noticeable. |
| 2 April 1769 | South Molton, Devon, England | ~3.2 | Very poorly documented event somewhere in the Exmoor area. |
| 14 November 1769 | Inverness, Scottish Highlands | Several fatalities. | |
| 22 April 1773 | Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales, | ~3.7 | Felt at Caernarvon, where some chimneys were brought down, Bangor, all over Anglesey, and no doubt elsewhere in North Wales. Poorly documented, as one might expect for an event at this period in a remote rural area. |
| 23 April 1773 | Channel Islands | ~4.4 | Felt in Dorset and Northern France.This is another rather poorly documented event. It was felt in the Channel Islands, the St Malo area in N France, and in Dorset, giving it a rather elongated N-S felt area. There are no reports from the Cherbourg Peninsula. No damage was done. |
| 8 September 1775 | Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales | ~5.1 | The effects of this earthquake are rather similar to those of the 1727 Swansea earthquake; it was strongly felt as far east as Oxford, and was felt in Devon to the south and Lancashire to the north, the western extent being obscure. There are no reports from London this time, but it was felt in Surrey and in Sussex. At Swansea some houses were said to have "tumbled in". Certainly some chimneys were felled. The only other reported damage was an isolated and distant instance of a ceiling being damaged at Northwich, Cheshire. |
| 28 November 1776 | Dover Straits | ~4.1 | This earthquake was similar to the event of 9 January 1950. Very minor damage was done either side of the Dover Straits. |
| 14 September 1777 | Manchester, England | ~4.4 | Felt widely in Manchester, Macclesfield, Preston, Wigan, Stockport and the surrounding area.Slight damage and considerable alarm to church congregations was caused in Manchester and vicinity. The shock was felt as far afield as Kendal and Birmingham, the felt area being somewhat elongated N-S. The epicentre was probably between Manchester and Altrincham. |
| 29 August 1780 | Llanrwst, Snowdonia, Wales | ~3.8 | This earthquake was felt over more or less all of North Wales, from Holyhead and the Lleyn Peninsula to Holywell and Flint. The intensity distribution seems to have been rather irregular; it was apparently stronger at Holyhead than at Caernarvon, and was felt around Conway but not in the town itself. The highest intensity reported was at Llanrwst, where the whole town felt it and part of a wall was thrown down. The epicentre was presumably somewhere SW or W of Llanrwst. |
| 9 December 1780 | Wensleydale, Yorkshire, England | ~4.8 | The rugged nature of N England causes the same problems here as for the 1768 Wensleydale earthquake, although this time there are some reports from Wensleydale itself, including a report of a barrel of gin being thrown off a shelf at Redmire. The shock was felt as far south as Flintshire and even Shrewsbury; the northern limit was Warkworth, near Amble in Northumberland. |
| 5 October 1782 | Amlwch, Isle of Anglesey, Wales | ~3.7 | Felt generally throughout Anglesey, and apparently strongest at Amlwch, though details are rather lacking. Elsewhere in N Wales it was felt weakly as far as Mold. Epicentre probably offshore NE of Amlwch. |
| 10 August 1783 | Launceston, Cornwall, England | ~3.6 | The effects were strongest between Launceston and Okehampton; at Kelly, the church bell was rung by the shock. The earthquake was felt over a wide part of western Devon and part of eastern Cornwall. |
| 11 August 1786 | Whitehaven, Cumbria, England | ~5.0 | This important earthquake was felt over an area stretching between Dublin and Aberdeen. The epicentre was just off the Cumberland coast, near Whitehaven. Minor damage occurred at Barrow, Cockermouth, Egremont, Whitehaven and Workington. Reports of a similar event on 16 June 1786 are spurious. |
| 4 May 1789 | Barnstaple, Devon, England | ~2.9 | The felt area of this event was restricted to NW Devon. The shock was sufficient to move furniture and break crockery. |
| 2 March 1792 | Stamford, Lincolnshire, England | ~4.1 | Felt in the counties of Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Rutland and Bedford. The only report of damage is from Bigglsewade, where some old cottages fell down (this is towards the edge of the felt area and presumably anomalous). The epicentre was somewhere between Stamford and Kettering. |
