A small earthquake shook West Clare on Thursday, marking the first time in recorded history such a seismic event had occurred.

Irish authorities confirmed that a  “seismic event” measuring 2.7 on the Richter scale took place at 10.24 p.m. on Thursday.

Thomas Blake of the school of cosmic physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies told the Irish Times the quake was 10 times more powerful than a previous one in Donegal.

“It was a reasonably good shake,” he said, adding it was a very important as it was the first time a quake had occurred in the west of Ireland since records began.

 “This event forces us to re-evaluate the west of Ireland’s geology as tremors in the past have only been felt in Co Donegal and the southeast coast.

“Globally, there might be as many as 1,000 of that magnitude per day, so it’s nothing out of the ordinary – it’s just unusual for Ireland,” said meteorologist Joan Blackburn of Met Éireann.

Describing the tremor, a Liscannor resident Martin Doyle told the Times: “I felt the whole roof shake. I thought the wall was collapsing. My neighbor called and he thought that the sound he heard was me falling down the stairs.”

Lahinch hotelier, Michael Vaughan said: “The sound was something like a sonic boom. Other people living in the area were disturbed by it.”

A police spokesman in the area said,  “We received a number of phone calls at the time from people reporting a loud bang.”