The British Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 1.8 Earthquake at a depth of 7 km beneath the eastern part of the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, slightly after 1.35 am GMT on Thursday 26 December 2013 (Boxing Day). This is a small quake, and there was very little danger of it causing any damage or injuries, but large enough that many people on the island report being woken by it.
The approximate location of the 26 December 2013 Jersey Earthquake. Google Maps.
The precise cause of Earthquakes around the UK can be hard to determine; the country is not close to any obvious single cause of such activity such as a plate margin, but is subject to tectonic pressures from several different sources, with most quakes probably being the result of the interplay between these forces.
Britain is being pushed to the east by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean and to the north by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south. It is also affected by lesser areas of tectonic spreading beneath the North Sea, Rhine Valley and Bay of Biscay. Finally the country is subject to glacial rebound; until about 10 000 years ago much of the north of the country was covered by a thick layer of glacial ice (this is believed to have been thickest on the west coast of Scotland), pushing the rocks of the British lithosphere down into the underlying mantle. This ice is now gone, and the rocks are springing (slowly) back into their original position, causing the occasional Earthquake in the process.
Glacial rebound seems an unlikely cause of Earthquakes beneath the Channel Islands, an area that was never glaciated, but this is not entirely the case. The northwest of Scotland is rising up faster than any other part of the UK, but the Earth's crust onland in the UK is fairly thick, and does not bend particularly freely, whereas the crust beneath the Channel is comparatively thin and more inclined to bend under stress. Thus uplift in Scotland can cause the entire landmass of Great Britain to pivot, causing movement in the rocks beneath the Channel.
Witness accounts of Earthquakes can be useful to geologists trying to understand the processes that cause them and the rocks beneath the surface. If you felt this quake (or if you were in the area but did not feel the quake, which is also useful information) then you can report it to the British Geological Survey here.
See also Magnitude 2.9 Earthquake in northern France, Earthquake off the coast of Cornwall, Earthquake southeast of Jersey in the Channel Islands, Earthquake under the English Channel and Earthquake in the Channel Islands.
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