Exploratory Data Analysis of Earthquake occurrence in the United Kingdom
Analysing the earthquake data of the United Kingdom from the past 12 years (2010–2022)
For the live dashboard and story visit the tableau public link: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/saroj.rimal2887/viz/IstheUKimmunetoearthquakes/Story1
Steps Involved:
- Data Collection
- Data Preparation
- Data Analysis
- Data Visualization
- Creating Dashboard
- Creating story
Introduction
Several hundred earthquakes are detected by the British Geological Survey each year, but almost all are far too faint to be felt by humans. Those that are felt generally cause very little damage. Nonetheless, earthquakes have on occasion resulted in considerable damage, most notably in 1580 and 1884; Musson (2003) reports that there have been ten documented fatalities — six caused by falling masonry and four by building collapse.
The causes of earthquakes in the UK are unclear but may include regional compression caused by the motion of the Earth’s tectonic plates, and uplift resulting from the melting of the ice sheets that covered many parts of Britain thousands of years ago.
However, for the past 12 years, there hasn’t been a recorded high-magnitude earthquake. Compared to other parts of the world, the United Kingdom is fortunate to have had fewer earthquakes throughout history. As per the past 12 years’ data, the highest magnitude was around 4.5 on average. This is somehow very less as compared to other regions of the world where they face around 5–6 magnitude of earthquakes on average.
About the Dataset
The dataset is collected from the British Geological Survey (BGS). The link to the dataset is https://www.bgs.ac.uk/geological-data/datasets/
The dataset consists of the date and time of the earthquake occurrence, epicentre with longitude and latitude and nearest regions, magnitude, depth, nearest station, and intensity data.
Data Preparation:
The dataset contains some unwanted columns so they are deleted using MS Excel and loaded to Tableau Desktop for further analysis.
Let’s begin the exploration
In which year, the earthquake has occurred more?
In 2014, there was the highest number of earthquakes recorded in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, 2010 recorded a few number of earthquakes as this dataset is from 2010 to 2022.
When was the highest magnitude hit the UK?
On June 25, 2017, the highest magnitude of around 4.7 ML earthquake hit the Central North Sea in the United Kingdom. On average, there are only few high-magnitude earthquakes.
Regions with the number of occurrences
Both the Southern and Northern North Sea has been ranked 1st and 2nd respectively in earthquake occurrence with 40 and 33 times each since 2010.
Which regions have faced the highest magnitude?
Ramsgate and the West coast of Ireland have got more than 4 magnitude earthquakes since 2010. Maximum regions faced below the average magnitude earthquake.
As per the 12 years of data, the maximum number of earthquakes occurred during the night times at 10:00 pm.
Conclusion
From the above exploration, we can assume that the United Kingdom is fortunate in earthquake effects as there haven’t been recorded any high magnitude earthquakes of more than 5 ML. Likewise, the sea area is highly favourite for earthquakes and the land area has faced comparatively less occurrence so physical damage and human life are less likely to get affected.
For the live dashboard and story visit the tableau public link: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/saroj.rimal2887/viz/IstheUKimmunetoearthquakes/Story1
