THE SHEER size of the Japanese earthquake – the world’s biggest ever recorded – certainly hit home in Donegal….three local schools recorded it on special equipment.
Pupils at Magh Ene College in Bundoran, St Egney’s National School in Desertegney Inishowen and St Columba’s College in Stranorlar all recorded aftershocks on specialist equipment.
They are using the technology as part of a Seismology in Scools Project run by the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies and LYIT.
“It took about ten minutes for the shockwave to travel here,” said Dr Tom Blake of the Irish National Seismic Network.
“It arrived on our shores around 6am local time and it was so strong it continued to oscillate on our monitoring equipment. It recorded the actual shockwave of the Japan earthquake passing through Donegal.”
The equipment recorded actual small earthquakes in Donegal in January last year.
The eipicentre of the small quake was in Bridgend
At the time a number of people in the Inishowen and Fanad peninsulas reported hearing a loud bang similar to a thunderclap, followed by a tremor.
Some residents in the Desertegney area said it sounded like a rattle of thunder that seemed “to roll along Lough Swilly”. Others, in Kerrykeel and Milford, fled their homes until they realised the tremor posed no threat to their safety.
ends