Bedfordshire experiences second earthquake in six days

Leighton Buzzard was the epicentre of the 2.1 magnitude earthquake
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Leighton Buzzard was at the centre of a second earthquake, just six days after the last one.

According to the British Geological Survey (BGS) the earthquake originated in Leighton Buzzard, again, at 12.20am in the early hours of this morning (Monday), and was magnitude 2.1.

It is the second time a tremor has been felt in the area, after a magnitude 3.5 quake was felt on September 8.

Read: Tremors felt throughout Leighton Buzzard after magnitude-3.8 earthquake strikesBetween 20 to 30 earthquakes are felt by people in the UK each year, according to the BGS.

Glen Ford, a seismologist for the BGS, said: "The one last week was a big one, but it is not unknown to happen in this country, but because we are not used to them the public do feel it and get a bit excited about it.

"For example, in Greece, that sort of magnitude earthquake would not have made people even get up from their morning coffee, but we are just not used to them in the UK.

"The smaller earthquake last night was just an aftershock of Tuesday;s, it is still largely unknown as to why some bigger earthquakes have aftershocks and other's don't.

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"Earthquakes in the UK are caused by a build up of stress on the fault lines and when the pressure gets to much, it has to be relieved, and then a few days later, a bit more stress might be relieved.

"There might be some more aftershocks felt in the town, but we do not know, it will not be uncommon if there are more though,

"There have been plenty of earthquakes in the UK, and some larger than last week's.

"Last night's earthquake was 100 times smaller than Tuesday's but because it was later in the evening, when there were fewer vehicles on the road, more people would have felt it, than if it happened during the day.

"Tuesday's earthquake, we probably get two or three of that size each year in the UK, the smaller one last night, we probably get about 20 of those, in the UK we can see between 200 and 300 earthquakes each year."

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