Quake shakes Scotland
2006-12-26 22:26
London - Britain had its biggest mainland earthquake of the year on Tuesday when tremors measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale shook buildings in southwest Scotland, said the British Geological Survey.
"It was felt by quite a lot of people and was obviously a large earthquake in UK terms.
In world terms, there are thousands of these every year," said David Galloway, a BGS seismologist based in Edinburgh.
People in the Dumfries area of the Scottish borders reported their houses shaking violently at about 10:45 on Tuesday, but no serious damage or injuries were reported, police said.
Biggest quake in UK
Quakes of similar magnitude happen in Britain about once or twice per year, Galloway said.
The largest recorded this year - measuring 3.8 - was in the northern North Sea in February but was not felt on land.
"(Tuesday's quake) was felt because it's Boxing Day (a public holiday), there's not a lot of traffic, no-one at work and there's more people at home.
"It's the biggest in the UK this year," he added.
Galloway said there was "no connection whatsoever" to a huge quake off the coast of Taiwan, which triggered a tsunami warning in the Pacific Ocean, two years to the day after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.
Britain, which sits on the Eurasian plate, has about 200 earthquakes each year. The largest was in the North Sea in 1931 and measured 6.1 on the Richter scale.