Warsaw, NY (WBEN) The US Geological Survey reports an earthquake was reported Tuesday morning in Western New York. The epicenter was near Warsaw.
The earthquake has a magnitude of 2.6. No word on damage, but usually an earthquake of this magnitude is rarely felt, though it is recorded on a seismograph.
Canisius College's Mark Castner says earthquakes in that section of WNY are not uncommon. "If I draw a rectangle that runs from Rochester to St. Catharines, and from Hornell over to Wheatfield, I see that there have been 48 earthquakes in that basic Western New York area since the year 2000," says Castner. He says this one was caused by one of two things. "It's probably either on the Clarendon Linden fault, or it's still elastic rebound from the Ice Ages," he says. Castner explains if you put a couple miles of ice on top of a large section of the continent like the Ice Ages did, it actually pushes the surface of the Earth down, and we're still rebounding from that.
With the magnitude at 2.6, Castner believes some people felt the quake. "Maybe some dishes rattled, maybe a chandelier swung a little bit. I would be surprised if there was any damage," notes Castner.
