Small Earthquake Recorded Near Bermuda

December 1, 2017

A small earthquake occurred near Bermuda in November, with local geologist Dr Martin Brewer recording the quake on his seismograph station in Warwick, and the USGS National Earthquake Information Center confirming that the estimated location of the 2.6 magnitude earthquake was about 32.35 N, 64.4 W.

Dr Brewer keeps a seismograph station at his home in Warwick, and provided a copy of the seismogram which was recorded at the station on November 10th.

“P marks the first Primary earthquake wave; S marks the initial Secondary wave. The time is given in UTC [Coordinated Universal Time] basically GMT – four hours ahead of Atlantic Standard Time,” he explained.

Seismogram showing the earthquake near Bermuda

Earthquake Bermuda Nov 2017

A USGS National Earthquake Information Center spokesperson told Bernews, “The USGS National Earthquake Information Center can indeed confirm that we recorded a small earthquake near Bermuda at about 16:13 UTC on November 10th.

“Using data from two stations, one recorded here and one station with arrival times contributed by Martin Brewer, we get an estimated, approximate location at about 32.35 N, 64.4 W and a magnitude of about 2.6.

“Because of the sparse amount of data we could not post that event to our website, but we can confirm that we see an event with the magnitude and estimated location stated above.”

Screenshot showing a Google map rendering of the estimated location provided by the USGS:

1-Fullscreen capture 11302017 40531 PM

Dr Brewer — who published a book on Bermuda earthquakes in 2015 entitled “Shakers and Movers: Earthquakes and Tsunamis Felt in Bermuda” — explained that “analysis of the 60 earthquakes felt in Bermuda since 1801 indicates that, on average, an earthquake strong enough to be felt by many people in Bermuda will occur on average once every 6 years.”

Bernews asked him about recent earthquakes in our area, and he said, “The last time we had a small earthquake near Bermuda was on 21 April 2014 it was magnitude 4.1 at a distance of about 400km NE of Bermuda. It was not felt here.”

“The last recorded earthquakes before 2014 occurred in 2011: 18 April Magnitude 4.6, 78 km West of Bermuda felt strongly throughout the Island; 12 June, Magnitude 3.7, 28 km away, felt by only a few people; 3 October Magnitude 4.4, 144 km South of Bermuda, not felt.”

Read More About

Category: All, News

Comments (14)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. puzzled says:

    Just the Canadians banging pylons down east end..

  2. Malachi says:

    November 10th? I remember that night. I was in bed with my significant other and she told me that she felt the earth move.

    …..and I thought it was me!! LOL

  3. JohnBoy says:

    That’s just my new subwoofer I was testing. Don’t be alarmed folks.

  4. Coffee says:

    Nothing to worry about , just the UBP / OBA throwing a post election tantrum ..

    • Zevon says:

      Oh look. A maturity level of a six year old.
      Why don’t you tell us a potty joke?