25th September 1935

Jersey is shaken by an earthquake

After several days of particularly rough seas, residents across Jersey reported minor earth tremors lasting around half an hour at lunchtime. Nobody could say for sure what had caused them or even if they were a bone fide earthquake. Some said they were actually reverberations from the firing of heavy artillery.

Uneven effects

The pier at Bonne Nuit Bay was cracked but, conversely, the observatory instruments at Maison Saint Louis recorded nothing at all. This was perhaps not surprising as the observatory is located above St Helier, while most reports came from the coast.

Although earthquakes are no more common in Jersey than on the mainland, the Birmingham Daily Gazette reported the following day that “in November 1930, Professor Charles Davidson, of Cambridge, said that the existence of an earthquake centre about 12 miles away to the east was the reason for Jersey’s seeming susceptibility to earth tremors.”