Illinois Quakes, 5.2 and 4.5 Magnitude, Shake Midwest (Update5)
By Demian McLean
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois residents were shaken from sleep this morning by the state's second-largest earthquake on record, a 5.2 temblor that rattled houses and knocked pictures from walls. A second, smaller quake struck several hours later.
The first quake was reported at 4:36 a.m. local time and was just 7 miles (12 kilometers) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was centered 5 miles northeast of Belmont and 128 miles east of St. Louis, according to the agency.
``You could hear a roaring sound, and the whole motel shook, waking up the guests,'' Vibha Ambelal, manager of the Super 8 Motel in Mount Carmel, said in a telephone interview. ``We had pictures in the rooms fall down and some drawers open, but no major damage.''
Quakes are typically rarer and smaller in the Midwest than in the western U.S. Today's was in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, an area that straddles the boundary between Illinois and Indiana. It was felt in towns as far away as Janesville, Wisconsin; Campbellsville, Kentucky; and Lawrence, Kansas, residents said in e-mails.
The second quake struck about five hours later in same area and measured 4.5, the USGS said.
``At the office, computer monitors shook pretty good,'' said Patrick Forkin III, a senior analyst at Tejas Securities Group Inc. outside St. Louis.
Minor Damage
There were scattered reports of damage to Illinois homes, including toppled chimneys, and to grain elevators, said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Agency.
``All we know is we felt a little something here; we had some rattling in our house,'' Thompson said in a telephone interview from Springfield.
Chicago is home to the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the U.S. While some residents felt the quake, there was no damage to the tower or other buildings, said Earl Zuelke, a spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
The temblor also shook neighboring Indiana.
``It knocked some knickknacks off the wall and woke me up,'' said Sue Jacoby, who lives in Evansville, about a half-hour drive from the quake epicenter. ``There's no other damage that I can see.''
The Indiana Homeland Security Department didn't return a call requesting details about statewide conditions.
Illinois's largest recorded quake was a 5.3 temblor that struck in 1968, causing minor damage to homes and buildings, according to the USGS.
Worse Than 1906
Some of the largest U.S. temblors ever recorded, along the nearby New Madrid fault, struck the Midwest about two centuries ago in what is now southeast Missouri. Four quakes, measuring as large as 8.1, hit between December 1811 and February 1812. They leveled towns and created waves on the Mississippi River so large that observers reported the waterway was running backward, according to the USGS.
The New Madrid shocks were greater than the 7.9 quake that almost leveled San Francisco in 1906, and the tremors were felt as far away as Washington, D.C.
To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 18, 2008 11:51 EDTSource: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aeUlrMapERq8&refer=canada