Canadian earthquake felt across the state
Cubicles rumbled around the Capital District as workers saw coffee cups shaking, blinds rattling and buildings trembling. Others, however, wondered why they missed out on the excitement while perusing the streams of stories flooding social networking Web sites.
Around 1:45 p.m., Wednesday, June 23, a temblor was felt locally. The United States Geological Survey reported the epicenter at 45.862 N, 75.457 W near Ottawa, Canada. The depth of the earthquake is estimated to be 9.6 miles garnering a magnitude of 5.0.
This is considered to be a shallow earthquake, said William Kelly, state geologist with the New York State Museum. `The bigger the earthquake and the closer it is to the surface, then the more damage is caused.`
Rumbling was felt all across the state and in bordering states, as well.
While the earthquake wasn’t particularly strong, it did lead to an interesting work day for many.
`We were sitting there having lunch and the airport wiggled,` said Doug Myers, spokesman for Albany International Airport, who was in the facility during the earthquake.
Albany International Airport operations personnel did a routine field check and found no damage from the quake, said Myers. Airport runways and taxiways were inspected by staff members.
Tweets spread across the Twittersphere regarding the earthquake in New York and several tweets held the hashtag (used to assist finding tweets on a certain topic) #518earthquake.
Maggie Smith was on the third floor of a four-story building in Buffalo when the earthquake hit and momentarily disturbed the normal flow of work.
`We thought that maybe some work was being done on the roof,` said Smith. `But the entire building and everything in it started shaking, and we all realized fairly quickly that it was an actual earthquake. We could see people in the building across the street all looking out the windows, too, to see what was going on.`
Confusion and excitement were common responses, but actual damage appears to be non-existent.
National Grid Spokesman Alberto Bianchetti said the earthquake had no impact on the electrical and gas systems, but the company is `proactively inspecting critical equipment and assets.` There was also no damage to company office buildings.
Earthquakes happen about once a week, but most are not felt, said Kelly. The most active area in the state is the Northern Adirondack and St. Lawrence River region.
Since most earthquakes occur at tectonic plates, it is hard to explain why any happen in the state.
`That’s the $64,000 question,` said Kelly. `There is a very major weak spot in the St. Lawrence River Valley. Maybe that is why the energy is being released there.`
Kelly said there is a theory that energy is stored in the rocks, and over time little amounts of energy are released randomly. Currently, he said, this is the best explanation.
`It is twisted up like a rubber band and [the energy] gradually gets released` said Kelly. `This makes prediction impossible.`
The last earthquake in the state of a similar magnitude occurred April 2002 near Plattsburg, which was a 5.2. There was some minor damage that occurred, such as a part of a road collapsing and a concrete block building developing cracks in the wall.“
