Auroraadvocate.com - Area quake rattles nerves

by Eric Marotta
News Leader Editor
Northeast Ohio Residents throughout Northeast Ohio got an unexpected surprise Monday, when a magnitude 3.8 earthquake struck Portage County at 7:18 p.m.
According to the United States Geological Services National Earthquake Information Center, the March 12 quake was centered about 5 kilometers underground, about 4 miles south of Mantua and 5 miles north of Ravenna.
Area police dispatch centers reported hundreds of residents called to ask what happened. Stow police said they got two dozen calls in a half hour from residents by 7:50 p.m.
As of press time, emergency officials in Nordonia Hills communities, Aurora, Streetsboro, Twinsburg, Stow and Hudson said they had no reports of damage.
The Bedford police dispatch center referred calls to the police chief, who could not be reached by press time.
Bedford resident Phillip Williams said he and his neighbors thought a vehicle had crashed.
"I thought someone hit the house with a car," he said, explaining he went outside to check on the damage. "All the neighbors were out, too, saying 'Wheres the truck?"
Hudson resident Sue Gaetjens said the quake "felt more like an explosion," as did Northfield Mayor Victor Milani, who added the dispatch center that serves the village and Sagamore Hills Township "was deluged by calls."
"We felt it, but it was more of a boom," Milani said. "It rattled the house for 5 to 6 seconds."
Streetsboro resident Bruce Felber, who lives off Route 43 near the Aurora border, also described the quake as an explosion but said there was no obvious damage.
His brother and sister, Twinsburg and Aurora residents, respectively, told him they felt the earthquake but didnt experience any damage.
Raphael Abreu, a geologist with the Earthquake Information Center, said earthquakes of the same magnitude as Mondays quake typically dont cause damage.
"Its considered a minor earthquake; it was relatively shallow and at this magnitude, no damage should be expected," Abreu said.
"Damage is usually associated with earthquakes measuring 5 or above," he added.
For every point in the Richter Scale, the amount of energy released is 32 times greater, he said. Thus, a 5.0 quake would be more than 32 times more powerful than the March 12 quake. A 6.0 quake would be 1,000 times more powerful, he said.
Abreu said the center had received 190 reports from Northeast Ohio, with one report from Strongsville, around 30 miles away.
He said earthquakes of 3.6 magnitude can occur anywhere on earth and typically occur "hundreds of times" every day around the world.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Ohio Seismic Network, the last earthquake in Northeast Ohio was a magnitude 3.8 that took place Jan. 22 at 1:17 a.m. It was located five miles north of Panesville under Lake Erie and though it was detected on seismic monitors, it went unreported by residents.
E-mail: emarotta@recordpub.com
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