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Updated: 10:53 PM May 7, 2010
Fourth Earthquake Recorded in Braxton County
A part of Braxton County has been rocked to its core. On Friday, the fourth earthquake in about a month was measured just outside of Gassaway in Braxton County.
Posted: 10:28 PM May 7, 2010Reporter: Kallie Cart Email Address: kallie.cart@wsaz.com |
Swarm of earthquakes beneath Sun Valley.
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33 Comments 
BRAXTON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A part of Braxton County has been rocked to its core. On Friday, the fourth earthquake in about a month was measured just outside of Gassaway in Braxton County.
Friday's tremor happened around 6:30 a.m. and measured 2.6 on the Richter scale.
"It just felt like somebody walked by and kicked the bed," Amanda Cunningham, who lives on Joe's Branch, says. "Then I felt the trailer pop."
Cunningham says the rattle didn't last long and she may have ordinarily not thought much about it. But since the area is becoming known for earthquakes, she knew what it was.
"It's scary," Cunningham says.
Cunningham didn't feel the first three tremors, but her mother who lives across the road did.
"The first one, my husband was laying in the recliner in the living room and I was still in bed, it shook the whole house, I mean it shook it," Debby James says. "It scared us. We didn't realize what it was. We went around the house and looked I thought the hot water tank blew up, but it was that earthquake."
So far the four tremors have measured between 2.6 and 2.8 on the Richter scale.
Experts say many tremors like these could be foreshocks or signs of a bigger earthquake to come.
But Dr. Dewey Sanderson, chair of the geology department at Marshall University, says the geology of Braxton County won't allow for a major earthquake.
Sanderson says Braxton County is not on a major fault line, so the biggest earthquake he believes could hit the area would be a three or four on the Richter scale.
"I would not expect these are foreshocks of some major event happening," Sanderson says.
Sanderson also says he doesn't believe the tremors are caused by mining activity in the area. He says all the activity is reviewed by a seismologist, and manmade tremors register differently on the Richter scale than do natural events.
Latest Comments
You can get the exact coordinates at USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. Just Google it.
I think we all realize that we can look up Braxton County online. But if you want the NEWS of one or more earthquakes that took place in Braxton County, then it would be a valuable part of the story to know where the various occurrences were centered, if that could be determined. Did they all originate from the same area, or were they scattered? Looking up a generic map of Braxton County won't show that, unless the map has been marked up to reflect this news item. Where would one find a map with those markings? Perhaps it would accompany a news story. That might explain the suggestions that a map would be valuable. If every news site takes the position that its audience should "just Google it," where will a map showing the quakes be found?
When is an earthquake just an earthquake?
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