Gwynedd named as a top UK earthquake hotspot
A new map detailing the UK’s most earthquake prone regions has identified an area of North Wales as one of the country’s top 10 hotspots.
The Llyn Peninsula is officially one of the 10 most active areas, notching up nearly 300 separate incidents recorded over the past four decades.
Mapping experts Esri UK marked data from over 10,000 UK earthquakes dating back to 1970 to create the graphic.
It used information collected from the British Geological Survey (BGS) to plot the location and size of every quake.
Ben Flanagan, cartographer at Esri UK said: “To celebrate National Richter Scale day, we wanted to examine where the UK’s earthquakes had occurred to see if any patterns emerged and uncover the myth that the country doesn’t get that many,
“Using modern mapping techniques enabled us to plot all 10,000, reveal the hotspots and help people to understand where the areas of highest and lowest activity have been.
“People often think that the UK rarely has earthquakes but in reality, there are a few hundred each year. Most are simply too small or deep for us to feel.”
“The most recent one was on Easter Sunday in the North Sea.”
Earthquakes are measured by the BGS using more than 100 seismograph stations across the UK, using the Richter scale numbered 0-10.
In Wales, nearly 900 earthquakes have been recorded by the BGS since 1970.
(Photo: www.esriuk.com)
Gwynedd was the epicentre of one of Britain’s biggest earthquakes. In July 1984, the area was struck by an tremor measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale and was felt as far as Edinburgh.
In a comment on their website, the BGS the distribution of seisimic activity for mainland and offshore UK is ‘neither random nor uniform in density, with more frequent and larger events occurring on the west coast. North Wales, especially around Caernarfon and the Llyn Peninsula, and the Welsh border area also show higher levels of seismicity.’
Earlier this year, Beddgelert was named as the epicentre of a magnitude 1.1 quake which could be felt in the surrounding areas of Caernarfon , Blaenau Ffestiniog , Penrhyndeudraeth and Porthmadog .
