Seismic UK and Ireland: Our own history with earthquakes

Devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have resulted in a humanitarian crisis in the region. Here in the UK and Ireland we have our own history with quakes.

You may not believe it but we experience up to 300 earthquakes a year, it is just that most are far too weak to have any impact.

Major earthquake zones tend to rest on tectonic plate boundaries, such as the infamous ring of fire in the Pacific which results in a much higher degree of volcanic and seismic activity.

In the UK and Ireland we sit safely within the Eurasia tectonic plate with the nearest boundary resting around 1,600 km away in the Atlantic Ocean.

While we are far from a boundary, we are still feeling the squeeze from them. Thousands of years ago, as the ice sheets melted northern regions of the UK were lifted.

As these deformations continue to adjust and fall, we see a clear pattern in seismic activity focused in western Scotland,

Over the last 50 days, the British Geological Survey has recorded 39 earthquakes in the UK including one just two days ago on February 13th hitting Ardnamurchan, Scotland with a magnitude of 1.4.

Ireland is much less seismically active seeing just two earthquakes since the start of the year, of which the largest was a miniscule 0.7 on the Richter scale.

The most significant quake to hit our shores occurred in 1931 when a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck in the North Sea close to Dogger Bank.

Despite its epicentre being around 97 km from shore its impact was felt across the UK and caused damage in eastern England.