robin1234

We were sitting quietly reading yesterday a little after 2pm when there was a significant crash and the whole house shook. It was like a mass of snow came off the roof and landed on the deck (although there’s no snow.) It was so bad I checked every room in the house, and the attic and basement, to see if anything major had happened. Twenty minutes later there was an even more severe one, then later two more minor ones. Here in northern New York we do get minor earthquakes every few years, and also we do have a big military base fifty miles away that sometimes generates audible explosions. I checked online after the first occurrence and there were a couple of reports from nearby. On that same site, there are now dozens of reports from within a hundred mile or so radius, in southern Ontario and northern NY.

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/ear...-York-USA.html

And yet, not a peep from our local radio station, and no reports that I can find online except the one I’m linking above. On the official government site, the USGS, it looks like they only list earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 and above.

Anyone here from Southern Ontario or northern NY, or VT, experience this yesterday? Or more generally, have you experienced earthquakes that don’t make it into the news or official listings?

Anian

I use a site specifically for the northwest, so it probably won;t help you.
Have you tired the USGS?
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthqua...5473,-50.36133

robin1234

USGS is what I looked at first. It says only magnitude 2.5 and greater ..

robin1234

https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/20...d-map-new-york

It looks like my part of NY has higher earthquake risk than elsewhere in NYS or New England (we are up near the St. Lawrence River.)

robin1234

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthqua...&settings=true

so even on this map, last seven days, all magnitudes, there are no records from the US northeast at all.

Anian

I guess I only skimmed your initial post and missed the bit about the USGS. Anything over 2 never fails to make the news here in Seattle and we get them quite often, but yours sounds more like a 4.5. I've noticed that the data on a particular earthquake will change slightly as new data comes in and it will be a week before it settles - maybe they aren't even adding a crude value to the event yet and are waiting for more data. On the other hand, an event at a military base might have a media blackout. If you don't see anything on the USGS site by tomorrow then I'd go with the military.

robin1234

Yeah I reached out to our local public radio station, and got lengthy replies from three different people, which was good. One guy (who lives closer to Fort Drum than we do) said he’d detected significant activity from Fort Drum, underground explosions, every day for the past week or so. (He’s the radio station engineer and monitors activity like that since he has a couple of transmitters near the military base.)

But someone else, on the news staff, alerted me to a large seismic event at Hawkesbury, Ontario, at 4.5, at about the right time yesterday. What I didn’t know was that the Laurentian region, along the Ottawa River valley, is a significantly active seismic area. That’s about 100 miles from here.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West...c_Seismic_Zone

Owen778

Odd. What you describe sounds like at least a 3, more likely 4 magnitude. In my experience, magnitude 2.5 is pretty much not detectable. The Earthquake Canada website doesn't list a 4.5 anywhere in the last month, though, and the biggest ones in that region yesterday were 2.6 and 2 under 2. https://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.c...pl_region=east

My best guess would be activity at the military base, or local demolition / construction.

scrubbedexpat091

I was thinking the same, 2.5 is basically as you say not a size you really feel, I've been through 4.0 and couldn't quite decide if it was an earthquake or not. Only quake that ever scared me was Easter Sunday 2010 in So.California/Northern Baja California, it was wake me up from a deep sleep big. (I was working overnight hence why I was sleeping in the middle of the day).

When it comes to unexplained booms, bangs and shakes and military isn't far away, I say it is them, happened semi frequently when I lived in San Diego, the navy or marines playing with their toys.

robin1234

I think it was at Fort Drum, as the engineer at the radio station opined. Fort Drum is 50 miles away - god knows what it sounds like if you’re within five or ten miles of their activities.

vespucci

The ones I've experienced it's always been clear which was which- military's been a thud, while earthquake's been a shake, sometimes prolonged.

scilly

The only time I've felt anything other than a shake for an earthquake was when Mount Baker blew its' top back in the 1980s ...............

I live in Vancouver, BC, just north of the Fraser River and Baker is in Oregon .............. we are a corner house, and I felt 3 thuds against the east wall of my house.

I was alone in the house, thought someone had broken in by breaking down the basement door, so picked up a carving knife and went looking for him, was most puzzled when everything was safe and secure. I found out that evening what had happened.

We do get a lot of earthquakes here!

BEVS

My experiences of earthquakes is that it can be how shallow they are and how close the epicentre is. They do seem to manifest in a few assorted ways. The heavy rumble followed by a sharp shock. Rumble followed by shakes . No rumble , just the shakes or the shocks. Sometimes after shocks and shakes - sometimes not. It seems to also depend on which direction it travels beneath the property.

Only other time I have experienced a loud crack enough to shake the house was back in the UK. A couple of WW11 sea mines were detonated off the coast which was in walking distance of my cottage.

scrubbedexpat091

I think you mean Mt. St Helens? Mt. Baker is in Northern Washington near the border, but it hasn't erupted since 1880.

https://volcano.oregonstate.edu/baker

Mt. Baker would likely cause most of the issues in the Eastern Fraser Valley, I certainly wouldn't want to be in Abbotsford during a major eruption. The mountain is only 23km from the border.

https://chis.nrcan.gc.ca/volcano-vol...r-en.php#today

scilly

You're right of course, J

I did mean Mt St Helens.

Actually Mt Baker has been steaming from vents for over 20 years, and I do remember warnings being given that it "might do more in the near future".

We don't even hear any mention of that now. However they did plan escape roots back in the 90s and early 2000s .......... as there would be no way for anyone west of Abbotsford to get to the east, and no means for any traffic coming from the east to the west. All land routes were expected to be cut, possible that air traffic would be affected except by flying well to the north.

I remember driving up Mt St Helens about 2 years after it blew ............. quite an amazing sight.