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SALT LAKE CITY -- An earthquake shook things up a little bit in Utah County early Tuesday morning. It wasn't much of a quake -- a fairly typical small one -- but a surprising number of people felt it and reported what they felt.
That Internet interactivity by ordinary citizens is an increasingly useful tool for geologists. Anyone who feels a quake can go online and report how strong a sensation they felt. The data is indexed by zip code. In this case, it confirms that the 2.9 magnitude quake at 1:08 a.m. was centered near Saratoga Springs. The results are based entirely on citizen input, not hard science.
Related:
2.9 earthquake shakes Utah County
Seismologists at the University of Utah say the 2.9 magnitude quake was centered 4 miles northwest of Saratoga Springs. It was the third earthquake in Utah in the past month.It's believed to be the highest number of online reports ever for a quake in Utah.
Relu Burlacu, a University of Utah seismologist, says, "We had more than 400 responses, which is a really impressive number, and most of the reports are coming from a quite confined area right around the epicenter, within 15 miles of the epicenter."
One person reported feeling the quake a long way away, in Woods Cross, but experts are tending to discount that one because it's so isolated.
A 2.9 quake is a typical one for Utah; they happen all the time. Why did so many people report it? Probably because it happened near so many homes and because more and more people are learning to use online reporting.
Scientists are happy about that because it helps verify what their own instruments tell them. In this case the instruments showed the quake was 3 miles north of Saratoga Springs.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
