Earthquakes and mysterious light beams: Has the UK got its own Bermuda Triangle?

Two things happened yesterday that took people in the UK by surprise – multiple sightings of beams of towering light and an earthquake.

So… what on earth is going on?

At around 5.30am, people told Metro they saw a beam of light poking out from behind houses and trees.

They were mainly seen in towns and villages near the coastline, from Newton Stewart, Scotland, to Colchester, Essex, some 300 miles away.

Later that same day, an earthquake hit the north of England, rattling most of Lancashire and the Lake District at 11.23pm.

That epicentre in Silverdale is right in the centre of a triangle of some of the sightings of the mysterious lights.

Is this a sign that aliens are trying to communicate with us? Was the quake the thud of Mr Bean falling from the sky? Or does the UK have its very own Bermuda Triangle?

Metro has looked at the facts.

Lighting sightings

Darren Steger-Lewis, 38, spotted the vertical light while out for a morning run at 5.30am at Ness Point – the most easterly point of England.

The administrative manager for a mobility scooter manufacturer said the light was out at sea and was crystal clear.

His first thought was that it must have been solar activity, but he did wonder if it might be little green men.

Darren said: ‘The alien thought did naturally cross my mind, but the question arose: If we were being visited, would Lowestoft really be the destination of choice?’

Wayne Jensen, 43, told Metro he saw the beacon at about 5am in Mildenhall, Suffolk.

He said: ‘I have absolutely no idea what it was, but it definitely wasn’t man-made. My guess is something to do with gases in the atmosphere.’

It didn’t need to be ‘man-made’ though – beams are commonly reported during alleged sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, otherwise called UFOs.

However, Jim NR Dale, a meteorologist with the British Weather Services, told Metro there’s probably a much more mundane, but still spectacular, explanation.

Dale said they are more likely ‘light pillars’, an atmospheric optical illusion.

North Yorkshire Police told Metro the force is not aware of any reports of UFOs in the region, either.

Seismic Silverdale

Hours later, at 11.23pm, there was another natural phenomenon that woke up the people of Lancashire – an earthquake that felt like an underground explosion.

Fiona Johnston said: ‘Well, last night I felt the earth move. I was laid in bed reading around 11.30pm when the end of my bed moved.

‘It felt exactly like it did when Alfie [my deceased dog] would attempt to jump on the bed. I honestly thought it was him coming back to visit me because he was very much on my mind last night and I’d been watching videos of him.’

Fiona, like many others roused from their sleep, was relieved to hear that it was a tremor.

The UK experiences around 300 tremors every year, but only 20 or so are strong enough to be felt.

Can Barrow really be compared with the Bermuda Triangle?

Countless aircraft, boats and people have vanished in the area connecting Virginia’s Norfolk, Puerto Rico and Bermuda.

Officials and scientists have debunked the idea that aliens or a mysterious force in the 500,000 square mile section of the Atlantic Ocean is to blame.

Yet, the myth is so enduring that any eerie cluster of incidents anywhere tends to get the Triangle treatment.

What are ice pillars

Also called ice pillars, light pillars are a type of atmospheric optics, or the way light travels through the atmosphere.

When it’s nippy outside around sunrise or sunset, clouds that are normally high in the atmosphere drift down towards the Earth’s surface.

Within these clouds are millions of ice crystals that, when an artificial light from a ground source shines through them, reflect it like tiny mirrors.

If the light comes from the sun, they’re rather aptly called ‘sun pillars’.

Ice can cause all sorts of illusions, such as the ghostly blur of diamond dust, when these teeny-tiny mirrors reflect streetlights.

Physicist Les Cowley, a physicist who studies atmospheric optics, said: ‘So, keep an eye on the sky during those cold winter nights, as you never know when you might be treated to the awe-inspiring sight of light pillars illuminating the darkness.’

Metro’s verdict

In all seriousness, the strongest explanation here is coincidence.

When you introduce Colchester to the Beamuda Triangle map, you’re left with something more closely related to a four-sided shape.

But the Morecambe Wonky Diamond doesn’t have quite the ring to it, does it?

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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