Within Merionethshire UFOs
Could An Earthquake And Meteor Explain It?
A real North Wales earthquake and a bright meteor can explain why many witnesses thought something had come down nearby.
On this page
- The Bala earthquake evidence
- The meteor reports and sky lights
- Why two real events became one mystery
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
The earthquake-and-meteor explanation is the strongest natural account of the Berwyn mystery because it matches the two things that made the night so alarming: people felt a violent shock on the ground, and others reported lights in the sky. On 23 January 1974, a real earthquake occurred near Bala at about 8.38 pm, while meteor or fireball reports were also being made across a wider area of North Wales and beyond. That combination could easily make frightened witnesses, police officers and later readers think that something had come down in the Berwyn Mountains. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
This page treats the case in its Merionethshire setting: Bala, Llandrillo and the Berwyns sit within the historic county frame even though modern administrative labels often use Gwynedd, Denbighshire or simply North Wales. Britannica describes Merioneth as a historic county stretching from Cardigan Bay into Snowdonia and the Berwyn mountains, with most of it now in Gwynedd and its northern portion in Denbighshire. [Encyclopedia Britannica]britannica.comEncyclopedia Britannica Merioneth | Cambrian Mountains, Dolgellau, Bala LakeEncyclopedia Britannica Merioneth | Cambrian Mountains, Dolgellau, Bala Lake
The Bala earthquake explains the bang and shaking
The hard starting point is not a rumour but an instrumentally recorded earthquake. British Geological Survey seismologist R. M. W. Musson gives the exact start of the event as 20:38 on Wednesday 23 January 1974. He describes a magnitude 3.5 ML earthquake, with later macroseismic estimates suggesting felt effects more like magnitude 3.9–4.0 ML, and notes that the shock was felt across a broad area of North Wales and into parts of England. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
That matters because the Berwyn story is often retold as if the shaking itself were mysterious. In fact, the ground movement had a normal geological explanation. Musson’s paper says that a magnitude 3.5 ML event is not exceptional in the UK earthquake catalogue, although this particular earthquake became controversial because it happened at the same time as reports of lights. North Wales also has a known seismic history, including earlier regional earthquakes around Corwen and elsewhere. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
The witness reaction still makes sense. By 20:45, only minutes after the shock, scores of people in North Wales and Cheshire had telephoned police about a mysterious bang and rumbling. Gwynedd Police checked with RAF Valley on Anglesey and the air traffic control centre at Preston, then treated the incident as a possible aircraft crash. Within an hour, officers were searching the Berwyn Mountains because lights had been reported there. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
The important distinction is that the earthquake explains the loud impact-like experience, but not every light report. It also explains why the first emergency response was reasonable. In a dark, mountainous area near Llandrillo, a sudden shock, a bang and reports of lights were enough to raise the possibility of a crashed aircraft before the seismic data and failed searches pointed away from that idea. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
The meteor reports explain the sky lights
The second half of the natural explanation is that a bright meteor, or several meteor-related reports, entered the story at almost the same time. The next day, Gwynedd police were said to have received a report of what looked like a meteorite coming down in flames and exploding on Cader Fronwen, south-east of Llandrillo. Musson also records reports from the Isle of Man police, Anglesey coastguards, Formby and Cumberland, including descriptions of green flares and a meteorite travelling towards North Wales. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
A later correction is important: “meteor shower” is probably the wrong phrase. Alastair McBeath’s letter in Astronomy & Geophysics was titled “Meteor, not shower, over Bala”, directly challenging the idea that the Berwyn lights should be treated as a sustained shower rather than a bright meteor or fireball-type event. [OUP Academic]academic.oup.comOpen source on oup.com.
That distinction helps avoid overclaiming. A bright meteor can be vivid, coloured and widely reported without meaning that a meteorite struck the ground. Modern fireball science makes this easier to understand: the UK Fireball Alliance describes a fireball as the bright streak made when a meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere, and notes that large events can involve high-altitude breakup, flashes of light and shock waves. It also asks witnesses to report fireballs because multiple reports help calculate trajectories, showing why wide-area sightings are expected rather than suspicious. [The UK Fireball Alliance]ukfall.org.ukOpen source on ukfall.org.uk.
The colour reports are not especially strange either. Contemporary accounts included green lights or flares, and modern meteor guidance describes fireballs as very bright meteors, often bright enough to attract attention from people who were not intentionally watching the sky. The American Meteor Society defines a fireball as a meteor brighter than magnitude -4, roughly comparable to Venus, while Natural History Museum commentary on modern UK fireballs notes that bright events can be seen over several countries. [American Meteor Society]amsmeteors.orgOpen source on amsmeteors.org.
