Earthquake hits Ireland as locals report ‘explosion like rumbling’ amid tremors in night
DONEGAL residents were left in shock as an earthquake shook local towns last night.
Brendan O’Donoghue, a physics teacher at St Columba’s College, confirmed he read a magnitude reading of 1.1.
He told The Irish Sun: “I have many reports of noise, a few of shaking. From Churchill to the NW to Aghayaran to the SE.
“Thunder, or 'explosion like rumbling' is how people are describing it.”
Last night, Brendan's children thought they heard “snow sliding off the roof” which urged him to check the seismograph.
Brendan said: “It’s a magnitude 1.1. I reckon I was within eight kilometres of it, I live about four kilometres from town.
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“Now that the data has been processed, they're reporting it as being right here in Stranorlar.
“Just on the main road outside Stranorlar, Letterkenny. About two kilometres outside of town, so I would put it about seven kilometres from my house.”
Brendan explained how Donegal has a “long history of geologic activity”.
He said: “We are the most seismically active part of the country, here in Donegal.
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“Part of that is due to the geologic history of the area.
“Donegal would have been on the old suture between North America and Europe – that split apart like 55 billion years ago.”
With a “great response” from locals on the seismograph findings, numerous posts are sweeping the internet.
Brendan said: “The public here is used to it because we've had a few since 2012. There’s been about seven or eight of them.
“So there's local memes going on Facebook about garden furniture falling over.”
The St Columba’s College teacher discussed how he’s recorded about eight readings over 14 years on the school’s seismograph in the science lab.
And when their seismograph gets a reading, there’s a great “buzz” among the students.
Brendan said: “I get a lot of questions. No matter what subject I'm teaching, I call them up to the computer.
“I go through the data, show them and explain to them how to seismometer works.
“Energy and waves are part of all the science syllabuses. So I always give the rundown on energy and waves.
“We compare our earthquakes in terms of energy to earthquakes that happened in Japan and things like that. So it's a real outreach moment.”
Brendan is requesting anyone who heard or felt what they thought was an earthquake to contact him on [email protected]
He added: “The big thing in citizen science now, in seismology, is to get as many people as possible to report and tick a box to describe the nature of what they felt.
“Because that can help seismologists build up a shape map.”
The Irish National Seismic Network confirmed the earthquake was a 1.1 magnitude.
They said: “Yes, we do observe earthquakes in Ireland. The circular markers on the map show the earthquakes that we detected in and around Ireland since 1980.
“The INSN also detects large earthquakes that happen anywhere around the world. Measurements from our stations contribute to the global research into these earthquakes.”
