On the 7th December 2020 at 08:29:17 UTC a magnitude M0.6 earthquake occurred offshore Co. Donegal. The earthquake epicentre located approximately 12 km east of the island of Inistrahull, and 15 km northeast of the Inishowen peninsula. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 3 km

This is first time in which an event has been detected offshore northern Donegal, although several events have previously been detected offshore Antrim near Rathlin Island, and around the Scottish island of Islay. In the map below the epicentre of the earthquake is indicated with a red marker. Major fault zones in and around Ireland are shown with black lines.

The event was recorded by the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) and can be seen in the waveforms plotted below:

0.6_2020.12.07_342_08_29_17.100_55.45_-7.04_3_60_0_4-20.1.none_.png

2020-12-11, M0.6, Irish Sea

On the 11th of December 2020 at 04:13:26 GMT, a magnitude M0.6 earthquake occurred in the Irish Sea approximately 40 km from the Wicklow coast. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 1 km. The epicentre location is indicated with a red circle in the map below, black lines denote major fault zones in and around Ireland. Earthquakes regularly occur in the Irish Sea, the most recent of which was M1.3, occurring on the 17th of September 2020. The largest magnitude event recorded in the Irish Sea in recent times was the M2.5 earthquake, occurring on the 15th of December 2019.

The event was recorded by the stations of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) and the British Geological Survey, and can be seen in the waveforms plotted below: