Idaho Rumbling and Shaking

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Magic Valley is shaking - no earthquakes recorded01:15 PM MDT on Friday, March 21, 2008


Mike Perry/KTVB

Residents across the Magic Valley reported feeling the earth shake -- but no quakes have been recorded.

JEROME - Residents across the Magic Valley have been calling and e-mailing NewsChannel 7 this week – saying it feels like the earth is rumbling and shaking.

Seismologists say those tremors – didn’t show up on their equipment.

So what could be causing the shaking?

Dispatchers in Jerome say Tuesday night dozens of calls came in from across the Magic Valley - callers were not sure what was shaking there homes.

“It was various from people thinking there was someone on top of their house, to someone breaking in, to generally just the house shaking,” dispatcher Jon Frisbey, Dispatcher said.

Taylor Hunsaker felt the shaking at his home in Kimberly around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“I was actually almost asleep and it got me out of bed,” he said. “It sounded like a rumbling and thought it was getting closer and the house was shaking. I didn't know what the heck was going on”

Hunsaker says the rumble has been the talk of the town. He says many people wonder if it was an aftershock from the earthquake in Wells last month.

But the US Geological Survey says nothing showed up on seismographs.

A BSU Science professor has his own theory.

“I call them mud quakes,” BSU seismologist Jim Zollweg said. “I believe this to be from water withdrawal from the sediments on the rock.”

Zollweg says a sudden shift of sediments underground can feel like an earthquake but the movement is not picked up by seismographs.

“Since its not occurring in the rock like a real natural earthquake the seismic waves don’t get generated in the rock and stations as close as 20 miles away don't pick up the disturbance at all,” he said.

Right now, it is just a hypothesis but Zollweg plans to look into it even more - because he says this is not a new phenomenon for the Magic Valley.

“Over the years I've had probably on the average of two to three calls a year about this kind of event,” he said.

No damage was reported as a result of the rumbles.

What people say they feel..........(click)