Magnitude 5.2 quake rattles Midwest

Fri Apr 18, 2008


CHICAGO (Reuters) - A 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered in southeast Illinois startled residents in several central U.S. states before dawn on Friday, but media reports indicated there were no injuries and only minor damage.

The quake was centered 5 miles northeast of Bellmont, Illinois, in the southeastern part of the state along the Indiana border and near Kentucky, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Some bricks were knocked from a building in Louisville, Kentucky. The Chicago Tribune reported on its Website that a 300-foot tower at O'Hare International Airport swayed, with one controller saying it felt like "being on the end of a fishing pole."

The quake was felt in downtown Chicago buildings, and the city fire department said that while there was no damage reported it would ask the operators of construction cranes to check that they were still firmly anchored before resuming work.

The quake struck at a shallow depth of 7.2 miles, according to the USGS. The agency initially said the quake had a magnitude of 5.4 but later verified it at 5.2.

A fault zone in the area where the temblor was centered has produced quakes in the past. Experts have said soil conditions in the central United States are such that shocks in the region tend to travel farther and be felt in wider areas than in places such as California where a 5.2 magnitude quake would be more quickly absorbed.


Source: Reuters

I live in Western Ky, and it shook my house, woke everybody up at 4:30 this morning. They're reporting 5.4 here. no damage to my house, just an early morning wakeup call.

I live near Chicago; didn't feel a thing here, but then we are a few hundred miles away.......

yeshuas wrote:

I live near Chicago; didn't feel a thing here, but then we are a few hundred miles away.......

We had a 4.6 in Hawai`i once and I didn't feel it at all, but Natasha did. This one was 10x stronger than that one though.

Now as far as earthquakes go. In less than two weeks I'll be at a B&B less than a mile from Kilauea Caldera, which has exploded three times in the last month. I'm more than positive I'll feel an earthquake this time around:
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/images.html

Live in Indianapolis and woke at 5:30AM with the doors in my bedroom rattling in their frames. Felt an aftershock around 11:00AM.

My wife and I both wake at 4AM every morning. I called her at work to see if she remembered feeling anything, she said she didn't feel a thing. The Tribune newspaper has a portion online asking people where they were and there are a bunch that said they felt it up here.

Maybe our house is just situated such that it was all around us but didn't affect us, or the people up here that said they felt it are subject to the power of suggestion.