Culdaff Beach, Inishowen Peninsula, Co DonegalIreland's Content Pool

A small earthquake was recorded overnight in Co Donegal by seisometer monitors at a secondary school in Stranorlar.

The activity was detected off Culdaff Bay just before 1:18 am on Wednesday morning, October 2, with the quake having a magnitude of 0.9 on the Richter scale.

Equipment from St. Columba’s College, Stranorlar recorded the activity with physics teacher Brendan O’Donoghue taking to social media to share the news.

"DLO2 & R0392 seisometers of St Columba’s College, Stranorlar, both recorded last night’s #earthquake near Culdaff, Co Donegal (magnitude 0.9)," he shared.

The secondary school is part of the worldwide Seismology in Schools project, which was established by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS).

More than 50 primary and secondary schools are involved in the Outreach pilot programme, which has also been rolled out to include colleges, universities and geo-parks.

With use of the seisometer and associated softwares distributed in the programme, students can record and study earthquakes worldwide "in real-time."

The Donegal school has been part of the scheme for around 15 years and has recorded more than 1,000 tremors.

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Speaking to Extra.ie, Mr. O’Donoghue noted that while the event was small "anyone awake at the time in the area around northeast Inishowen may have heard a curious noise."

He likened it to snow sliding off a roof or a wheelie bin being dragged over gravel.

"I usually record such small, local events at a frequency of about once a year, give or take, as well as global events at a frequency of about two per week," he added.

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Last year, officials from the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) detected a 2.5 magnitude earthquake in Donegal.

The INSN is also under the DIAS, and said the the quake was detected ten kilometres below ground near Glenveagh National Park, near Letterkenny, at around 1:30 am on Saturday, May 6.

It said it also received reports that "the event was felt throughout the Donegal area."

The group also received detection readings from stations in Cork, Dublin, Kerry, Tipperary, and Wexford.

"The earthquake was also detected by several Raspberry Shake seismometers operated in Ireland by citizens and schools," it said.

The biggest earthquake ever recorded by the Irish National Seismic Network was M2.5 which happened in January 2012 on the Fanad Peninsula in Donegal.

*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.