My Indiana: Indiana and Midwest Rattled by Rare Earthquake

There has been much talk over the past couple of weeks over a Series of Earthquakes that has been rattling the ocean floor off the coast of Oregon. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated that close to 600 small quakes had hit the area about 190 nautical miles offshore of Yachats, Oregon. Most of these were pretty small, measuring in the neighborhood of a magnitude 2 or 3, with an occasional 4 or 5 thrown in for good mix.

Since I live in Indiana, the earthquakes really didn’t bother me so much. Today I wake up to this:

“Residents across the Midwest were awakened Friday by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that rattled skyscrapers in Chicago’s Loop and homes in Cincinnati but appeared to cause no major injuries or damage.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered six miles from West Salem, Ill., and 45 miles from Evansville, Ind. It was felt in such distant cities as Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa, and Atlanta, nearly 400 miles to
the southeast.

Now I am not going to sit here and say that I am a sound sleeper or anything, but at 4:37 am, like this article suggests–Yeah, I didn’t even notice it.

A 5.2 Earthquake is pretty large. I am sure we can all remember Los Angeles a few years back and the devestation that a magnitude 6.0 can cause on a heavily populated region of the world–Should it worry me that I slept through a 5.2?

The thing that bothers me the most is that in Indiana an earthquake is a very rare occurance. Sure, we get tornadoes and floods on a regular basis–but EARTHQUAKES? We like to leave those for California.

The last earthquake to occur in Indiana of any significance was a 5.0 magnitude quake in 2002. Before that, I would have to say 1993 or 1994–I felt both of those, but then again, they both happened during the day. Anybody inside a house at those times would have noticed an unusual shaking going on for about 20 seconds–I did. My parents, on the other hand, who were outside mowing grass during the last big one, didn’t notice–

I guess, before reading the news reports this morning, I had never really given earthquakes much thought in Indiana, even though I had felt two of them previously. They are such a rare occurence that after they happen, we quickly forget.

Randy Baldwin, from the United States Geological Survey, said the quake originated in the Wabash Fault, a northern extension of the New Madrid fault, about six miles north of Mount Carmel, Illinois. Originally the earthquake was being reported as a magnitude 5.4, then downgraded later to a 5.2. It also mentions that two aftershocks were reported as well. The aftershocks, over the course of the next three hours, measured 2.6 and 2.5 respectively.

“All of a sudden, I was awakened by this rumbling shaking,” said
McMurtry, 43. “My bed is an older wood frame bed, so the bed started to
creak and shake, and it was almost like somebody was taking my mattress
and moving it back and forth.”

Mrs. Irvetta McMurtry felt it two states away in Cincinatti.

Me, on the other hand, well, I slept like a baby.