Another Earthquake closer to home today

We had another earthquake today in the Midwest, but this one was closer to home.  But I did not feel today's tremor in  Fenton, Mo

Another quake rumbled this morning

By Kim Bell

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

05/05/2008

The U.S. Geological Survey said a 2.7 magnitude quake rumbled this morning. But this time, its epicenter was near Valley Park.

The quake came at 6:25 a.m., centered two miles southeast of Valley Park, according to Jessica Sigala, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center based in Colorado.

Sigala said it doesn't appear that this morning's quake is connected to the 5.2 magnitude quake that struck at 4:37 a.m. on April 18 in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone.

"It's about 140 miles away" from the epicenter of that April 18 quake in the Wabash zone, she said.

When this morning's quake hit, an officer with St. Louis County police in the Affton precinct said he felt the ground shaking for perhaps five seconds and the roof moving, "like someone was moving something around." Police had no reports of damage or injuries.

Timothy M. Kusky, director of the Center for Environmental Sciences at St. Louis University, said today's quake in St. Louis came from "some small faults outside the Wabash and New Madrid zones. They're active every once in awhile." Kusky said he's still studying the readouts from this morning's quake to pinpoint the exact epicenter. But he thinks it was along what's called the Eureka-House Springs fault.

"There are a few faults under Eureka and House Springs that have small quakes every 10 to 20 years," he said. "Generally, they're magnitudes of 2 to 3 or less."

Kusky said the fault had quakes in 1978 and 1998, both of magnitudes between 2 and 3.

Kusky said it's probably just a coincidence that today's came on the heels of the April 18 quake in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone. Its epicenter was about six miles northwest of Mount Carmel, Ill. That one rattled homes from Memphis to Cincinnati and places in between. About 30 aftershocks have followed -- the largest being a 4.6 magnitude aftershock at 10:14 a.m. on April 18. The most recent aftershock was 1.4 magnitude that came at 7:34 p.m. Friday near Bellmont, Ill.---STLtoday