December 26, 2006
By Times Online and agencies
UK Times
An earthquake which shook a Scottish town today was the biggest in the UK this year, according to experts.
Hundreds of people in the Dumfries area reported their houses shaking violently at around 10.45am this morning.
Seismologists said that the tremor, which lasted around 10 seconds, measured 3.5 on the Richter scale - the largest in the UK this year.
Bennett Simpson, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, said: "This was a significant earthquake. But we would expect one or two of this magnitude every year, however.
"We have taken a number of calls from people in the Dumfries area reporting windows rattling, houses shaking and hearing a large bang.
"It is the biggest in the UK so far this year." He said Dumfries experienced an earthquake of magnitude 3 on the Richter scale in 2002.
Marie Brown, a receptionist at the Station Hotel in Dumfries, said today: "I was sitting in the bar downstairs and all of a sudden I thought there was a convoy of trucks going past. But it didn’t stop.
"The walls then started shaking and I became quite frightened. My fiance is a builder and he looked at me and said ‘This isn’t good’, but then it stopped.
"I wasn’t sure what it was, but you do hear of Scotland getting tremors or earthquakes so we thought that must have been what it was. It was a scary moment for us but everything seems to be OK."
Elaine Murray, Labour MSP for Dumfries, said she thought someone upstairs had fallen out of bed.
She said: "I ran upstairs to see if everyone was OK and when I looked out of the window I saw the neighbours running into their garden. "The house actually shook."
A police spokesman from Dumfries said: "We felt it here and it lasted for about 10 seconds. We weren’t sure what it was, then the phones started ringing and they haven’t stopped.
"It was actually scary."
He said hundreds of callers from a 20-mile radius, from as far away as Lockerbie, had reported their buildings shaking. No serious damage or injuries were reported, he added.
Britain’s strongest earthquake took place in the North Sea in 1931, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale.
During the summer, parts of Scotland were rocked by the biggest tremor in two years. The British Geological Survey in Edinburgh said the quake registered 3.1 on the Richter scale and its epicentre was at Shieldaig in Wester Ross.
In September 2002, buildings shook in parts of the West Midlands, Wales, North Yorkshire, London and Wiltshire in an earthquake measuring 4.8.
# A powerful earthquake struck off southwestern Taiwan today, triggering a tsunami alert for the Philippines on the second anniversary of the deadly waves that killed thousands in southern Asia. Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said that the quake measured 6.7, while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.1 ont he Richter scale
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2519261,00.html