HomeBreaking NewsStrongest earthquake in 40 years startles Buffalo, New York.

Strongest earthquake in 40 years startles Buffalo, New York.

A tiny earthquake that rattled Buffalo and western New York early on Monday morning alarmed residents in an area used to such shaking but did not appear to do much damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 3.8-magnitude earthquake with a centre near the West Seneca neighbourhood of Buffalo at 6:15 a.m. This earthquake matched the intensity of the greatest earthquake the area has seen in the 40 years of data that are accessible, a 3.8 quake that seismologist Yaareb Altaweel registered in November 1999.

Residents immediately ran to their windows during the several seconds-long shaking before turning to social media to look for an explanation.

“It felt like a car hit my house in Buffalo. I jumped out of bed,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted. Erie County emergency services officials confirmed the earthquake was felt in at least a 30-mile radius, including in Niagara Falls, about 20 miles north of Buffalo, he said.

According to Alex Hatem, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, the earthquake did echo here even though its epicentre was more than 70 miles to the west of Rochester.

She stated that there are two techniques to measure earthquakes. One measures the size of the shaking, while the other measures its severity.

According to Hatem, the West Seneca earthquake caused an intensity of 4 in the Buffalo region and a 2 in the Rochester area on a scale of 1 to 10.

Southern Ontario experienced a little amount of the 4.2 magnitude event, according to Earthquake Canada.

The earthquake occurred shortly after two meteorological disasters in the Buffalo area that broke records: a snowfall in November that dumped up to 7 feet of snow, and a blizzard in December that is responsible for 47 fatalities.

Earthquakes in upstate New York, Rochester region

In New York State, earthquakes frequently occur.

On September 5, 1944, the greatest earthquake to ever be recorded in the state was located in Massena in St. Lawrence County. From Maine to Indiana, and from Canada to Maryland, people felt the 5.8-magnitude earthquake. In Canada’s Massena and Cornwall, it caused $2 million in damage.

Although it did no serious damage here, it also rattled several homes in the Rochester region and prompted some people to call the police.

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Rochester felt a rumbling on May 17, 2003, as a magnitude-5.1 earthquake with a centre 45 miles northwest of Ottawa, Canada, struck.

A 1.2-magnitude  that shook Le Roy, Genesee County, in August 2022; a 2.6-magnitude earthquake that struck near Warsaw, Wyoming County, in March 2022; and a 2.4-magnitude  that struck the hamlet of Tuscarora in southwest Livingston County in May 2021 are some of the more recent minor earthquakes that have occurred in western New York.

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