Geologists seek answers to recent earthquakes in Ohio

[Algorem]

Published on Thursday Jan 10, 2008

Geologists are trying to figure out why Ohio has had so many small earthquakes in recent years.

Tuesday's small earthquake under Lake Erie, which was felt by people along the lakeshore, was the 55th recorded quake over 2.0 magnitude in Ohio in the last decade. That's about the same number as in the previous 30 years, according to the Ohio Seismic Network.

Sylvia Hayek is a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada. She says Ohio may be reacting to something called glacial or crustal rebound. It's the idea that the Earth's crust is still recovering or shifting from the retreat of glaciers that moved over the continent starting about 2 million years ago.

http://www.ohio.com/news/ap?articleID=331876&c=y

[sam sarrha]

1. there was also a big meteor impact there also, that helped end the ice age

[Kolesar]

2. The St. Lawrence River area will keep rising until Niagara Falls "shuts down"

The lower pool elevation will keep rising until the falls becomes a much lower set of rapids. That will be due to glacial rebound.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

3. Don't forget

The New Madrid Fault line, a bizarre earthquake fault in the center of the North American tectonic plate (most faults are at or near edges/borders with other plates). In the 1800s a 'quake changed the course of the Mississippi.

Crustal rebound, however, is more likely. Funny how we are technically still within the "last ice age".