THE earth moved in East Lancashire over the weekend — but nobody felt it!

Experts revealed the region was hit by an earthquake on Saturday.

The British Geological Survey recorded a quake of 2.2 magnitude at 2.33pm around five and a half miles south, south east of Blackburn — the moorland between Darwen and Haslingden.

Scientists said the epicentre was at a depth of four and a half miles.

A measurement of 2.2 on the Richter scale is deemed as ‘minor’, and is not generally felt, but is strong enough to be recorded.

There are about 1,300,000 quakes of a similar magnitude each year worldwide.

A spokeswoman for the British Geological Survey (BGS) said: “An earthquake measuring 2.2 is a typical British earthquake, and they happen about 20 to 30 times a year.

“We haven’t had any reports of people feeling it, but that’s fairly typical for the size and for the time if day it happened.

“Only about 10 per cent of earthquakes that size are ever felt.”

Staff at the Grey Mare pub in Grane Road, near to the epicenter, said they hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

A spokesman for the pub said: “We had no idea, it was business as usual for us on Saturday.

“The earth didn’t move for us.”

Neither Lancashire Fire and Rescue, nor Lancashire Police, said they were aware of the incident and nobody had called to report anything.