'It’s very unusual having people feel earthquakes, certainly in Cork'

A small but “exciting” earthquake was recorded in Cork in the early hours of this morning, according to the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN).

The event, with a detected magnitude of 1.6 on the Richter Scale, occurred approximately 5km northeast of Bandon, at 5.50am.

The epicentre of the quake was recorded at a shallow depth of around 1km below the surface, at latitude 51.79, longitude -8.69, coming to a site between Bandon and Crossbarry, close to the Castlelack Football Club in Brinny.

Speaking to The Echo, Seismic Network Analyst Technical Officer with the INSN, James Grannell, who is from Carrigaline, said that earthquakes felt by people in Cork are not common.

“I’ve been working in the institute now for six years, and this is the first time I’ve come across it,” said Mr Grannell.

“Before this, there was an earthquake felt by people in 2013 in Courtmacsherry, which had a magnitude of 2.2, which was relatively big for Ireland – and before that, in 1981, there was an earthquake in Midleton, that had a magnitude of 2.1.

“It’s very unusual having people feel earthquakes, certainly in Cork and the south west in general.

“We would have a lot more activity in Wexford and Donegal - earthquakes are much more common there.” 

Mr Grannell highlighted how, at the time of print, the organisation had received more than 20 ‘felt reports’ from members of the public in Cork from this morning’s event, which he said are valuable in terms of record keeping, as seismology records in Ireland are relatively within their infancy, only stretching back as far as the 1970s.

“Record keeping has been quite good since 2010, but before that it’s sparser, so it’s still early days to infer what the reasons are [for the earthquake],” added Mr Grannell.

“It’s quite a rare occurrence, so far I think we’ve gotten up to 25 felt reports from people, and I’d say that will keep going [up].

“It’s very exciting, we do record a lot of seismic events, I think in the last calendar year we recorded 1,600 seismic events around Ireland, of which the vast majority were quarry blasts, so it’s very interesting to get an actual earthquake.” 

He further described how building stress between plate boundaries in southern Europe potentially pushed the activity northwards towards Ireland, causing the event which occurred today.

While the quake was felt by people, Mr Grannell stated that structural damage would not be likely, as that would require the event to measure to at least a 4 or 5 on the Richter Scale.

Historically, the largest earthquake recorded in Ireland measured at a 4 on the Richter Scale, and occurred 50km off the coast of Mayo in 2012.

The INSN are further asking that those who potentially experienced the quake to complete an online questionnaire via their website: https://tinyurl.com/bdhz7n7m