A MAGNITUDE 4.9 earthquake has hit Edinburgh – but it wasn’t the Scottish capital rocked by the event.
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is a settlement on the island of Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic Ocean, and also the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world.
On Tuesday, the village – with a population of only around 300 people – was struck by a whopping magnitude 4.9 earthquake which occurred in the sea just northwest of the island the colony is located on.
The quake occurred at around 4am local time with it being picked up by seismologists and earthquake-monitoring enthusiasts.
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the only settlement on the island, was the closest human settlement to the quake.
Miles from any land, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is the most isolated population centre in the world with the island it’s built on being nearly slap bang in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Surrounding islands are uninhabited, with Edinburgh of the Seven Seas being the only settlement within thousands of miles with the closest mainland being South Africa, over 1,700 miles away.
The settlement was founded in 1816 by William Glass, a Scotsman born in Kelso, Scottish Borders, whose descendants still inhabit the Island.
The tiny population centre boasts a government, ambulance service, fire service and police service each of which have a single vehicle.
There is one road on the island nicknamed the M1 which connects Edinburgh of the Seven Seas with nearby potato patches.
The isolated island has only around ten planned ship visits a year with the small harbour playing host to deliveries from the mainland.
The public can visit the island for holidays but travel there requires a multi-day boat trip from South Africa or Nambia.
The settlement’s government is made up of a 14-member administration that meets six times a year to govern the island.
In 1961 a volcanic eruption forced residents of the settlement to flee the island, as they settled in Hampshire before returning two years later.
Natural disasters such as Tuesday’s earthquake and the volcanic eruption pose a significant risk to islanders who are extremely isolated from the rest of the world.
