The British Geological Survey recorded
a Magnitude 2.0 Earthquake at a depth of about 7 km on the Knoydart Peninsula in the Highlands Region of Scotland, slightly before 10.40 am GMT on Saturday 28 December 2019. This
was not a major
event, and presented no
threat to human life or property, but may have been felt locally.
The approximate location of the 28 December 2019 Knoydart Earthquake. Google Maps.
Earthquakes
become more common as you travel north and west in Great Britain, with
the west coast of Scotland being the most quake-prone part of the island
and the northwest of Wales being more prone to quakes than the rest of
Wales or most of England.
The
precise cause of Earthquakes in the UK can be hard to determine; the
country is not close to any obvious single cause of such activity such
as a plate margin, but is subject to tectonic pressures from several
different sources, with most quakes probably being the result of the
interplay between these forces.
Britain
is being pushed to the east by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean and
to the north by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south. It is
also affected by lesser areas of tectonic spreading beneath the North
Sea, Rhine Valley and Bay of Biscay. Finally the country is subject to
glacial rebound; until about 10 000 years ago much of the north of the
country was covered by a thick layer of glacial ice (this is believed to
have been thickest on the west coast of Scotland), pushing the rocks of
the British lithosphere down into the underlying mantle. This ice is
now gone, and the rocks are springing (slowly) back into their original
position, causing the occasional Earthquake in the process.
