We had an earthquake today in Cow Town (Fort Worth). It was centered around Euless but felt as far West as Fort Worth. And there was an aftershock as well. Witnesses said it scared the heck out of them. It was mild, a 3.3 on the Richter scale. But when you’re talking about a loud sonic BOOM! followed by the furniture shaking about—it follows that should unnerve a person pretty quick. We also had one recently this past October.
The Metroplex is not an earthquake area. The largest earthquake in Texas’ history was near Valentine in 1931 (Valentine is SE of El Paso). That one destroyed most of the brick buildings but left the wood frame houses intact. When I went looking for info on Texas earthquakes I found conflicting info on the Valentine quake. One report states that quake had a richter reading of 5.80, another said it was a 6.0. And that there was another strong one registering 5.8 which occurred much later in 1995 (also occurring in West Texas) and was felt all the way in Austin. (This from the Institute for Geophysics at UT at Austin.
Looking over the excellent records kept by the Institute For Geophysics, I was very surprised to find that Texas has experienced MANY earthquakes over the years, though mild, causing little damage and not taking any lives (except for the bizarre incident where a Mexican man who’s adobe hut collapsed in on him across the Border).
Here’s the number of recorded earthquakes that UT at Austin gives by area of the state that registered at a 3.0 or greater: West Texas—53 Panhandle—30 North East Texas—28 South Central Texas—20 Note that there have not been any (stress NOT any) recorded quakes in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area until this past October 30th 2008. It was registered at 3.0 on the Richter. Today’s (May 16th 2009) clocked in at 3.3 and was in the same area as the one from this past October: Euless, Bedford, Irving, Fort worth, and Dallas.
No significant damage has been reported in the wake of Sunday night’s M5.0 earthquake that was centered 10 miles south of the Los Angeles Civic Center and two miles northeast of Hawthorne. Seismologists say because the epicenter was more than eight miles below the surface, shaking was minimized. Items fell from shelves and some ceiling tiles came down at a mall in Redondo Beach.
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