QuakeShake

On the 11th of August 2026 there was a very small magnitude 0.5 earthquake near Tallow Co. Waterford (super close to the Cork border). This was recorded by a few of our QuakeShake citizen Rasperry Shake seismometers recorded in people's houses and schools St Colman's Community College in counties Waterford and Cork 〰️

At 21:58:21 (UTC) (15 August 05:58 am local time) a Magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred off the north coast of Flores, Indonesia. Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a chain which includes Bali, that extends eastwards from Java for several hundred kilometres. The earthquake did raise a tsunami. Wave heights of ~0.2-0.5 meters were detected at various locations.

The earthquake was strongly felt with the epicentre at 10 km depth. The shallow depth and large magnitude produced intense ground shaking across Flores and neighbouring islands. The earthquake caused widespread damage and casualties, with buildings including homes, schools, churches and other public facilities collapsing or being seriously damaged.

The earthquake occurred in one of the most tectonically active parts of Indonesia, where the Australian Plate is moving northwards and colliding with the Sunda–Banda plate system. Around Flores, this movement is accommodated by several active fault systems, including the Flores Thrust, which runs beneath the Flores Sea and forms part of the complex boundary between the Australian and Sunda–Banda plates.

At 12:34:28 UTC (08:34:28 local time), a powerful earthquake measuring M7.4 struck in Columbia, 5 km east of San José del Palmar and approximately 400 km west of the capital, Bogotá.

The earthquake occurred at an intermediate depth of 110km, indicating that it nucleated within the subducted slab, in this case the Nazca plate as it subducts beneath the South America plate. While intermediate-depth earthquakes generally produce less intense shaking than shallower events of the same magnitude, the shaking can still be strong and is often felt over a much wider area.

The event was widely felt in the region, including in Ecuador and Venezuela, and has already resulted in at least 130 fatalities. A state of emergency has been declared, and many buildings have collapsed.

Image 1. Is the location of the offshore Colombian earthquake (blue circle).

Image 2. Is the waveform of the earthquake recorded by Station RA9F2 in Co.Wicklow.

Image 3. Is the earthqauke recorded by Station RA7E7 located on TUD Grangegorman campus in Co.Dublin.

📢 Join Our First QuakeShake Meetup!
Come celebrate three incredible years of the QuakeShake network. This interactive online meeting is an opportunity to look at some of the incredible seismic data QuakeShake has recorded and we want you to help shape the future of our citizen science community. Whether you are a long-time Raspberry Shake host or completely new to the programme everyone is welcome.

Event Details:
📅 Date: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026
🕖 Time: 7:00 PM
💻 Location: Online register at www.quakeshake.ie/registration/ or the button below.

We can’t wait to hear your ideas to help shape the future of our programme. Thank you all for being part of the QuakeShake community!〰️

On the 28th of July 2026, at 07:27:16 UTC (16:27:16 local time), a large earthquake measuring M6.8 occurred on the island of Kyushu in southwest Japan, near Kumamoto, about 900 km WSW of Tokyo. The event occurred at a relatively shallow depth of around 10 kilometers.

The earthquake was strongly felt throughout southern Japan and at time of writing reports indicate that aOnround 50 people have been injured and several buildings have suffered major damage. A tsunami advisory has been issued with waves of up to 1 meter expected. The Kyushu region is characterized by deep earthquakes caused by the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate underneath the Eurasia plate. According to the USGS however this earthquake occurred at relatively shallow depth within the upper Eurasia plate.

Figure 1. From the INSN Left: Raypaths for the seismic waves travelling through the earth from the earthquake in Japan to seismic stations in Ireland. Right: map showing the great circle path between the earthquake and stations in Ireland, around 9,600km distance. Figure 2. Is the waveform of the earthquake recorded by seismometer station RABF2 station located 9,453 km away from the earthquakes epicentre.

