ONE of the strongest earthquakes to hit Britain for more than a decade was felt off the coast of North Yorkshire on Tuesday night.

The magnitude 3.9 tremor happened almost 100 miles east of Scarborough at 6.50pm, the British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed. The epicentre was 31 miles north of the Dogger Bank earthquake of 1931, the strongest tremor recorded in the UK at 6.1 on the scale.

The 1931 quake was credited with twisting the church spire in Filey and damaging chimneys along the east coast.

But Tuesday’s earthquake was much milder. One of a similar strength struck Ripon in 2011.

Many residents appear not to have noticed the quake and quickly took to twitter to joke about the incident, with one tweeting a picture of the ruined Scarborough Castle, adding: “Harrowing images of Scarborough Castle following the 3.9 earthquake tonight. Hard to believe that, only yesterday, this was a Travelodge.”

Another tweeted: “I live 50 metres from the North Sea and didn’t feel the 3.9 Scarborough earthquake because it was 100 miles out to sea,” said one.

Local tourism bosses quickly put out a press release shortly after news of the tremor, claiming the earthquake was “less stirring than the beautiful landscape”.

Janet Deacon, area director for North Yorkshire at Welcome to Yorkshire said: “We have been amused by the memes that quickly appeared on Twitter following the quake, but with few people in the town actually reporting feeling the earth move, people are far more likely to be moved by the beauty of the Jurassic coastline than by the physical shifting of tectonic plates.”