AN earthquake struck Leyburn in North Yorkshire - but fortunately the earth failed to move for anyone!

The British Geological Survey, said the quake, which was detected at 11.03am on Monday, was 1.9 in magnitude and measured at a depth of 2km.

The news was greeted with surprise by Dave Close, landlord of the Golden Lion, which was near the epicentre in the town's Market Place.

"I'm very surprised as I never felt a thing," he said. "The earth definitely did not move for me this morning!"

However, that's not exactly surprising, as according to experts an earthquake of anything less than 3.5 is not normally felt at all and it takes one of a magnitude of up to 6 to cause minor damage to poorly constructed buildings.

The quake was picked up by one of the British Geological Survey's seismograph stations, which supply continuous data to its Edinburgh HQ.

In an average year, it detects about 100 earthquakes around Britain, of which just 20 per cent are felt.

The other most recent earthquake activity happened on November 22 last year some 30 miles to the west in Sedbergh, Cumbria. On that occasion the earthquake had a magnitude of just 0.9 at a depth of 7km.