2008 Bellmont Earthquake

At 5:39 in the morning of April 18, 2008 an earthquake measuring about 5.2 on the Richter scale trembled Bloomington for about 10 seconds. The quake epicenter was centered in Bellmont, IL, about 40 miles northwest of Evansville. It was called the strongest quake to hit Bloomington since 1968, when a magnitude 5.4 earthquake hit southern Illinois.

Aftershocks were felt in Bloomington later in the morning and loosely confirmed by several Twitter Users.

The 11:15am aftershock was qualified as a second quake after about an hour.

Government sanctioned earthquake response teams where deployed around Monroe County to inspect bridges for damage. So far, no damage has been found.

The earthquake registered on seismographs around the country including significant data as far away as Boston, MA and Albuquerque NM.

Initial quake and aftershock stats

From the United States Geological Survey website:

4.6	2008/04/18 15:14:16	38.483	-87.891	10.0	10 km ( 6 mi) ENE of Bone Gap, IL
2.6	2008/04/18 11:55:57	38.465	-87.854	10.0	9 km ( 6 mi) NW of Mount Carmel, IL
2.2	2008/04/18 10:46:24	38.440	-87.880	17.8	7 km ( 4 mi) NNE of Bellmont, IL
2.4	2008/04/18 10:36:33	38.460	-87.860	17.8	9 km ( 6 mi) NNE of Bellmont, IL
2.5	2008/04/18 10:15:35	38.648	-88.222	10.0	6 km ( 3 mi) S of Noble, IL
2.5	2008/04/18 10:03:59	38.453	-87.805	10.0	5 km ( 3 mi) NW of Mount Carmel, IL
5.2	2008/04/18 09:37:00	38.450	-87.890	11.6	7 km ( 5 mi) NNE of Bellmont, IL

Effects in the area

• Air traffic at the Indianapolis International Airport was halted for an hour while the control tower was evacuated.

Public reaction

Many people commented that the quake woke them up and they thought it was something besides an earthquake. A poll on the HT showed that around 80% of people felt the first quake. Many people talked about the quake at local online forums, at work and on the phone throughout the day.

According to cnn.com, people as far away as Niceville, Florida said they felt the quake.

External links

• http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/04/18/news.qp-6690044.sto
• http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2008qza6.php#summary
• http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/illinois.earthquake/index.html [1]