Glenveagh National Park, Co. Donegal, Ireland, 6th May 2023
This magnitude 2.5 earthquake is the largest onshore Irish earthquake recorded by the INSN since its inception. You may be to surprised learn that earthquakes do occur in Ireland. They are such a low magnitude that we don't tend to feel them and we thankfully have no safety concerns! They occur due to the reactivation of geological faults that are millions of years old.
This earthquake was largely felt across western and central Donegal, particularly in Letterkenny, Ballybofey and Dungloe. The INSN received nearly 300 felt reports from members of the public in the days following the earthquake, whereby approximately 85% of respondents heard the earthquake, 76% felt the earthquake, and 32% were awakened by the earthquake. Some respondents reported a duration for the noise they had heard, which was approximately 20 seconds on average. Several commonly occurring descriptions of the earthquake include ”loud rumbling”, ”loud noise”, ”like thunder, but went on too long”, ”like thunder, but deeper and omnidirectional”, with most reporting weak to mild shaking and objects rattling indoors.
This figure shows the 6th of May magnitude 2.5 Donegal earthquake recorded by a citizen Raspberry Shake station RF7A3.
