Earthquakes Do Occur In Ireland
Science/Medical/Technology
Wednesday 25th, May 2022
Earthquakes do occur in Ireland despite most people thinking Ireland is immune to them. The most recent quake detected by the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) was on the 20th of May 2022 at 5:19pm, it was only a small quake measuring at 1.1 magnitude of the North West coast of Donegal.
On the 7th of April 2019 an earthquake measuring 2.4 in magnitude was records in Donegal bay, with this said the Irish National Seismic Network later said that earth quakes are not uncommon in this region due to a number of fault lines in the area.
Dr. Siobhan Power, a spokesperson for the Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) said, ""Ireland has a long and exciting geological history and has faults preserved from the various periods of tectonic activity it has been through.".
"Donegal is cut by a series of NNE-WSW trending faults and it is thought the 2.4 magnitude earthquake happened along one of these faults."
"Energy built up in the Earth’s crust is released along pre-existing faults. Larger earthquakes occur at plate boundaries but the closest plate boundary to Donegal is the mid-Atlantic ridge."
An earthquake in June 2012 with a magnitude of 4.0 of the west coast of Ireland was the second largest after the 1984 earthquake of magnitude 5.4 in the Irish Sea.
Chris Bean, a senior professor of geophysics and Director of the School of Cosmic Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) said, "We will have earthquakes of that size again, eventually, but the question is will they happen in a human lifetime or not? Geological processes are very slow relative to the human biological timescale. It could be tens, it could be hundreds of years before we will see something like that again. But the processes that led to that event are still in play, they're still ongoing".
You can view the latest recorded earthquakes in and around Ireland at the referenced link below to the Irish National Seismic Network's website.
On the 7th of April 2019 an earthquake measuring 2.4 in magnitude was records in Donegal bay, with this said the Irish National Seismic Network later said that earth quakes are not uncommon in this region due to a number of fault lines in the area.
Dr. Siobhan Power, a spokesperson for the Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) said, ""Ireland has a long and exciting geological history and has faults preserved from the various periods of tectonic activity it has been through.".
"Donegal is cut by a series of NNE-WSW trending faults and it is thought the 2.4 magnitude earthquake happened along one of these faults."
"Energy built up in the Earth’s crust is released along pre-existing faults. Larger earthquakes occur at plate boundaries but the closest plate boundary to Donegal is the mid-Atlantic ridge."
An earthquake in June 2012 with a magnitude of 4.0 of the west coast of Ireland was the second largest after the 1984 earthquake of magnitude 5.4 in the Irish Sea.
Chris Bean, a senior professor of geophysics and Director of the School of Cosmic Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) said, "We will have earthquakes of that size again, eventually, but the question is will they happen in a human lifetime or not? Geological processes are very slow relative to the human biological timescale. It could be tens, it could be hundreds of years before we will see something like that again. But the processes that led to that event are still in play, they're still ongoing".
You can view the latest recorded earthquakes in and around Ireland at the referenced link below to the Irish National Seismic Network's website.
