Here's why you might have felt the earth move in Blackpool this morning - and it wasn't fracking

Did you feel the earth shake beneath your feet this morning?
St Annes beachSt Annes beach
St Annes beach

Scientists at the British Geological Survey detected what may have been a 'sonic boom' at 11.37am today, at the same time a series of explosions were let off on St Annes beach during the filming of a new Second World War drama starring Sean Bean.

BGS seismologist Glenn Ford said: "We have checked our network and we don't have anything that would be an earthquake. We did pick up some signals which are definitely not seismic, but may be consistent with a sonic boom.

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"The signals might also be spurious, and may be random. It's a very busy location, the Blackpool area. There's consistent noise from trains and traffic, so it may just be coincidental.

St Annes beachSt Annes beach
St Annes beach

"We can definitely discount that it was an earthquake. We are trying to establish whether there are other sources."

A sonic boom is the sound associated with shock waves created whenever an object travelling through the air travels faster than the speed of sound.

It is most commonly associated with military jets.

Mr Ford said the BGS had been in touch with British Aerospace and confirmed that no jets were present over the Fylde coast at the time the explosions were heard.

Minor earthquakes had previously been reported at Cuadrilla's fracking site off Preston New Road, however, there have been no recorded tremors in the area since December 14.