Vermont shaken by 5.0 magnitude earthquake

Google Map shows area affected by Wednesday's 5.0 magnitude earthquake.

FREE PRESS STAFF REPORT • THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2010

A 5.0 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter located on the Quebec-Ontario border rattled Vermont on Wednesday, with reports of the temblor extending as far away as Indiana and Virginia, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS said the quake, which occurred at 1:41 p.m., was centered 33 miles northeast of Ottawa near Buckingham, Quebec, 12 miles below the Earth’s surface.

State Geologist Larry Becker in Waterbury said, “We felt it here. I was sitting in my chair and started rocking back and forth.” Becker said the last official “event” in Vermont was April 20, 2002, when a quake centered near Plattsburgh, N.Y., was felt throughout the Champlain Valley.

Wednesday, reports from Swanton, Huntington, Milton, Montpelier, Jay and beyond spilled into The Burlington Free Press newsroom and popped up on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Mark Bosma of Vermont Emergency Management in Waterbury reported a stream of calls from Vermonters wondering if the shaking was an earthquake. Minor damage, building evacuations and cell-phone service disruptions were reported near the quake’s epicenter in Quebec and Ontario, but no problems were reported in Vermont.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon declared an “unusual event” because of the quake, the lowest of four emergency classifications that apply to nuclear plants by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith said in a news release that no radiation was released, an inspection revealed no damage to the plant and it continued to operate normally at 100 percent power.

Vermonters marveled as their homes and offices began rocking gently in the early afternoon. “OK, we are not sure where to report this, but at the Essex Town School District Central Office we just felt an earthquake,” Jane Olesen, an administrative assistant, said by e-mail. “No damage, but windows rattled and plants and desks rattled.”

The Firehouse Gallery on Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace shook, too.

“The lights were shaking,” said Doreen Kraft, executive director of Burlington City Arts. “Things were really moving here. ... People were saying they felt kind of seasick.”

Though uncommon, Vermont is not entirely a stranger to earthquakes. A 1962 quake shifted support beams and cracked windows at the Vermont Statehouse. A 1973 trembler damaged some chimneys and cracked plaster and roads.

The 2002 quake, which had a magnitude of 5.1, caused more than $14 million in structural damage in New York. The damage in Vermont was limited to minor cracks in foundations and windows.

The USGS said the two largest quakes in western Quebec occurred in 1935 at a magnitude of 6.1 and in 1732 at a magnitude of 6.2, where it caused significant damage in Montreal.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

This story appeared on page A1 of Thursday's Burlington Free Press

Read more: Burlington Free Press

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