Shaken but not stirred – Dumfries rocked by 2.3 magnitude quake

Published on Tuesday 8 June 2010 22:02

AN EARTHQUAKE with a magnitude of 2.3 was recorded in Dumfries and Galloway, seismologists confirmed yesterday.

• The townspeople of Dumfries are no strangers to the occasional earth tremor. Picture: Neil Hanna

The tremor hit parts of Dumfries and Galloway, with the epicentre on farmland near Newbridge, early on Monday evening.

About two dozen people contacted the British Geological Survey, some saying their buildings had been shaken. Others described a loud bang or rumbling noise with some residents reporting that "the house appeared to lift, and then drop suddenly".

Lesley Tait, 51, was putting her feet up after a busy day serving customers in Kings coffee shop when she heard a massive bang outside in the street.

"I was watching the news when I heard this really big, massive bang," she said. "It sounded like two cars colliding. But when nothing seemed to be happening I wondered if it could be another earthquake."

"The last time it happened, a few years ago on Boxing Day, I just thought it was my washing machine playing up."

Dumfries was at the centre of a quake with a magnitude of 3.5 on Boxing Day 2006 which caused damage to homes and shook buildings.

According to the British Geological Survey, the earthquake had an intensity rating of three, which is described as a fairly weak vibration.

Last night, Dr Brian Baptie, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, said the latest earthquake had been small compared to the 3.5 quake of Boxing Day 2006.

"The Boxing Day quake was probably 30 times bigger than Monday's event.

"Dumfries is an area where there have been a number of events over the past 20 to 30 years, but I'd hesitate to call it a 'hot spot' of earthquake activity."

Dr Baptie said there are "clusters" around Scotland, such as up in the north and west, where earthquakes occasionally occur. "This is because the whole of the earth under our feet, the earth's crust, is full of ancient faults due to our turbulent past.

"These may be reactivated by combining with current-day stresses a long way away from any earthquake hot spots such as Japan or Haiti.

"Dumfries is part of the Southern Uplands but it is not in the same sort of location as the Highland Boundary Fault which has an ancient and well-defined fault line."

Dr Baptie added that there was no way for seismologists to predict earthquakes, but that it was possible for them to build up a picture of where in the world they were most likely to occur.

Last year, Dumfries was hit by four mini quakes with a magnitude of between one and 1.2 in the first five days of the new year.

They were not felt by members of the public.

Dumfriesshire and south Ayrshire were also hit in December 2008 with a quake of 1.1 magnitude at Cumnock on 11 December and at nearby Kirkconnel the same day when it was measured at 1.2.

Last month, there was a 1.2 earthquake about ten miles south of Oban in Argyll.

QUAKERS

A NUMBER of people contacted each other on social networking sites to share their experiences just after the earthquake hit Dumfries.

Some Twitter users said their houses had been shaken by the tremor at about 6pm, others recalled the 2006 quake.

Among them, pjaybell, who tweeted "earthquake confirmed for Dumfries area.

"No idea how big though, small on the grand scale of things but nearly made my dog c*** himself!"

Kelliewelliee tweeted: "earthquake in Dumfries! mayans > i totally believe."

Meanwhile captainwhitelaw put: "Small earthquake in dumfries - that's nothing I survived the Boxing Day 2006 quake."