Hi °C | Lo °C THE earthquake caused by North Korea's nuclear test was felt as far away as Dublin and Donegal, almost 9,000km away.
The Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) said the underground test in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was recorded at stations in Dublin and Donegal almost 11 minutes after the closed state detonated what it called a "miniaturised" nuclear device.
The move was greeted by international condemnation.
Nuclear test monitors said it was almost double the force of a 2009 test, despite it being an apparently smaller device.
INSN director Tom Blake said the explosion from the nuclear test propagated through the ground measuring 4.9 magnitude on the Richter Scale. An earthquake of this scale can be felt indoors.
Mr Blake explained: "The energy wave generated by North Korea's nuclear test was clearly picked up by seismometers in north Donegal and the Dublin Mountains approximately 11 minutes after it occurred at 2:58am (GMT) on Tuesday.
"It was located roughly in the region of the previous North Korean nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009. Our data suggests the test was a more powerful blast than North Korea's two previous tests."
Mr Blake said that seismometers were so sensitive that they could easily pick up strong seismic activity on the other side of the world.
"The ripple effect of last week's earthquakes in the Solomon Islands were also felt in Ireland," he added.
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where INSN is based, began seismic recordings in 1978. It has six permanent stations in Dublin, Kerry, Galway, Donegal and Wexford.
Irish Independent
