The British Geological Survey recorded
a Magnitude 1.3 Earthquake at a depth of about 5 km. slightly to the northeast of the village of Gairloch in the Highlands Region of Scotland, slightly before 12.10 pm Britisg Summertime (slightly before 11.10 am
GMT) on Friday 22 May 2020. This
was not a major
event, and presented no
threat to human life or property, but was felt locally.
The approximate location of the 22 May 2020 Gairloch 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.
