An earthquake is a sudden and violent movement within the earth followed by a series of shocks. Earthquakes occur when rocks on either side of a weakness in the Earth's crust (a fault) slip, causing the ground to vibrate and shake. The BGS monitors earthquakes in the UK and worldwide.

Find out more from our Earthquakes website or get your children involved with the UK School Seismology Project.

Download Why do we have earthquakes? factsheet.

Look where earthquakes have happened in the past using GeoIndex. Zoom in on where you live and query the nearest earthquake to you. Find out when it happened and how powerful it was (MAG= magnitude).

Search our free downloads page for magazine articles (Earthwise), reports and more factsheets.