| 2 January and 12 March 1795 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | The first of these was felt "twenty miles around" Comrie; the second as far away as Tyndrum. | |
| 18 November 1795 | Derbyshire, England | ~4.7 | Damage in the epicentral area consisted of chimneys falling at Derby, Nottingham, Chilwell, Chesterfield and Ashover. The epicentre was between Derby and Mansfield. The shock was felt as far south as Bristol, as far east as Norwich and as far west as Liverpool. The northern limit is uncertain - probably between York and Northallerton. |
| 4 August 1797 | Argyll, Western Scotland | ~3.8 | Very poorly documented. It was felt "upwards of sixty miles" in Argyllshire, and was strong enough to overturn many heavy items of furniture, which implies at least 6 MSK despite the absence of damage reports. The epicentre is obscure. |
| 12 March 1800 | Conwy, Snowdonia, Wales | ~3.3 | There are descriptions of this event from various isolated houses over an area stretching from the Vale of Conway to the Dee estuary, mostly describing rattling furniture. There was no damage. A report from Caerhun, S of Conway, mentions previous shocks, which may be foreshocks, and thus may indicate the epicentre to have been in or near the Vale of Conway. The epicentre adopted here is about 10 km W of Caerhun. |
| 1 June 1801 | Chester, Cheshire, England | ~3.6 | Felt at Chester, Shrewsbury and Salford; no more details, but it does not seem to have felt particularly strongly at any of these places. The epicentre is presumed to be SE of Chester. |
| 7 September 1801 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | ~4.6 | Climax of an earthquake swarm in Comrie lasting between 1788 and 1801.This was the climax of an earthquake swarm at Comrie that started in 1788 and numbered several hundred felt events, dying down after the 1801 earthquake. The shock was felt as far north as Inverness, and almost as far south as the English border. Minor damage was caused at Comrie. Two of the foreshocks are also included in the catalogue. |
| 21 October 1802 | Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales | ~3.3 | Alarming in Carmarthen, where many people ran into the streets, apparently on account of a prophecy that Carmarthen would be swallowed by an earthquake. Also felt at Narbeth and Llandeilo. |
| 12 January 1805 | Ruthin, Denbighshire, Wales | ~3.0 | Very little detail is known, beyond the fact that it was felt in the Vale of Clwyd and parts of Merionethshire, people were alarmed and a stone wall was thrown down. |
| 21 April 1805 | Stafford, Staffordshire, England | ~3.2 | Felt between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Birmingham. |
| 9 January 1809 | Comrie | Felt at Comrie, Amulree and Killin, and possibly also near Blairgowrie. | |
| 18 January 1809 | Strathearn, Perth and Kinross, Scotland | ~3.2 | The epicentre of this event is poorly determined; reports may have been restricted by the fact that roads in the area were blocked with snow about this date. The effects were strongest at Crieff; it was also felt along the north side of the Ochill Hills and probably as far north as Amulree. It could have been another Comrie earthquake. |
| 31 January and 1 February 1809 | Strontian, Lochaber, Scottish Highlands | These were the strongest two of a series of eleven shocks felt in the Strontian - Arisaig area. At an unspecified place in Argyllshire plaster fell and two old houses that were "tottering" collapsed completely. A non-contemporaneous source says this happened near Inveraray; if this were true it would radically increase the size of these shocks, but all efforts to substantiate this have failed and it may be that the damage occurred near Strontian. | |
| 30 November 1811 | Chichester, Sussex, England | ~3.4 | This shock was felt at many places in the Chichester-Portsmouth area, as far inland as Midhurst and Petworth, as far E as Shoreham and as far W as Newport (IoW). However, the felt effects do not seem to go much beyond strong shaking of furniture, though the water in Portsmouth Harbour was said to be agitated. |
| 1 May 1812 | Neath, Neath Port Talbot, Wales | ~3.0 | One stack of chimneys near Neath, and one chimney in Neath, were thrown down. The shock was fairly strong in Swansea and perceptible in the direction of Cardiff at least as far as Pyle. |
