By Bill Heaney
Three earthquakes struck the West Coast earlier today – waking people up from their sleep and leaving houses shaking.
The first took place just after at 3.03am and hit 2.2 on the Richter scale – the scale used to measure the strength of seismic events. Further tremors took place at 8.09am and 8.27am, the British Geological Survey’s Earthquake Seismology Team revealed.
The incidents all took place in Argyll and Bute.
Locals in the seaside town of Oban and surrounding areas were woken from their sleep by the resulting “loud bangs”, which they heard at around 3.03am.
The first tremor took place three miles east of Oban, at Glenlonan, and dozens of locals took to social media to reveal their experience of the seismic activity. The second quakes were measured at 1.6 and 0.5 on the Richter scale.
Another added: “I didn’t, but the dog woke me up whining just after 3 so he probably did! And I heard a boom around 8am.” While a fifth said: “Yip. Woke me back of 3am here on the Isle of Seil – lasted good few seconds.
“Also felt more of a boom back of 8am – read that one was likely to have been an aftershock.” A sixth added: “Yes I did. And again at 8 o’clock.” And a seventh posted: “Yes, and again at around 08.10 this morning.”
Top of page – Oban from the air. Loud bangs were heard across Argyll when an earthquake hit the town on Wednesday.