Did you know that our Raspberry Shakes are recording all of the activity and noise all around them? Including all of our dancing at our concerts around Ireland 🎶🕺

From Taylor Swift,Oasis and Pitbull, some of Ireland's biggest concerts have been recorded in the last few years 〰️🔉

Check out our new concert blog at https://quakeshake.ie/2026/07/22/irish-concert-quakes/ 🎤🏟 All the seismic data was analysed by INSN technical officer Paddy Smith 👏🏻





This diagram shows how thousands of people jumping, dancing and singing together create surface waves that can be detected by our sensitive seismometers our QuakeShake Raspberry Shake seismometers and our 12 INSN professional seismometers 〰️

Did you know that our Raspberry Shakes are recording all of the activity and noise all around them? Including all of our dancing at our concerts around Ireland 🎶🕺

From Taylor Swift,Oasis and Pitbull, some of Ireland's biggest concerts have been recorded in the last few years 〰️🔉

Check out our new concert blog at https://quakeshake.ie/2026/07/22/irish-concert-quakes/ 🎤🏟 All the seismic data was analysed by INSN technical officer Paddy Smith 👏🏻

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck offshore southern Mexico near the Chiapas–Guatemala border region. The epicentre was approximately 48 km southwest of Aquiles Serdán, Chiapas, at a shallow depth of around 20 km. Strong shaking was reported across southern Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Two small foreshocks occurred before the mainshock: M4.1 on 14 July and M4.7 approximately 88 minutes before the M7.3 earthquake.

Shaking from the earthquake was felt widely by millions across the region, and a tsunami alert was issued following the event, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center forecasting potential wave heights of 0.3 to 1m along the nearby coasts in Mexico and Guatemala.

The earthquake occurred along the Middle America Trench, where the Cocos Plate is being forced beneath the North American Plate in a process called subduction. As the plates continue to converge at around 6–7 cm per year, stress builds until it is released as earthquakes.

Southern Mexico is one of the world’s most active earthquake regions, with a history of major events including the 1985 M8.1 Michoacán, 2017 M8.2 Tehuantepec, and 2021 M7.0 Acapulco earthquakes.

Image 3. is a waveform plots of the earthquake recorded by multiple Raspberry Shake seismometers in Ireland more than 8,300km away from Mexico.
Images 4. and 5. are our featured shakes of the earthquake waveform recorded by seismometers located in County Waterford and Galway.

A magnitude 1.6 (Local Magnitude/ML) earthquake occurred offshore Irelans on the 17th of July 2026 at 23:51:55 UTC time. It shows as Magnitude 2.0 but this is the Vertical component Local Magnitude/MLv.

Earthquakes can occur at the boundary between the Rockall Trough and the Porcupine Bank because this region contains ancient faults that formed when the Earth's crust was stretched during the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. The Rockall Trough is a deep sedimentary basin, while the Porcupine Bank is a raised block of continental crust, and the transition between them is marked by zones of weakness in the crust. Although the area is not located on a major tectonic plate boundary, stresses generated by regional plate movements and ongoing crustal adjustment can build up along these faults. When the accumulated stress becomes greater than the strength of a fault, it slips suddenly, releasing energy as seismic waves and causing an earthquake. As a result, earthquakes in this region are mainly caused by the reactivation of ancient faults rather than by active plate-boundary activity 〰️

Image 2. Is the location of the earthquake from Raspberry Shakes Station View website. Images 3. and 4. are waveform plots of the seismic waves from the earthquake recorded by Irish Raspberry Shake seismometers.

In Image 3. Each horizontal panel represents a different seismic station, with time shown along the x-axis in minutes after the earthquake. The pink waveforms show the ground motion recorded at each station.

In Image 4. Each vertical trace represents data from a different seismic station. The horizontal axis shows the distance between the earthquake and each station, while the vertical axis shows time after the earthquake in seconds. The pink wiggles represent the seismic waves or ground motion recorded by the seismometer.

Plots made by INSN technical officer Paddy Smith.