How Surrey turned into earthquake capital of UK

UNLIKELY as it seems, Sur- rey appears to be well on its way to becoming Britain’s very own earthquake zone.

In the third incident in the county within a week, passengers at Gatwick and people living across Surrey and West Sussex felt tremors from the 3.1 magnitude quake at 10.53am yesterday.

Reports said ‘it was like two huge explosions’ according to the British Geological Survey (BGS). Some reported the latest quake felt much bigger than the previous two, and Matt Temple tweeted: ‘Just felt an earthquake at Gatwick Airport – felt whole building move.’

Trevor Harlock, who lives west of Gatwick, posted: ‘Earthquake in Surrey!! 11:55 the earth shook and glasses in our kitchen cabinets jangled together.’

Shocks were also felt in Reigate, Dorking and Redhill. The region has been struck by a series of quakes in recent months for the first time in 50 years, leading campaigners to point at fracking sites as the possible cause of the seismic activity.

The area has been hit with tremors since April, with a magnitude 2.4 earthquake recorded at New did gate on Friday morning and another in the same area at a 2.6 magnitude on June 27.

This was the third tremor in nine days and the fourth reported to the BGS since April 1, but seismologist David Galloway told the BBC there had been a total of seven.

It was suggested that drilling at Horse Hill – about three miles from the quake’s estimated epicentre – by energy firm UK Gas and Oil had caused the quakes, but the Oil and Gas Authority had insisted that no test drilling had taken place.

BGS scientists were assured by the authority on June 28 that no flow testing had taken place at the Horse Hill well.

And the BGS said it was unlikely that fracking could have induced the tremors, even if drilling had taken place.

It said in a statement: ‘While it is well-known that hydrocarbon exploration and production can result in man- made or “induced” earthquakes, such events usually result from either long-term hydrocarbon extraction, or the injection of fluids (e.g. hydraulic fracturing) during production.

‘It seems unlikely that flow testing, even if it had taken place, would result in induced seismicity.

‘Although there have been no other recorded events in the region in the last 50 years, there is evidence for historical earthquakes in the last 500 years, therefore a natural origin for these earthquakes can’t be ruled out at this stage.’

The statement added that because its closest monitoring station was more than 30 miles away there could be errors in its location estimates.

It said: ‘We are unable to say categorically if these earthquakes are related to hydrocarbon exploration or production in the Weald, mainly because of the uncertainties in our estimates of the earthquake epicentres and depths.’

Campaigning group, Frack Free Sussex, has previously raised concerns about drilling near Dorking, while in 2011 shale gas drilling in Lancashire was suspended after an earthquake.

‘Natural origin can’t be ruled out’