A MINOR earthquake was reported last night in Olave, near Pamplona (Navarra) reaching 3 on the Richter scale.
The tremor, registered at exactly 18.34, was 11 kilometres below the surface – deep enough that it only caused a few ripples and no known damage.
It was the second quake in Olave this week after another measuring 3 on the Richter scale was reported on Monday.
And it is the third this year, says the National Geographical Institute (IGN) – on March 10, a tremor reaching 4.2 with its epicentre in Olave was felt across Navarra and even as far away as the Basque province of Guipúzcoa.
Earthquakes in Spain are common, but serious ones are extremely rare.
Most reach around 2 or 3 on the Richter scale, which has a similar effect to a heavy lorry passing a house at high speed, although some measure as much as 4 or 4.5 – enough to cause a few moments of panic, but generally no more damage than would be caused by a typical gale-force wind or freak storm.
Other than the 5.6 quake in Lorca (Murcia) in May 2011, which flattened the town, caused several deaths and was found to be the worst in Spain in around a century, most earthquakes in the country generate little more than anecdote fodder and tiles off roofs.
They are not known to cause ongoing structural damage to the foundations of properties, and thousands are of such low magnitude that they go unnoticed.
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