4.0 earthquake hits MS, other states
A 4.0 earthquake rocked Missouri and at least eight other states Tuesday morning.
“I live on a main highway and five miles from the reported epicenter,” Rhonda Brack, a manager at Tasters Restaurant in East Prairie, MO, said. “It sounded like a semi-truck and it rattled my windows and it rattled my house.”
She added that Tuesday’s earthquake was different from past ones in that it lasted at least 30 seconds.
East Prairie is known for its seismic activity.
“It’s a normal event that occurs from time to time,” said geophysicist John Bellini. “It happens every two years or so. They have many that are small but no one can really feel them. Once in a while you will get one like this one that is wider and stronger.”
People from Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee also reported shaking due to the quake.
Minor damage was reported in various areas.
Experts state that earthquakes in the eastern part of the U.S. are rare but can cause damage over a wider region than those which occur more frequently on the West Coast.
According to Gary Patterson, of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis, this is due to the deep, dense crust in that part of the country, which allows seismic waves to travel at a greater distance than in the west.
