§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list for each of the last four years, and for the current year to date(a) the location and (b) the Richter scale measurement of earth tremors that have occurred; and what structural damage was reported.
§ Mr. Tim SmithMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment has placed the information requested in the Library of the House. The British Geological Survey has located 1,478 earthquakes in the United Kingdom and the offshore area in the period January 1990 to mid-February 1994. One of these tremors occurred in Northern Ireland on 19 October 1990 at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, with a magnitude equivalent to 2.5 on the Richter scale. The tremor was caused by the sudden collapse of an abandoned salt mine. Other damage was minimal.
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