Earthquakes may explain the legend of the Loch Ness monster, an Italian geologist said today.
Dr Luigi Piccardi believes something has been stirringat the bottom of the loch - but not Nessie.
Loch Ness lies along the Great Glen Fault, a major fault line in the Earth's crust that is still active. Dr Piccardi is convinced that shocks along this fault explain ancient and modern reports of the monster.
The tremors would cause the ground to shake, produce a "roaring" sound, and release bubbles of gas to churn up the calm surface of the loch.
As recently as the 1930s, such events were described in two of the most famous Nessie sightings.
Moreover, in what is thought to be the first recorded report of the monster, dating to the seventh century, a water beast is said to have appeared "with strong shaking" before St Columba, the founder of Christianity in Scotland.
Dr Piccardisaid: "The Great Glen Fault is a very big fault which is still active, and Loch Ness lies directly above it. The most seismically active end of the loch is the north end. This corresponds to the site where St Columba encountered the monster and also where many modern witnesses claim to have had experiences.
"In these reports people don't usually describe seeing the beast itself. More often they talk of seeing a lot of commotion on the water, and hearing loud noises, and they assume it to be caused by the monster. But it could be due to a small shock and gas emission."
"When visual sightings did occur they usually reported ‘humps’ emerging from the water, said Dr Piccardi. But these, too, could be the result of ‘anomalous waves’ produced by gas bubbling up to the surface," said Dr Piccardi, from the Italian National Research Council's Centre for the Study of Geology in Florence.He is one of a number of experts attending Earth System Processes, a meeting organised jointly by the Geological Society of London and the Geological Society of America.