Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Earthquake in Atmore????

Last Monday afternoon, we felt our building shake and wondered what it was - but blew it off as nothing and really didn't give it any other thought! Well, in the Monday, May 12, 2008 edition of the Atmore Advance, there was the following article:
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Shake may have been a quake
By Adam Prestridge
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Those who felt the ground shake Monday afternoon in Atmore and the surrounding areas are convinced that it was an earthquake.
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U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Lisa Wald, who also serves as the organization’s Web manager for earthquake hazard programs, could not rule out that the brief shaking felt in Atmore and Poarch was a small earthquake after performing some research for the Advance.
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“There’s an outside chance that there was some small earthquake that was felt very locally,” Wald said. “If there have been reports made locally, then it’s possible. However, we did not receive reports from anyone, but there is still an outside chance.”
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The Advance fielded numerous calls reporting the possible earthquake. Upon further research, a spokesperson with the National Weather Service out of Mobile confirmed that they had also received calls inquiring about a possible earthquake.
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Wald initially researched regional information for the State of Alabama on the U.S. Geological Survey’s Web site www.earthquake.usgs.gov to see if a recent earthquake had been documented. After finding that no earthquake had been recorded she agreed to perform further research in hopes of finding an answer.
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“I checked to see if we had any ‘Felt Reports’ in the area around that time and we did not receive any reports from people through the Internet,” Wald said Tuesday evening. “I also had the seismic analysts take a look at the wave forms on record from the instruments and they did not see anything on any of the instruments in the area.”
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Wald said the lack of instrumentation in Alabama could forever make last Monday’s ground shaking experience a mystery to those who felt it.
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“We don’t have that many instruments in that part of the country and sometimes we can have a small earthquake that is not recorded by our instruments because they are not close enough,” Wald said. “Depending on where it was with respect to the closest instrument, there could very well have been something. There’s an outside chance, but we can’t really confirm it, or deny it.”

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