| 17 March 1816 | Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England | ~4.2 | Many chimneys were damaged at Mansfield, the church was also damaged, and several of the congregation were hurt by falling stones as they ran out in alarm. The shock was felt as far away as Blackburn in the NW, Hull in the NE, and Gunley (Worcs ?) in the S. |
| 13 August 1816 | Inverness, Scottish Highlands | ~5.1 | The largest and severest of the known Inverness earthquakes. It caused considerable damage in Inverness, and would have caused many injuries but for the time of day, when the streets were empty. The epicentre was probably SW of Inverness itself. The felt area covers almost all of Scotland; but no damage is reported from anywhere other than Inverness. The principal aftershock was felt as far away as Aberdeen and Montrose, and is thus also included in the catalogue. Other aftershocks continued until November 1818. |
| 23 April 1817 | West Scotland | ~4.5 | This event is only known from low intensity reports at the margin of the felt area (Greenock, Glasgow, Leith and Inverness). Presumably the origin was somewhere in the Oban-Lochaber district, but no reports have survived from this remote (at that time) area. |
| 25 December 1820 | Kintail, Scottish Highlands | ~3.4 | Felt Kintail, Loch Hourn, Glen Moriston and "other central places". This is all that is known about it. |
| 22 October 1821 | Rothesay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland | ~3.2 | Felt between Inveraray and Ayr; shook furniture; epicentre in the Bute/Loch Fyne area. |
| 23 October 1821 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | ~3.0 | Felt almost as far south as Stirling. Some confusion has occurred in the past between this shock and the preceding. |
| 18 January 1822 | Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, Yorkshire, England | ||
| 13 April 1822 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | ~2.9 | Felt as far from Comrie as Dunkeld. At one house in Comrie the covers of pots and pans fell and house bells were set ringing. |
| 6 December 1824 | Portsmouth, Hampshire, England | ~2.9 | Felt strongly between Gosport and Arundel, apparently at much the same intensity. The shock was alarming, and many people ran outside at Chichester and other places. A few bricks fell off a chimney at Havant. |
| 9 February 1827 | Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales | ~2.8 | Probably similar to the 1992 Caernarvon earthquake. It was felt in the Caernarvon - Bangor area and throughout Anglesey. In Caernarvon the shock caused people to run out in alarm and threw down small objects from shelves. Possibly some furniture was overturned. |
| 23 February 1828 | Tirlemont | This significant Belgian earthquake, with epicentre ESE of Brussels, was felt at intensity 2 MSK at Boughton under Blean, near Faversham, Kent. | |
| 2 March 1831 | Deal, Kent, England | ~3.1 | Felt in E Kent, from Margate to Dover, and in the surrounding villages. Particularly alarming at Deal, where some people fainted. Epicentre an uncertain distance offshore from Deal, but no reports from France have been discovered. |
| 28 July 1832 | Chester, Cheshire, England | ~3.0 | Felt mostly in the area E of Chester, as far east as Sandbach, but also as far south as Adderley, near Whitchurch. The shock was strong enough to shake trees and force a cupboard door open. Epicentre near Tarporley. |
| 30 December 1832 | Swansea, Wales, England | ~4.3 | Slight damage was caused in the Swansea area, chiefly the knocking down of a few chimney stacks and cracks in some walls. The felt area appears to have been strongly elliptical N-S; the shock was felt distinctly at Caernarvon, weakly at Exeter and very weakly at Hayle in Cornwall. However, there are no reports from further east than Neath, and a report that it was felt in Co. Wexford appears to be unsubtantiated. The epicentre was near Swansea, probably just offshore. |
