WHEN YOU THINK OF EARTHQUAKES, YOU PROBABLY THINK OF SCENES YOU'VE SEEN ON TV... SOME CALIFORNIA QUAKES HAVE EVEN BEEN CAUGHT ON LIVE NEWSCASTS!
BUT IN THIS WEEK'S KNOW OHIO, WE SHAKE THINGS UP AND DISCOVER FAULT LINES AND EARTHQUAKES THAT HAVE HAPPENED RIGHT HERE IN THE BUCKEYE STATE...
FIRST THINGS FIRST, AN EARTHQUAKE IS EXACTLY WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE.... IT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TWO BLOCKS OF THE EARTH SLIP PAST EACH OTHER. THIS HAPPENS ALONG THE FAULT LINE, WHICH WE TOLD YOU ABOUT EARLIER.
SCIENTISTS MEASURE THE VIBRATIONS USING DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS AND ASSIGN THE EARTHQUAKE A MAGNITUDE NUMBER, WHICH IS A MEASUREMENT OF THE ENERGY THAT WAS RELEASED.
FOR EXAMPLE, YOU MIGHT HEAR THAT CALIFORNIA HAD A 4.5 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE... THAT'S MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN A 3.5 MAGNITUDE QUAKE.
THE LARGEST EARTHQUAKE RECORDED IN OHIO HAPPENED NEARLY 80 YEARS AGO NEAR THE VILLAGE OF ANNA, OHIO IN SHELBY COUNTY. AN EARTHQUAKE WITH A MAGNITUDE OF 5.4 ON THE RICHTER SCALE CAUSED BUILDING DAMAGE AND WAS FELT IN MANY SURROUNDING STATES.
THERE ARE A FEW AREAS OF OHIO, WITH ONE OF THEM BEING SHELBY COUNTY, THAT ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO SEISMIC ACTIVITY. LAKE COUNTY AND COUNTIES IN SOUTHEAST OHIO ARE ALSO LISTED BY GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS AS EARTHQUAKE PRONE REGIONS.
SEVERAL MINOR EARTHQUAKES WERE RECORDED NEAR YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO LAST MARCH, AND NEW STUDIES SHOW THEY MIGHT BE LINKED TO WORK THAT WAS BEING DONE BY THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY.
ALONG THE FAULT LINE OF THOSE EARTHQUAKES, SCIENTISTS RECORDED OVER 70 SMALL QUAKES THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF MARCH IN 2014.
BUT SHAKE OFF THOSE WORRIES... AS OF THE LAST SURVEY OF SEISMIC ACTIVITY IN THE UNITED STATES, OHIO DID NOT EVEN RANK IN THE TOP TWENTY IN TERMS OF RECORDED EARTHQUAKES. ALASKA HELD THE NUMBER ONE SPOT, WITH CALIFORNIA COMING IN SECOND.