throughout the Island yesterday.

Many people had no doubt the answer was yes, excitedly ringing the Police and Bermuda Biological Station.

But last night the official ruling was still unclear, with Bermuda's seismological station refusing to be drawn.

Mr. Miles Mayall, who runs the St. George's station but is only an amateur seismologist, said his equipment had recorded a slight vibration at around 1.50 p.m. on Sunday.

"There is no doubt something happened. I did get a slight squiggle on a graph.

"It could have been a very small tremor, but I wouldn't like to say. I am not qualified to interpret it.'' Mr. Mayall said blasting at St. George's dock may be another possibility.

"It seems unlikely this would have happened on a Sunday, though,'' he added.

Mr. Mayall said he would be sending his graph to the Colorado-based Earthquake Centre for analysis.

Yesterday the centre said they had no reading of an earth tremor in the Bermuda area on Sunday.

"It may have been so slight we wouldn't have picked it up,'' a spokesman said.