Residents living in Perthshire experienced the tremors on Monday morning.
Residents in Perthshire experience the quakes(Image: Reach plc )
A area of Perthshire was hit by three earthquakes within 17 minutes of each other today with residents fearing “an explosion”.
First people were woken up by light shaking in their homes after a 3.3 magnitude earthquake hit the hamlet of Pubil.
According to the British Geological Survey, the shaking began at 7.25am with the epicentre of the quake recorded at a depth of 3km near Loch Lyon in the Perth and Kinross region.
The Volcano Discovery website, which compiles data of geological events across the world, says people living almost 50 miles away reported a very weak shaking in their homes.
Residents reportedly heard a “low rumbling sound” with some thinking “there had been an explosion”. Others stated that their home started to shake and the doors “rattled”.
Then the same area was hit by a 1.4 magnitude tremor at 7.31am and a 1.2 magnitude quake 11 minutes later.
There are roughly 200-300 quakes in Britain every year, but the vast majority are so small that no one notices them. However between 20-30 are over 2.0 magnitude which can be felt over a wider area. The largest known Scottish earthquake occurred near Loch Awe in 1880, with a magnitude of 5.2.
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Earthquakes in Scotland are most often attributed to glacial rebound. Until about 10,500 years ago much of the north of the UK was covered by a thick layer of ice – which pushed the rocks down into the underlying mantle. These rocks have been slowly rising back up ever since the ice melted, causing occasional earthquakes in the process. The UK is also subject to tectonic stresses caused by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean, which is slowly pushing the entire of Eurasia to the east, and from the northward motion of Africa, which is pushing into Europe from the south The most damaging UK earthquake was in the Colchester area in 1884. Some 1200 buildings needed repairs, chimneys collapsed and walls were cracked. Scotland has been battered by more than 4,000 earthquakes in the past 50 years. But few have had a significant impact on residents.