TWO earthquakes severe enough to be felt rocked the Region of Murcia last night (Friday), although no real damage has been reported and nobody is believed to have been injured.
The first tremor, at exactly 20.08, reached 4.1 on the Richter scale, which would normally cause damage consistent with very high winds and shake the ground enough to create alarm among residents, but would not typically injure anyone unless they were standing in a precarious position, such as up a ladder.
But as it was very deep down – around 12 kilometres underground – the quake was relatively minor for one of this magnitude.
The next measured 3.3 on the Richter scale and came at 20.16, but as it was also 12 kilometres down, would have produced little more than a momentary scare for the population.
According to the National Geographical Institute (IGN), which monitors earthquakes, the epicentre was in the town of Albudeite on both occasions.
Emergency service staff on the 112 hotline say their phones were 'ringing off the hook' as well over 100 callers tried to get through all at once.
But the only damage reported has been a few minor defects to a house in Bullas, and a handful of items falling off shelves in the same property.
The first tremor was felt beyond Albudeite and Bullas – as far afield as Murcia city and Molina de Segura.
A handful of minor aftershocks were registered by the IGN – the most severe of which was 11 kilometres underground in the town of Pliego, reaching 2.5 on the Richter scale at 20.34 – but none of these was strong enough for the general public to notice them.
Minor quakes of between approximately 1 and 4 on the Richter scale are common in south and south-east Spain and the Canary Islands, but those rare ones which are felt do not tend to cause damage or injury.
Occasionally, a tremor of up to 4.5 is reported, where any destruction caused is rarely worse than that experienced during a heavy storm.
The worst in Spain in over a century was on May 11, 2011 in Lorca, Murcia, reaching 5.6 and causing several deaths and thousands of homes to crumble to dust, as it was only a kilometre underground.
But no other earthquake in Spain anywhere near this dramatic has been recorded in living memory.
Photograph by the National Geographical Institute (IGN)
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