‘EARTHQUAKES’ threatening Britain’s fracking revolution are comparable to a kid bouncing a football, academics claim.

Ministers were urged to loosen “crazy” rules that are forcing a drilling company to suspend operations at its Lancashire well when a tremor measuring 0.5 on the Richter scale is picked up.

A report by the University of Liverpool shows this is comparable on the surface to a door slamming, 0.6, a football being bounced, 0.9, or a large frying pan dropping to the floor, 1.0.

Bigger tremors were felt in Caerphilly and Kettering in October.

And the British Geological Survey admits anything below a magnitude of 2.0 is unlikely to be felt at the surface.

Cuadrilla began fracking at its Preston New Road site in Blackpool in a search for shale gas a month ago.

It has been forced to suspend operations three times over the 0.5 threshold.

A senior Tory told The Sun: “It’s crazy. We back fracking then set the rules in such a way it’s almost impossible for anything to actually happen.

“We either have to back shale gas exploration or not.

"The Government needs to look at this.”

Tories claim Energy Minister Claire Perry has privately admitted the rules have to change.

But she has warned that it’s too difficult politically given huge pressure from anti-fracking campaigners.

The Department for Business yesterday insisted there were currently no plans to loosen the rules –but added: “Shale gas has the potential to be a new domestic energy source, delivering substantial economic benefits.”

The earthquake threshold was set in 2012 as ex-PM David Cameron’s Coalition desperately tried to get fracking off the ground.

Mr Cameron claimed a study of 11 counties alone had found 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas “lying underneath Britain”.

Fracking involves drilling deep underground and releasing a high pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals to crack rocks and release gas stored inside.