earthquake barely sent a ripple down the spines of the US Geological Survey's quake veterans.

Speaking from Golden, Colorado, Waverly Person last night told The Royal Gazette Sunday's quake, which according to early data was centred near Bermuda, was a mere tectonic twitch in the grand geological scheme, registering 4.0 on the Richter scale.

"We would call it a light earthquake, pretty minor and not likely to cause any damage,'' said Mr. Person, who stressed however the USGS's data was preliminary and poorly recorded.

"We got readings from New York, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Connecticut but until we hear from other seismic stations in Europe we can't clearly determine where the epicentre was,'' he said.

Unfortunately a Bermuda-based seismic station was dismantled a few years ago, he added.

Local quake expert Dr. Martin Brewer told The Royal Gazette he did not feel Sunday's tremor but was in Pembroke Parish at the time.

"People told me they really felt it Southampton and Somerset and some people reported it in Devonshire and around Spanish Point.

"It sounds like it was probably off to the northwest,'' he said.

The closest an earthquake has come to jarring Bermuda took place in 1951 said Dr. Brewer, when a tremor measuring 5.0 and felt Island-wide was reported to have occurred ten miles off St. George's.

According to Mr. Person at the USGS the last quake felt in Bermuda was on June 26, 1988. That quake registered 5.1 on the Richter scale and was followed by a second stronger jolt -- 5.3 on the Richter scale -- on August 27.

Earthquakes, said Dr. Brewer, occur around Bermuda about every three years and are due to the imponderable forces of volcanic heating and cooling.

Bermuda, says Dr. Brewer, sits on a geological "hinge zone'', an area encompassing the Bermuda Rise which periodically buckles and strains as the still smouldering volcanic mass cools and contracts deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean.