THE two earth tremors that hit Cumbria in just 12 hours this week are actually vital to prevent a disaster, a scientist says.

The county was shaken by one of the tremors on Tuesday evening but a doctor from the University of Cumbria explained how these are pressure points in the earth’s crust.

When the quakes happened the British Geological Survey asked whether people felt the earth moved as the first, which struck near Thrimby at 7.35pm on Tuesday, had a 1.1 magnitude.

Dr Simon Carr, geography programme lead for University of Cumbria, explained that its location at a depth of 2km below the surface is to be expected.

He said: “The tectonic plates are not about to split. These tremors are a legacy of the last Ice Age from more than 20,000 years ago.

“At that time the whole area was under hundreds of metres of ice.

“It is unusual to have two in quick succession but from the size you can see one was much stronger than the other. “

The second quake hit the Solway Firth at 1.54 am on Wednesday with a 0.3 magnitude. Its location was at a depth of 7km below the surface.

Dr Carr explained that, without small earthquakes, he would be worried as it could end up in a situation like in the United States where there has not been a major release of stresses in the southern portion of the San Andreas fault system since 1857.

In simple terms, the San Andreas is one of many fault systems roughly marking the border between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. Both plates are moving in a northerly direction but the Pacific plate is moving faster than its North American counterpart, meaning stresses between the plates are constantly building up.

the British Geological Survey has asked for anyone who felt the Cumbrian tremor to fill in an online survey.

In May the organisation also detected a tremor at 4.11am in the Irish Sea off Barrow-in-Furness. That one measured 0.8 magnitude.

The British Geological Survey Earthquake Seismology Team is the UK’s national earthquake monitoring agency. It operates a network of sensors across the UK to monitor tremors.