USA, State of Connecticut, Plainfield region, Theres no fracking or tectonic plate boundaries in Connecticut so experts havent got a ready explanation for a swarm of earthquakes that has hit the eastern part of the state over the last week. There have been 11 quakes since last Thursday, the strongest of them a magnitude 3.3 quake that came amid five smaller quakes on Monday, and state officials plan to hold a briefing to discuss preparedness in case the quakes continue, NBC reports. The quakes are centered around the town of Plainfield, where police have fielded hundreds of calls from worried residents and some homes have sustained damage to sheet rock or had pictures knocked off walls, reports the Providence Journal. Experts say quakes are unusual but not completely unheard of in the region, and the quake swarm could be linked to pressure in a 400 million-year-old fault line near Plainfield. The hypothesis is that youre getting the release of stress when these ancient faults are breaking, a Yale geology professor tells CBS. If you look at a geological map of eastern Connecticut, there are a lot of faults and there may well be faults we dont know about because they dont extend to the surface. She says its impossible to tell whether the quakes could end tomorrow or continue for months.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:57:23 +0000