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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Ruth Suter

Scots homes 'rattled' by 5.1 magnitude earthquake as locals wake to 'beds shaking'

Scots woke to their "beds shaking" and homes "rattling" this morning thanks to an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1.

Rumbles were felt at 5.23am from those living in Aberdeen and Shetland, with the tremble reported to have happened off the coast of the North East isles.

According to The British Geological Survey, people were "lying in bed and heard a low rumbling sound" where there were "three waves of vibration in about three seconds".

Residents reported being woken up from their windows rattling, beds shaking and windows creaking.

As well as feeling the earthquake take place, Scots also reported hearing it, too - enough to wake them up, the Mirror reports.

More than 70 members of the public reported the earthquake, which was said to have lasted around two minutes, according to the United States Geological Survey.

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.

Ryan Thomson, who lives in Shetland, said he woke up to something that sounded like a "low flying jet".

He said: "I initially woke up with the sound which was very similar to a very low flying jet or extremely loud thunder, it wasn't until I saw the lightshade moving that I clicked that this could be a small earthquake.

"There wasn't much movement here, I believe other parts of Shetland felt that more, but the noise was extremely loud and quite alarming.

"Earthquakes are of course very rare but not unheard of here in Shetland.

"There was one around five years ago in a similar place, but this was certainly the loudest and most noticeable one I've ever experienced in Shetland."

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.

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