British quake - Bridlington shakes

Minutes before 1 am today, we were astounded to find our house shaking briefly but perceptively. It's a strange sensation: at first I thought it might be the tremor caused by a passing HGV but we live in a quiet cul-de-sac with almost no traffic and there was no accompanying roar either. The latter also excluded a nearby explosion: almost no sound. That's perhaps the eeriest aspect of an earthquake, at least if you're a safe distance away from the epicentre, that apart from a low rumble it's really quite quiet.

Going out into the street I found a few equally bemused neighbours and a couple of car alarms going off.

Turning the telly on to BBC News 24 and within minutes the news came in that an earthquake of magnitude 5.2 had hit Britain, epicentre Market Rasen (Lincolnshire). Market Rasen is only about 40 miles away from where we live, so things could have been a lot worse had the magnitude been considerably larger. Minor tremors are fairly frequent in Britain but until now I've never felt one myself. So, on the bright side, I can now cross of another thing on my list of things to do: survive an earthquake...