Why the two events became one mystery
The Berwyn mystery did not need one exotic cause to become confusing. It needed two real events to overlap: a felt earthquake and a bright sky event. To a person indoors, the earthquake could feel like an explosion. To a person outdoors, a meteor could look like something descending. To police receiving calls from across the area, the combined reports could sound like an aircraft crash.
Musson’s reconstruction shows exactly that kind of fusion. The police log was opened as an “explosion at Llandrillo” at 21:00. RAF Valley was contacted, a mountain rescue team was placed on standby, air traffic control at Preston was alerted, Merionethshire fire and ambulance headquarters were put on standby, and police search parties went onto the mountain. By 23:30 the search parties were down, having found nothing, although they had seen a green glare to the south. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
Once no aircraft was found, attention shifted to a meteorite. Geologists and amateurs searched the area over the following days, including staff and students from Leeds, Liverpool and Durham universities, but nothing was found. A Keele University astronomer also searched by helicopter for about an hour and concluded there was nothing to see; he noted that an impact large enough to cause the observed shock would have left a large scar. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
That point is one of the strongest arguments against a single “crash” explanation. Musson states that if the seismic shock had been caused by an impact rather than an earthquake, the equivalent energy would have been between hundreds of tons of TNT and a small nuclear weapon, and such an impact could not have failed to leave a significant crater. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
What the searches did and did not find
The natural explanation is not just “official reassurance”. It is supported by what the search failed to find. Police, RAF mountain rescue personnel, geologists and later investigators did not produce wreckage, an impact crater, a missing aircraft, or recovered meteorite material from the alleged crash site. Musson records that the police and RAF searches were fruitless, that no aircraft were reported missing, and that further civil assistance could be ruled out. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
The absence of debris matters because both proposed dramatic alternatives would normally leave physical traces. A crashed aircraft should leave wreckage. A meteorite impact large enough to shake the region should leave a conspicuous crater or scar. A landed or crashed exotic craft would require an even larger evidential burden, not merely memories of lights and later claims of secrecy.
Some later UFO retellings also relied on the idea that the mountain was sealed off by the military. Musson says that this is contradicted by the police logs and notes that Andy Roberts connected the “sealed hillside” memory to a later, real 1982 RAF Harrier crash on Berwyn, when wreckage recovery would indeed have involved cordoning off an area. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
The National Archives also places Berwyn within the wider Ministry of Defence UFO record rather than treating it as a proven crash. Its briefing guide says AIR 2/19083 contains brief details of the so-called Berwyn Mountains UFO incident, while further details were released in response to a public request in 2003. The same guide explains that many MoD UFO records concern lights, flashes and shapes, often with ordinary explanations, rather than confirmed craft. [National Archives]cdn.nationalarchives.gov.ukOpen source on nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where the natural explanation still leaves room for caution
The earthquake-and-meteor account is persuasive, but it should not be overstated. It does not prove that every single light reported that night was the same meteor. Musson notes that some reports of lights came after the tremor, including a “flying sphere” at Betws-y-Coed at 21:58 and another disc-like report at Gobowen the following morning. These later reports are part of the confusion, but they do not fit neatly into the 20:38 earthquake moment. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
There were also local lights on the mountain that may have had mundane human causes. Musson records that some lights seen on the mountain that night later turned out to belong to poachers. This is a useful reminder that “the lights” were not necessarily one phenomenon: a meteor, distant lights, possible search activity, mistaken direction estimates and later reports may all have been folded into one story. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
Earthquake lights are sometimes mentioned, but they are not the main explanation here. Musson discusses the possibility and notes that such luminous effects are usually associated with large earthquakes, while in this case the lights were seen over a wider area than the earthquake was felt. He also rules out auroral effects because the night was magnetically quiet. [NERC Open Research Archive]nora.nerc.ac.ukNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft WordNERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
The fairest conclusion is therefore not that the Berwyn mystery was “nothing”. It was a real emergency built from real stimuli: a genuine earthquake, a bright meteor or fireball report, frightened witnesses, difficult mountain terrain and official searches that found no crash site. That is exactly why the case lasted. It had enough reality to be memorable, but not enough physical evidence to support the later crashed-craft story.
Why this explanation matters for Merionethshire UFO history
For Merionethshire, the Berwyn case is a lesson in how a UFO story can form without a single unexplained object at its centre. The county’s most famous UFO-linked incident is not best understood as a classic sighting of a structured craft, but as a chain of interpretation: earthquake becomes explosion, meteor becomes falling object, mountain search becomes crash recovery, and later retelling turns uncertainty into conspiracy.
