Surrey earthquake: A ‘few seconds of rumbling’ in Dorking
Written by News on 28/06/2018
An earthquake measuring 2.6 magnitude shook Surrey, causing a “few seconds of rumbling” through a town centre.
The shaking was centred on Newdigate, in the Mole Valley, about 4km (2.5m) from Gatwick Airport.
It was detected at 1.28pm (BST) and happened at a depth of 5km (3.1m), the British Geological Survey has said.
British Geological Survey tweeted: “We’ve already had some reports from people who experienced it as a few seconds of rumbling and shaking.”
According the the BGS, it was felt in “Newdigate and Charlwood, Surrey and in Rusper and Crawley, West Sussex”.
It is the second quake of similar magnitude in the area this year.
The previous quake shook Newdigate on Easter Sunday and was measured at 2.7.
Professor Richard Selley, the president and chairman of the Mole Valley Geological Society, told Sky News he was “bitterly disappointed” to not feel the tremor.
He also missed the Easter quake because he was away in York.
Professor Agust Gudmundsson of the department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway told Surrey Live: “Earthquakes occur because stresses are raised in a certain zone in the Earth’s crust. When one zone or fault generates an earthquake then the stress in that zone is relaxed but stress is also shifted to a nearby zone.
“It is possible that the first earthquake changed the stress conditions so as to encourage or ‘trigger’ the second one.”
(c) Sky News 2018: Surrey earthquake: A ‘few seconds of rumbling’ in Dorking
