More than 300 earthquakes have been recorded in the UK this year, according to the British Geological Survey (BGS).
Among the most active regions to experience earthquakes were Perthshire and the western Highlands in Scotland, southern parts of Wales, and Yorkshire and Lancashire in England, according to BGS.
Perth and Kinross experienced two of the most powerful earthquakes on land, which occurred within hours of each other on October 20 near Loch Lion: a magnitude 3.7 earthquake followed by a magnitude 3.6 earthquake.
One person described it as feeling “like being in an underground subway under my house,” while another said “the house was shaking and all the windows were rattling.”
Since the event, BGS has received 198 “feeling reports” from people describing their experiences of the earthquake, some from more than 37 miles away from the epicenter.
BGS said 34 of the 309 recorded earthquakes occurred near Loch Lion between October and December. The third largest recorded land earthquake was a magnitude 3.2 earthquake in Silverdale, Lancashire, on December 3, with 700 people reporting the tremor.
The Dogger Bank earthquake of 1931 remains the strongest earthquake recorded in the UK since measurements began, with a magnitude of 6.1.
Dr Brian Baptie, seismologist at BGS, said: “The data shows earthquakes have occurred in many parts of the UK over the past 12 months, with numerous events in Scotland and England and Wales being significant enough to be felt by many nearby people.”
Baptie added that while large earthquakes are rare, they have occurred almost every day in the UK this year. “This is a reminder that small earthquakes happen all the time, and it is critical to study them to help us understand the possible impact of rare large earthquakes on major energy and infrastructure projects across the country,” he said.
BGS uses a network of 80 monitoring stations across the UK to record seismic activity.
Baptie said it was not surprising that Perth and Kinross topped the list. “The west of Scotland is one of the most active parts of the UK. Some of this activity can be attributed to well-known geological faults such as the Great Glen Fault and the Highland Bandery Fault.”
He added: “Earthquakes can also happen in other parts of the UK where there are geological faults. The ground under our feet has a lot of what we call geological faults and these are caused by our turbulent geological history and the fact that deformation is still going on around the UK.”
“Sometimes these faults are activated by modern stresses, and when they occur, small earthquakes occur.”
BGS has received 1,320 reports from members of the public who have felt earthquakes this year. The magnitude of many of these earthquakes was too low to be felt by people, but larger seismic tremors, which have occurred in the UK in the past with magnitudes between 5 and 6, could pose a safety risk.
Magnitude 4 events in the UK and surrounding areas are typically recorded every three to four years, magnitude 5 events every few decades and magnitude 6 events every few hundred years, according to BGS.