That makes the natural-cause explanation central rather than peripheral. It explains why witnesses were sincere, why the emergency response happened, why no wreckage was found, and why the story could still feel unresolved to people who experienced the night directly. It also keeps the case rooted in the geography of Bala, Llandrillo and the Berwyn Mountains rather than drifting into generic UFO mythology.
The strongest evidence weakens the crashed-object claim. The earthquake was recorded; meteor reports were widespread; searches found no aircraft, crater or debris; and official archive references treat the case as a report within the UFO file system, not as evidence of a recovered craft. What remains is a striking North Wales incident whose mystery lies less in alien hardware than in the way two ordinary but dramatic natural events collided in public memory.
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Endnotes
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Source: britannica.com
Title: Encyclopedia Britannica Merioneth | Cambrian Mountains, Dolgellau, Bala Lake
Link: https://www.britannica.com/place/Merioneth -
Source: academic.oup.com
Link: https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/47/6/6.8/233902 -
Source: academic.oup.com
Link: https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/issue/47/6 -
Source: academic.oup.com
Link: https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/47/5/5.11/231627 -
Source: academic.oup.com
Link: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/483/4/5166/5256650 -
Source: nora.nerc.ac.uk
Title: NERC Open Research Archive Microsoft Word
Link: https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/1531/1/Bala_paper_Musson.pdf -
Source: ukfall.org.uk
Link: https://ukfall.org.uk/ -
Source: ukfall.org.uk
Link: https://ukfall.org.uk/the-science/ -
Source: amsmeteors.org
Link: https://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/faqf/ -
Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/briefing-guide-12-07-12.pdf -
Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
Title: The National Archives UFO reports
Link: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/explore-by-time-period/postwar/ufo-reports/ -
Source: Wikipedia
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merionethshire -
Source: nora.nerc.ac.uk
Link: https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/1531/ -
Source: genuki.org.uk
Link: https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MER/Llandrillo/Gaz1868 -
Source: en.wikisource.org
Link: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Merioneth -
Source: trulyadventure.us
Link: https://www.trulyadventure.us/berwyn -
Source: grafiati.com
Title: Meteor shower
Link: https://www.grafiati.com/en/literature-selections/meteor-shower/ -
Source: media.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link: https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/ufo-file-release-august-2009/ -
Source: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/a?_ref=220 -
Source: imo.net
Link: https://www.imo.net/observations/fireballs/fireballs/ -
Source: maps-bgs.opendata.arcgis.com
Link: https://maps-bgs.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/bgs%3A%3Auk-historical-earthquakes/about -
Source: data.gov.uk
Title: U K Historical Earthquake Catalogue
Link: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/f98140b9-f8cf-4856-b251-ef95cafb22f3/uk-historical-earthquake-catalogue -
Source: data.gov.uk
Link: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/6aed2db1-0dab-47b6-9dc1-159d97dc7e0e/british-geological-survey-bgs-geophysical-and-sampling-survey-1974-wh-12-south-forties-05-1974
Additional References
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Source: youtube.com
Title: Episode 528: The Berwyn Mountain UFO Incident
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9g1QPIE5XMSource snippet
The Welsh "Roswell" UFO Crash (Berwyn UFO Incident)...
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Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/wilphotographer/posts/a-fireball-was-seen-and-caught-on-camera-early-hours-of-this-morning-with-witnes/1489144646164035/ -
Source: britastro.org
Link: https://britastro.org/journal_contents_ite/alice-grace-cook-an-east-anglian-meteor-observer -
Source: gazetteer.org.uk
Link: https://gazetteer.org.uk/place/Bala%2C_Merionethshire_2001 -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/BritishGeologicalSurvey/videos/did-you-know-that-between-200-and-300-uk-earthquakes-are-detected-by-bgs-each-ye/982274036070362/ -
Source: medium.com
Link: https://medium.com/the-nocturnal-report/exploring-the-berwyn-mountain-incident-c67bd81a2a3b -
Source: gatehouse-gazetteer.info
Link: https://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/Indexs/WalesCounty/Merioneth.html -
Source: britastro.org
Link: https://britastro.org/videos/meteors-and-fireballs -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/BBCEastYorkshire/posts/scientists-have-confirmed-the-fireball-as-a-meteor-watch-here/1313617987596646/ -
Source: medium.com
Link: https://medium.com/truly-adventurous/the-berwyn-incident-db620b71769b
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