© USGSA 4.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday morning.
There were no reports immediately of damage. A magnitude 4 earthquake can cause light to moderate damage.
The USGS is collecting responses from people who felt the tremors. Over 8,000 people reported feeling the earthquake so far. The majority of reports rate the intensity as weak to light, USGS reports.
The event occurred in a region that is not typically associated with high seismic activity, and many resident contacted local emergency officials after the shake. The City of Mentor said that the dispatch is "overwhelmed with 911 calls," but that they "are waiting for the experts to affirm what was probably an earthquake here."
"Please don't cal 911 unless you are having an emergency," the City of Mentor said in a tweet.
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) captured the earthquake on multiple traffic cams.
Many social media users expressed shock with the earthquake and its location.
"This Ohio we are not supposed to get earthquakes or tornadoes just bad weather, snow 6 months out the year and know that Ohio state football will beat Michigan in football every year," a Twitter user said. Another user tweeted, "we really just got hit by an earthquake in NE Ohio something ain't right here."
"For the first time since I lived in California, I'm pretty sure I felt an earthquake...in Ohio?" sports reporter Nate Barnes said in a tweet.
Other social media users were not quite sure what shook them. One Twitter userwrote, "My house was just shaking was that a earthquake?"
Twitter user Jas Singh asked a question that many may have during this event, which is: "Since when does Ohio get earthquakes?"
While Ohio is not considered by most people to be an earthquake-prone state, there have been at least 200 earthquakes with epicenters in Ohio since 1776, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Shaking has also been felt in Ohio with several earthquakes that struck outside of the state, such as earthquakes with epicenters in Pennsylvania or Kentucky.
The majority of these recorded Ohio earthquakes have been felt only locally and have caused no damage or injuries. At least 15 earthquakes have caused minor to moderate damage in Ohio. So far, there have been no deaths reported and only a few minor injuries have occurred with these earthquakes.
According to ODNR, three areas of the state are particularly susceptible to seismic activity. Most of these events were small and caused little or no damage, with few exceptions of events with minor to moderate damage.
Over 100 earthquakes have rattled northeastern Ohio since 1836, many of them striking beneath Lake Erie near Lake County. Shelby County and nearby counties in western Ohio have experienced more than 40 earthquakes since 1875. At least 15 felt earthquakes have been reported in southeastern Ohio since 1776, according to ODNR.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 to 4.1 is felt by most people and can cause minor damages, such as damage to windows. As the magnitude increases to 4.1 to 4.7, the earthquake is felt by everyone and it may cause more minor damages, according to ODNR.
The cause of earthquakes in Ohio, as well as throughout the eastern U.S., is not well understood and therefore, difficult to evaluate. Earthquakes in Ohio are relatively infrequent in comparison to plate-margin areas like California, as "active faults do not reach the surface in Ohio and therefore cannot be mapped without the aid of expensive subsurface techniques," according to ODNR.
"The brief historic record of Ohio earthquakes suggests a risk of moderately damaging earthquakes in the western, northeastern, and southeastern parts of the state," the ODNR said.
Further research is needed to better understand the earthquake risk in Ohio.
Reader Comments
Once upon a time. Earthquakes were regular, but there magnitudes were small, as in 0.2 or 0.5 on the Richter scale.
They grew slowly in magnitude, over time, reaching 1.2 or 1.5.
Then as of the start of 2019, I started to witness earthquakes, on a magnitude, of 2.0 and above.
Then came the "Swarms", of earthquakes, in there 100 ' s.
I made commentary on them, but not as now, on a public platform.
Then the earthquakes developed inland, occurring in many neighbouring states, and the magnitudes increased to 3.0's, with the odd 4.0 every so often.
There is, what I went on to call, the "53 parallel", 53 degree's North, across the USA, and earthquakes started to march across it, into the Atlantic ocean.
I mentioned I'm a Earthwatcher, as I do just that, I don't need extra time to be spent studying earthquakes, as I'm already well versed with them.
Planet Earth, is very restless, at this moment in time, a combination of factors, are causing the increase in both frequency, and magnitude of earthquakes across the globe.
Magnetic flips, both on Earth, and our Sun, are also playing a part in generating earthquake activities.
There is one other factor, one I have as yet on answer for, Earth has and is been hit by pulses of energy, source as yet unknown.
The trend as I see it, is a growing trend of increasing frequency, and magnitude, so you have been warned.
Thank you for the link, I used to visit this site, as it is insightful.
I need to put a correction in, as the bulk of my previous post, does refer to the Western Sea Board of the USA.
Washington, is 47 degrees North, just below the "53 parallel ", and has had increasing seismic activity a late.
It is increasing how? As in the article featuring in the link, that our attention is drawn to "man made" activities, as a possible causation of these natural events.
I was only 2 days ago, trying to understand? As to why Sulphur Dioxide emissions, in this area, were so high, now I know.
It was a precursor to this earthquake, nothing to do with drilling, gases leaking out of Earth's crust, just as in another article featured today, on SOTT, of excessive liquid tar and gases oozing up through the walkway.
So ones again, thank you for the link.