Earthquake last night?

Setun

Did anyone hear anything about an earthquake or some kind of tremor on the East Coast of our peaceful country last night?
Heard a bit of a rumbling last night and I think the radio just said it was an earthquake under the Irish Sea. Apparently some bloke all the way down in Ennis heard it aswell.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Daddio wrote:

Did anyone hear anything about an earthquake or some kind of tremor on the East Coast of our peaceful country last night?

Can't say I have tbh.

You mean Ireland or Birdland?

Setun

Ireland, the country without most dangerous things such as snakes, large carnivorous animals and natural disasters.

Earthquake was probs just a tremor that a Californian wouldn't even sniffle at but how unusual is this?

joejoem

There is that big volcano in Longford

stevenmu

Yep, it was out at sea, somewhere off bray. 2.5 on the richter scale. Apparently it's fairly common but they're usually only about 1.5 on the scale and no one notices them. The biggest one ever recorded was in the 50s at about 3.5 on the richter scale.

finlma

I never felt one in Ireland but when I was living in NZ I experienced a 5.5. It shook the house, pretty strange experience.

Sarn

Yeah I woke up last night when it happened, it was about 3.30 am. I'd completely forgotten as I fell back asleep just after it happened.

whiskeyman

The girlfriend said the earth moved for her last night....

scojones

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1214/tremor.html

cormie

Didn't wake me up, nobody knew about it or even believed it happened.

From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 14th December, 2005


An earthquake measuring 2.8 on the Richter scale was felt off the east coast early this morning.


The tremor occurred 30km due east of Bray Head, Co Wicklow at an estimated depth of 9km, according to the School of Cosmic Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Senior Professor of Geophisics Alan Jones said the quake occurred at 3.30am.

"I live in Greystones, it didn't wake me up but we had reports from people in being woken up," he said. He said more information would be available this weekend.

He also said there was a dire need for Ireland to have it's own seismic network, as we currently rely on information from the British Geological Survey.

"We don't want to scare people, but there is not enough information to satisfy the Irish public", Prof Jones added.

No structural damage has been reported following this morning's quake. In 1984 a quake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale was felt along the east coast causing some minor structural damage.

Basq

whiskeyman wrote:

The girlfriend said the earth moved for her last night....

Clearly you weren't at home so...?! ....... BURN!

Lump

TBH, the Explosion at the Petrol Depot was 2.5 on the Richter Scale!

John

Vokes

Live in Greystones, never felt a thing

This is the third one in the last 60 years apparently. Wouldnt mind comparing that to the previous 60 years. See if the frequency is increasing.

Binomate

Everyone should jump at the exact same time and see if we can recreate an earthquake for anyone who missed it.

robinph

Could explain why I was awake at some silly hour in the morning then, cannot actually remember feeling anything moving though. Could have always been a lorry driving past though.

YeatsCounty

Earthquake in Ireland? Cool. There's very small earthquakes here in Montreal "all the time" according to residents here. I haven't felt any yet....

The final paragraph of the RTE article is interesting:

Mr Blake says there now appears to be a seismic event of some significance here every 50 years, and the Government should be taking action and providing resources before something more serious happens.

scuba sally

Got an email from a friend this morning who said she felt it. She is waiting for the Tsunami to hit next I thought she was taking the mick tbh.

Hal1

Its probably a long shot but is there some kind of fault line around that area where the quake happened, and if so would the sugarloaf mountain be on the same fault line?

Thats the first thing I taught about after hearing this. Because the sugarloaf was once an active volcano :eek:. Could an event such as this trigger an eruption , we never have anything like this happen here and probably wont for another 45 -50 years.

Anybody got any geograpical info on this .

Vokes

Well, the Sugarloaf (the bigger one, i think) is an extinct volcano so that means it can't explode ever again, right, although im no geologist. Still, you never know...

