MORE than 20 earthquakes have been recorded in Dumfriesshire in the past fortnight. The biggest, measuring 2.7 on the Richter scale, was felt in Lockerbie, where locals reported shaking buildings and loud, booming sounds. They were recorded by the British Geological Survey’s (BGS’s) earthquake measuring station at Eskdalemuir. The epicentre of the quakes was just five miles away.

One resident said that it felt like a lorry had crashed into the side of his house. “I felt three last Wednesday — with the first one the whole house shook,” said Denis Male, a Langholm councillor.

“It felt just the same as the night the plane came out of the sky at Lockerbie. I thought something had happened across the road at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and I went out to look — I was relieved to find out it was earthquakes,” he added.

The phenomenon, known as a “swarm”, is relatively rare in the UK. The last such swarm was experienced in the Manchester area in 2002 when more than 100 earthquakes struck the city in two months.

Dr David Booth, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said: “The area is seismically active in a small way. This series of quakes probably occurred because Britain is being squeezed from the direction of the Atlantic and, as the crust under the ocean opens up along the North Atlantic ridge, lava intrudes which has the effect of pushing us away from the United States. Pressure is then exerted on Britain and because Britain’s rocks contain lots of fractures and faults these will slip and generate an earthquake. It can occur as one big slip or as lots of small slips producing a swarm.”

The earthquakes have grown weaker and none has been reported over the past two days, however activity could resume at any moment.

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