| 18 September 1833 to 27 August 1834 | Chichester, Sussex, England | One fatality.The author once saw an item in a Victorian publication which stated that the most earthquake prone county in the UK is Sussex, a statement which reads strangely to the modern reader. The justification at that time was probably the series of small but high-intensity events that took place in the Chichester region between 1833 and 1835, the largest four of which are included here. The 18 September 1833 event threw down a few chimneys in Chichester and caused a fall in a chalk pit at Cocking, killing a man who was working there. The next event on 13 November was similar in felt area, caused a large clock in Chichester to strike, and was said to have been stronger to the north. On 23 January 1834 came the best-documented event of the sequence. At least one stack of chimneys in Chichester fell (a MS account states that bricks and tiles fell in every direction, but most accounts mention little or no damage). The 27 August earthquake was rather more damaging. Many chimneys and "innumerable" chimney pots fell down; many windows were broken and alarm was extreme. This shock was felt as far away as Southampton. The epicentres of these events was close to Chichester, probably to the west. Mr William Marshall was killed by falling rock at Cocking quarry. | |
| 20 August 1835 | Lancaster, Lancashire, England | ~4.4 | Damage from this event was very minor, limited to parts of two or three chimneys, one ceiling and the throwing down of some field walls. The epicentre was east of Lancaster, probably in the North Bowland Fells. The limits of the felt area are marked by Carlisle, Halifax, and Bangor. It was reportedly not felt in the Isle of Man. |
| 20 October 1837 | Tavistock, Devon, England | ~3.2 | Felt from Camelford in E Cornwall to North Bovey in Devon, the other side of Dartmoor. The felt area is rather elongated east-west. The descriptions give little indication of the effects of the shock anywhere; probably the intensity was nowhere very high. |
| 20 March 1839 | Invergarry, Scottish Highlands | ~3.2 | Felt from Glen Garry to Kingussie. The shock was apparently strong enough to unlatch doors at Invergarry. |
| 11 June 1839 | Rochdale, Lancashire, England | ~2.9 | The felt area was elongated N-S, stretching from Clitheroe to Manchester. The shock was particularly strong at Bury, Heywood and Rochdale; many articles were thrown from shelves, a wall was damaged at Rochdale and shafting was thrown out of gear at Heywood. There seems to have been a foreshock. |
| 1 September 1839 | Monmouth, Wales | ~3.5 | Epicentre in the Bristol Channel between Newport and Bristol. Bells rang at Llantarnam. The extent of the felt area is uncertain. |
| 23 October 1839 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | ~4.8 | This was the largest of all known Comrie earthquakes, and was felt over most of Scotland. It caused a dam near Stirling to breach.In 1839 swarm activity in Comrie started up again, rapidly building up to the earthquake of 23 October, the largest of all the known Comrie earthquakes. The felt area extended over most of Scotland and just across the English border to the south, one of very few Scottish earthquakes to be felt in England. There was significant damage at Comrie and in the vicinity. Many houses in Comrie were damaged. One of the more remarkable effects was the breaching of the Earl's Burn dam in the Gargunnock Hills SW of Stirling; the flood waters did considerable damage but no lives were lost. The bursting of the dam actually occurred the morning after the shock, but the dam was over-full and in poor condition, and it is likely the earthquake started a slow failure (Musson 1991b). This earthquake inspired the subsequent earthquake investigations of a BAAS committee led by David Milne, and is one of the best documented events of its period thanks to Milne's work (Milne 1842). Six of the foreshocks and three of the immediate aftershocks are estimated to have exceeded 3 ML and appear in the catalogue. |
| 18–19 January, 7 April and 26 October 1840 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | A monument to the first of these earthquakes was found in 1993 and now belongs to the Perth Museum.These were the strongest of the many shocks felt at Comrie in 1840. That of 19 January has the unusual distinction of being honoured with a stone monument, possibly erected at Stanley, found in 1993 at Fingask Castle near Perth, and now in the possession of Perth Museum. The shock of 26 October was one of the few to affect the primitive seismoscopes installed at Comrie. | |
| 12 March 1841 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | ~3.1 | The original records of this event do not appear reliable. |
