Story originally printed in the Westby Times or online at www.westbytimes.com
Published - Friday, April 18, 2008
Effects of southern Illinois earthquake could be felt in Vernon County
If you happened to be brewing your morning coffee at 4:30 a.m. Friday morning, that little shimmy in the floor wasn't rumbling thunder.
According to seismologists at the United States Geological Survey, Vernon County and the Coulee Region felt the effects of an earthquake that originated in southeastern Illinois at 4:37 a.m.
Angel Gutierrez, a seismologist based at the USGS's National Earthquake Center in Golden, Colo., said Friday morning that the earthquake, registering 5.2 on the Richter Scale, lasted only a few seconds. It didn't cause any damage, even in the town closest to its epicenter -- Bellmont, Ill n five miles away.
However, the shake caused by the quake, which originated seven miles under the earth's surface, was felt as far south as Georgia and certainly was powerful enough to cause a ripple in a coffee cup in Westby, Gutierrez said.
"Historically that area, near Bellmont, has had other earthquakes," Gutierrez said. "There was an earthquake registering 5.0 in 2002."
Earthquakes in the Midwestern United States are rare when compared to places such as California. However, the Midwest is spilt by the New Madrid fault, which is responsible for some of the most violent earthquakes in the continental United States. Three earthquakes in 1811-1812 along the New Madrid fault shook the land so fiercely they caused the Mississippi River, in places, to run backwards, according to records at Southern Illinois University. Judging from their effects, those earthquakes were of a magnitude of 8.0 or greater.
The Bellmont, Ill., fault is on top of the Wabash fault, which is an extension of the New Madrid fault.
“In addition to the earthquake in 2002, there was another one reported in that area in 1995, so they happen periodically,” Gutierrez said.
An earthquake registering 5.2 on the Richter Scale is large for the Midwest, according to USGS reported averages.
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