ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — St. George was rocked to sleep by a 2.9 magnitude micro earthquake on Tuesday night.
The earthquake struck just after 10:30 p.m. on July 23, about six miles southeast of the Washington County city across the street from the St. George Regional Airport.
As of Wednesday morning, July 24, 80 Utahns reported feeling the earthquake, which is not unusual for an earthquake of this size. Most of the reports only felt “weak” or “light” shaking from the quake.
According to Michigan Tech University, a microearthquake at the scale of the one near St. George is “often felt” but rarely causes any damage. In fact, earthquakes ranging from 2.5 to 5.4 in magnitude happen about half a million times per year.
The 2.9 microearthquake near the St. George Regional Airport wasn’t the only seismic activity to strike the area in the last two weeks either. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reported two other – much smaller – earthquakes near the Utah-Arizona border. The first occurred on July 11 followed by another quake on July 16. Both registered 1.7 on the Richter Scale.
These smaller quakes are typically not felt and happen in the millions each year.
If you felt the St. George earthquake, you can report your experience to the United States Geological Survey online by clicking here.
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