Wednesday, February 10, 2010

EARTHQUAKE IN ILLINOIS

An earthquake?

From the Chicago Tribune:

A mild earthquake shook northern Illinois this morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 3.8-magnitude quake at 3:59:33 a.m. centered in a farm field on Plank Road in Elgin near Hampshire and 3.1 miles underground. Initially, it had reported the magnitude as 4.3 with an epicenter about 5.5 miles east of Sycamore.

The quake was felt over a wide area -- from Wisconsin to Tennessee -- but there were no reports of any damage so far, according to the Kane County and DeKalb County sheriff's departments, which are closest to the epicenter.

"We got hundreds of calls," said DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott. "But we have no reports of damage or injuries."

The magnitude and epicenter were revised after the U.S. Geological Survey studied the "wave forms" from the quake, said Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the geological survey in Golden, Colo.

"The information was better understood," she said.

The nature of the fault activity that caused the quake was unclear, Vaughn said. Past quakes that have affected southern Illinois have been in the Wabash Valley or New Madrid seismic zones.

The fault systems in northern Illinois are not as well understood as those in other regions where earthquakes are more common, and more investigation will be needed to determine the cause of this morning's temblor, Vaughan said.

From WBAY:
Many in Wisconsin say they felt the impact of an earthquake Wednesday morning centered in northern Illinois.

The 3.8-magnitude earthquake was centered in Sycamore, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago, around four in the morning.

Reports say numerous people in Milwaukee and Madison reported feeling the earthquake, including a woman who says her TV stopped working and her cupboards shook.

Some said they thought it was caused by snowplows rumbling past their homes.

I didn't feel it, but I did hear snowplows. At least I thought the noise was from snowplows.

Has Pat Robertson commented on this morning's quake?

Is Illinois cursed? Did the people there make a pact with the devil?

That would explain it.

Or maybe this is fallout from the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

The Danny Glover theory of earthquakes:

When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I'm sayin'?

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