DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Did I just feel an earthquake???

I live in the Struthers area and about five minutes or so ago the whole house shook. I thought a truck went down the street but the street is empty.

Maybe I am losing it . . .

You aren't losing it.... yet.


4.0 in the Youngstown area.







web page

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0007f7s.php#maps

They ask, did you feel it? Tell us! I think you should tell them about it.

no he definately felt an earthquake; 4.0 centered in McDonald. Police scanner buzzing pretty good right now

Google Maps location of earthquake near Youngstown, Ohio.

I had friends over and I though that my furnace blew up or something at first. lol

Then I figured that someone went down the street with their "music" blasting.

Than I saw that we had an earthquake.

I don't remember this many earthquakes in a single year .... ever.

I'm near Akron, but didn't feel it. But, we're getting the house ready for guests, so I've been moving around a lot myself.

4.0

Cool.

I am wondering if the number we have had (which I haven't felt up till now) is due to fracking.

I posted too soon.

Quick blurb from WKBN: web page

The United States Geological Survey has replotted the epicenter of the magnitude 4.0 earthquake that hit the Youngstown-Girard area Saturday just after 3 p.m. in the afternoon.

Initial reports had the epicenter plotted in McDonald, the most recent measurements now have the quake centered just off Division Street, less than one tenth of a mile from the D & L brine injection well on Ohio Works Drive.

On Friday, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources ordered the well shut down until further testing could be done to determine if the well could be causing the quakes.

Saturday's quake is the eleventh to hit the immediate area since March. Previous to March there had never been a locally originated earthquake in the Youngstown area. The well went online just a short time before the first quake occurred on March 17th.

Reports were widespread from as far away as Canada and West Virginia of residents feeling the quake. Locally police phone lines as well as lines into our newsroom were jammed with reports from jolted citizens.

Cracks in drywall were observed in Girard, and bricks falling from a chimney in McDonald so far are the only reports of damage. No injuries have been reported.

Oklahoma had many earthquakes this year, 5.6 being the largest.

I'm sure you folks in Ohio will muster the same resolve we in Oklahoma did.

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2011/12/31/youngstown-magnitude-four-earthquake.html


4.0 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Near Youngstown
Saturday December 31, 2011 3:44 PM
UPDATED: Saturday December 31, 2011 5:40 PM
McDONALD, Ohio - The latest in a series of minor earthquakes in northeast Ohio hit on Saturday, sending some stunned residents running for cover as bookshelves shook and pictures and lamps fell from tables.

The 4.0 magnitude quake struck Saturday afternoon in McDonald, outside of Youngstown, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Area residents said a loud boom accompanied the shaking, but sheriff's dispatchers from several counties in the area said there were no immediate reports of damage.

A few miles from the epicenter, Charles Kihm said he was preparing food in his kitchen when he heard a noise and thought a vehicle had hit his Austintown home.

"It really shook, and it rumbled, like there was a sound," said Kihm, 82. "It was loud. It didn't last long. But it really scared me."

The area has experienced at least 10 minor quakes in 2011, though Saturday's temblor appeared to be stronger than others, which generally had a magnitude of 2.7 or lower. This time, some residents reported feeling trembling farther south into Columbiana County and east into western Pennsylvania.

Many of the quakes have struck near an injection well used to dispose of brine water that's a byproduct of oil and gas drilling. Thousands of gallons of brine are injected into the well daily, and much of it is shipped in from out of state.

Its owner, Northstar Disposal Services LLC, has agreed to stop injecting brine into the earth as a precaution while authorities assess any potential links to the quakes. The head of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said research hadn't led to a direct correlation with the injections but officials wouldn't gamble with public safety.

There are 177 similar injection wells around the state, and the Youngtown-area well has been the only site with seismic activity, the department said.

Patti Gorcheff, who lives about 15 miles from the epicenter, said her dogs started barking inexplicably Saturday and the ornaments on her Christmas tree began to shake. Her husband thought he heard the sound of some sort of blast.

"This is the biggest one we've had so far," said Gorcheff, a North Lima resident who has raised concerns about quakes and drilling-related activity in the region. "I hope this is a wake-up call."

Figure I move out to California and not feel that many Earthquakes and then Ohio gets them.

It could have been an earthquake or a fat braod fell off a barstool

It was felt in northern Columbiana county (me wife felt it) but not in southern Columbiana county as I was at work and missed out on all the fun.

Ohio earthquake was not a natural event, expert says

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Ohio on New Year's Eve did not occur naturally and may have been caused by high-pressure liquid injection related to oil and gas exploration and production, an expert hired by the state of Ohio said on Tuesday.

Ohio's Department of Natural Resources on Sunday suspended operations at five deep well sites in Youngstown, Ohio, where the injection of water was taking place, while they evaluate seismological data from a rare quake in the area.

The wells are about 9,000 feet deep and are used to dispose of water from oil and gas wells. The process is related to fracking, the controversial injection of chemical-laced water and sand into rock to release oil and gas. Critics say that the high pressure injection of the liquid causes seismic activity.

Won-Young Kim, a research professor of Seismology Geology and Tectonophysics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that circumstantial evidence suggests a link between the earthquake and the high-pressure well activity.

"We know the depth (of the quake on Saturday) is two miles and that is different from a natural earthquake," said Kim, who is advising the state of Ohio.

Data collected from four seismographs set up in November in the area confirm a connection between the quakes and water pressure at the well, Kim said.

"There is circumstantial evidence to connect the two -- in the past we didn't have earthquakes in the area and the proximity in the time and space of the earthquakes matches operations at the well," he said.

A spokesman for Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, a strong supporter of oil and gas exploration in the state, said Ohio could announce a preliminary decision whether to continue the suspension of the wells as early as Wednesday.

The state was already looking into the cause of earlier seismic activity from 10 previous earthquakes, beginning in March, 2011.

According to Kim, this is not the first time Ohio tremors have been linked to human activities. "We have several examples of earthquakes from deep well disposal in the past," Kim said.

A quake of 4.2 magnitude in Ashtabula, Ohio, on January 26, 2001, was believed to be due to deep-well injection, he said. And in 1987 there was an incident with a correlation to high pressure deep well injection, he said.

There are 177 so-called "class two" deep wells in Ohio, according to Tom Stewart, executive vice president of Ohio Oil and Gas Association. They all operate under federal guidelines spelled out by the Clean Water Act.

There is no evidence that the wells in Youngstown were operating at higher pressures than allowed, Stewart said.

"We haven't seen anything from anyone at (the state agency) that would lead us to believe that the well was not operating properly," he said.

Kim said that even though the wells have stopped pumping water into the rock, the area might not have experienced its last earthquake. "It could take a couple of years for the earthquakes to go away. The migration of the fluid injected into the rock takes a long time to leave," Kim said.

Ohio's Democratic Senator, Sherrod Brown, said the quick response by the state shows it is a serious issue.

"There are things we need to know about drilling and earthquakes," Brown told Reuters on Tuesday.

Brown said he supports new energy exploration that brings jobs to the state but has questions about how companies will handle fracking and wastewater disposal. "They have got to answer the question of what they are going to do with the waste just like nuclear power," Brown said.

(Editing by Greg McCune and Jim Marshall)
web page

Quote:

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The process is related to fracking

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Battlestar Galactica fans everywhere are giggling.

I still have this frackin' song pummeling my brain .......