| 30 July 1841 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | ~3.9 | The felt area of this earthquake is elliptical, roughly WSW-ENE, and extending as far to the west as Dunoon, though there was little variation in the severity of the shock except in the immediate vicinity of Comrie, where some damage to chimneys occurred. |
| 20 December 1841 | Kintail, Scottish Highlands | ~3.0 | Very poorly documented. Described as "severe" and felt in Kintail and "several of the neighbouring parishes". |
| 17 February 1842 | Helston | A well-documented event. It was felt only in western Cornwall. The epicentre was near Constantine, where people ran out in alarm and a book fell off a shelf. | |
| 15 August 1842 | Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales | ~3.0 | Similar to the 1827 and 1992 Caernarvon earthquakes, but less well documented. It was felt all over Anglesey, strongest in the SE, and was felt strongly on board two schooners and a brig passing over Caernarvon Bar. It was also felt outdoors on the SE coast of Anglesey. The extent of the felt area on the mainland is uncertain |
| 25 February 1843 | Argyll, Western Scotland | ~3.4 | Felt strongly between Dunoon and Oban. At Lochgilphead the shock was alarming and house bells were set ringing. The epicentre was probably somewhere along Loch Fyne, possibly near or north of Lochgilphead. |
| 10 March 1843 | Todmorden, Yorkshire, England | ~3.1 | This appears to be another Todmorden earthquake, but the epicentre is poorly controlled. The shock was felt in the Rochdale area and as far north as Slaidburn. It caused people to run out in alarm at Heptonstall, but there are no reports known from further east. |
| 17 March 1843 | Irish Sea | ~5.0 | The epicentre of this earthquake was actually offshore, somewhere to the west of Barrow-in-Furness. The earthquake was felt throughout most of Northern England, in S Scotland, N Wales and along the east coast of Ireland from Belfast to Dublin. The only damage reported was from Castletown in the Isle of Man, where ceilings were damaged. The shock was quite strongly felt in Lancashire and the east coast of Cumbria; there are reports of objects falling, furniture moving, considerable alarm, but no damage. The shock was also felt on board ships in the Irish Sea. |
| 22 December 1843 | Channel Islands | ~4.4 | Felt in Devon.Of the various Channel Islands earthquakes, this was by far the strongest of those with an epicentre close to Guernsey. A considerable amount of minor damage was done to buildings on Guernsey and there was panic amongst the inhabitants. The earthquake was felt as far away as Devon and also at St Malo and places near Cherbourg. |
| 18 January 1844 | Comrie, Highland of Scotland | ~3.9 | Two shocks on this day were felt at Comrie, Crieff, Aberfeldy, Balquhidder and Strathardle; the second was also felt strongly at Tyndrum and as far away to the west as Kinlochmoidart. Possibly this second event was not a Comrie earthquake at all but had an epicentre well to the NW in the Rannoch Moor area. |
| 24 November 1846 | Comrie, Scottish Highlands | ~3.0 | The third largest of the 19th century Comrie earthquakes, this event was strangely ignored by the early investigators, and remained obscure until recently. It was felt from the Moray Firth to Glasgow and from Inveraray to Aberdeen. There was minor damage in Comrie and places nearby, chiefly restricted to cracks in walls. There were numerous aftershocks, typical for a Comrie earthquake. This was one of the few events strong enough to affect the primitive seismoscopes installed around Comrie in 1840-1841. The time being around midnight, it is possible the event actually occurred on 25 November. One of the foreshocks and two of the aftershocks also appear in the catalogue. |
| 16 November 1847 | Newport, Wales | ~3.1 | This earthquake was felt in the Cardiff - Newport - Pontypool - Tredegar area. It was strongest at Pontypool, where there was much alarm and some loss of balance. The epicentre was betwen Pontypool and Risca. |
Material sourced from the British Geological Survey:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110516173115/http://www.quakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/historical/historical_listing.htm and
http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/historical/index.html for the earthquake magnitudes
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