Hal1

Yes its dorment but could an earthquake like this wake this sleeping beast?.
It would be interesting to read up on these rare events like this that happen here but google doesn't have much to offer on this subject. :v:

Capt'n Midnight

Anything to do with the windmills out at sea ?

Projects with large dams holding back a lot of water have caused minor earthquakes in areas previously free of them.

Scarinae

Hal1 wrote:

Because the sugarloaf was once an active volcano :eek:

Actually, that's a myth. My Geology lecturer gets really het up about it, it's really funny, apparently he's always writing into newspapers and to authors of books that say the Sugarloaf was a volcano!
Anyway, I live in Bray and didn't feel anything, then again once I'm asleep I seem to be able to sleep through anything - I amazed my friends when we were on holidays this summer, because I sleep like a log! 2.5 isn't really that high on the Richter scale anyway

bug

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Maps/10/350_55.html

I cant see nothin!
this is one of my favorite sites. when i get the travel bug I search all the devastation, and it makes me feel nice that I live real far from a rift in the middle of the atlantic.

then I think of Dublin Bus and I imagine I could survive a 6.0 or thereabouts in sunner more turbulent places

Vokes

Fishie wrote:

Actually, that's a myth. My Geology lecturer gets really het up about it, it's really funny, apparently he's always writing into newspapers and to authors of books that say the Sugarloaf was a volcano!

Yeah, just read somewhere that the Sugarloaf is in fact an erosion resistant sedimentary deposit from the deep sea and is not an extinct volcano

Calibos

I'm in Bray and was up at that time. I didn't actually feel anything as in the ground shaking under my feet but I most definately heard it. Like a low frequency deep rumbling that lasted about 20 seconds. It wouldn't have been load enough to wake me had I been asleep but in a quiet house at 3 am it was most definately noticable. My brother is disgusted that he missed it though. He was awake but was listening to music on his iriver!

I didn't realise it was an earthquake last night though. It was a case of turning my head from side it side saying to myself, "eh what the eff is that noise?? " When it stopped I just assumed it was a distant roll of thunder or a low flying jet or passing HGV. Was only today when the old man mentioned he heard about a quake on the radio that I realised that that was what I had heard. Same scenario for everyone else I spoke to today about it who were awake at the time, "Yeah I thought it was the eejit in the apartment upstairs putting on his washing machine on spin at an ungodly hour." or "I thought it was a truck driving past" etc etc

Scarinae

SofaKing wrote:

Yeah, just read somewhere that the Sugarloaf is in fact an erosion resistant sedimentary deposit from the deep sea and is not an extinct volcano

I think people probably think it's a volcano because it's the same sort of shape - however

The core of this mountain is hard granite, but also comprises of sandstone and slate, which erode easily and give the mountain and appearance of a volcano. There are no volcanos in Ireland

Sorry to disappoint you all!

masteroftherealm

Heh I live bout 1200metres from Bray head was awake and felt nothing! Pah timy tremors!!

RuggieBear

When i was in Leicester in 2001 we had two earthquakes....first sounded like a truck going by but didn't feel a thing and the second about 7months later rattled everything in the kitchen cupboards and set off a few house alarms and lasted about a min.

Didn't feel the one last night...:(


I do remember the one in the summer of 1984 in Bray tho...god i'm getting old

JimmySmith

I dont believe anyone who say they felt it.

I lived in Bray for the one in the 80's which was about 15 times more powerful and nobody felt a thing apart from those who insisted it knocked them out of bed.

billy the squid

I remember the '84 one. there was another in '86 but it was not as severe as the 84 one.

lostexpectation

JimmySmith wrote:

I dont believe anyone who say they felt it.

I lived in Bray for the one in the 80's which was about 15 times more powerful and nobody felt a thing apart from those who insisted it knocked them out of bed.

i just read the one in the eighties was a 5.4, thats a good shake

stevieg_irl

there was on in Clare before,big one

http://www.iol.ie/~lahinch/history/cillstifiann.htm