Very minor earthquake reported in Washington County
An earthquake was reported in Washington County just before 3 a.m. Thursday. Ron Sicchitano, deputy director of Washington County Emergency Department, said the quake was reported 9 kilometers east/southeast of West Liberty, W.Va., near the border of the two states. The 911 center got no calls of any issues.
Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said the earthquake was detected by seismometers at 2:53 a.m. and had a magnitude of 2.1, which is usually not felt at the surface. The USGS received no reports from anyone who felt it, he said. A quake of that magnitude would not be expected to cause any damage, he said.
Caruso added that it is not unusual to have an earthquake in Pennsylvania. “This magnitude of earthquake is fairly common in the East,” he said.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is investigating the Washington County quake, a spokesman said. Asked whether it may be related to hydraulic fracturing at a gas well site, or could affect drilling operations, he said, “there is a well in the area of the event, but there has not been any activity at the location since April 14.”
The DEP reported on its website that Lawrence County experienced a series of low-magnitude earthquakes April 25. The Pennsylvania Seismic Network registered four of them, which began in North Beaver, Union and Mahoning townships at 4:17 a.m., and ranged from 1.8 to 2.3 on the Richter Scale.
The department said the quakes “showed a marked temporal/spatial relationship” to fracking at Hilcorp’s North Beaver NC Development site.