Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - While a rare earthquake was felt all across Central New York Wednesday afternoon, no damage was reported as a result of the magnitude-5.0 tremor. It was centered about 40 miles north of Ottawa.
The earthquake was reported at 1:41pm Wednesday afternoon, and shaking was felt all across Upstate New York and much of Southeastern Canada. The U.S. Geological Survey says its latest information shows the 30-second-long quake was magnitude-5.0, not 5.5 as originally thought.
There have been no reports of damage across Central New York, however the nerves of people inside downtown office buildings and homes around the area were jarred as the earth started to shake. David French, 53-year-old state worker from Cicero, New York, said he was at his computer inside his home near Syracuse when he felt his chair shake. "I thought the chair was breaking or something," he said. "I looked over and my filing cabinet was moving."
The earthquake was located approximately 40 miles north of Canada's capital city of Ottawa. The USGS said the quake occurred at a depth of about 12 miles (19.2 kilometers).
The USGS has released
preliminary information about the earthquake.SU Earth Science Professor Jeffrey Karson says it is more common to experience in the Adirondack area than in the Syracuse area. "Most of the earthquakes on our planet are in really focused areas," he said. "We're not really in one of those areas."
When an earthquake does hit, however, the composition of the ground underneath your feet can have a powerful influence on what you feel. "If you're on top of bedrock, the shaking will be much less," said Karson. "If you're on a marshy area, or an area of loose soil, the shaking begins to be amplified."
Karson speculated that there would not be significant aftershocks from this event. "If there are going to be aftershocks, they're going to be very small," he said.
During our afternoon coverage, Carrie and Rod interviewed Professor Karson. That interview, raw video from the earthquake itself, and coverage from our evening shows are all available in the video player on the right side of this page.
When the earthquake hit, residents and workers in downtown Syracuse buildings had a variety of responses. Employees at a building located at 500 South Salina Street evacuated because they didn't know what was happening.
"It was like a beehive. People wanted to get downstairs - they were concerned about what was going on. They wanted to make sure that everything was alright. So for safety, everybody got out of the building and evacuated across the street," said Gary Vertigan.
Meanwhile, most employees working in the AXA Towers stayed inside.
"I thought: 'Well, this is interesting,'" said Gail Wahll, who works on the 15th floor. "So we got up, walked out in the hallway and everybody was wondering what it was."
Former California resident Madeline Reynolds was home at the time, and with her previous earthquake experience had no difficulty recognizing the quake. "This kind of hit me the same way. For the first part of it, you're in shock," she said. "Then it kind of kicks in, and you're like: 'yeah, this is an earthquake.'"
Canadian Coverage:
The CTV News bureau in Ottawa says streets were flooded with people who evacuated office buildings moments after the earthquake hit. One reporter said the 16-story building he was in was "shaking hard."
“I was leaning against the cabinet where our butterfly collection is housed, talking to a colleague when I looked down because it felt like the butterflies had come alive in the cabinet,” Patty Weisse, the executive director of the Baltimore Woods Nature Centre in Marcellus told the Ottawa Citizen. “All our staff that were in the building at the nature center at the time of the quake felt it.”
Video of a press conference from going on in Ottawa at the time of the quake shows attendees evacuating the room when it started to shake. The quake was felt as far south as New Jersey.
USGS: Where was the earthquake felt?
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