A 3.5 earthquake in Nebraska?

Since when do earthquakes hit Nebraska? Just curious... a 3.5 51 miles southeast of Lincoln, Nebraska??

More info from USGS


Magnitude 3.5 - NEBRASKA
2009 December 17 02:53:42 UTC
Versión en Español
DetailsSummaryMapsScientific & Technical Earthquake Details
Magnitude 3.5
Date-Time Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 02:53:42 UTC
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 08:53:42 PM at epicenter

Location 40.410°N, 95.853°W
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region NEBRASKA
Distances 3 km (2 miles) NNW (338°) from Auburn, NE
12 km (7 miles) SE (131°) from Brock, NE
12 km (8 miles) E (91°) from Johnson, NE
30 km (18 miles) S (179°) from Nebraska City, NE
82 km (51 miles) ESE (122°) from Lincoln, NE
520 km (323 miles) WNW (294°) from St. Louis, MO

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 11.3 km (7.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 15, Nph= 15, Dmin=159.3 km, Rmss=1.39 sec, Gp=104°,
M-type="Nuttli" surface wave magnitude (mbLg), Version=6
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)


Event ID us2009qhaf

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
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My Bad.. I guess they've had a couple, but, not too many...

The Days Nebraska Shook
Earthquakes in Nebraska? Yes, but our faults are minor.

By CURT ARENS, NEBRASKA LIFE MAGAZINE, JULY/AUGUST 2003



FOR GOD’S SAKE, let’s get out of here!” The Omaha courtroom audience was startled. An assistant to the district attorney was on his feet, shouting for everyone to leave. Then the D.A. himself shouted, ‘There’s an earthquake!”

In a third-floor courtroom on November 15, 1877, just as a judge was about to open a case for the U.S. Circuit Court, a wall clock behind him began swinging wildly. Above, chandeliers swayed. The whole building rumbled. At once, attorneys, plaintiffs, defendants and judge sprinted from the building.

At first, no one could believe that it was really an earthquake. Soon, dispatches began arriving at Union Pacific headquarters from points between Omaha and Sidney. Other cities had felt it too. The epicenter — the spot on the earth’s surface directly above the movement occurring miles underground — was probably near Garland, in northeastern Seward County.

In Columbus, a courthouse wall was cracked in nine places. In North Platte, children vacated their school building when two severe tremors lasting 40 seconds each rocked the city. Lincoln reported two short-lived tremors that gave residents a sickening sensation. In Council Bluffs, Iowa, quick shocks lasting two minutes sent the occupants of one building rushing into the street, fearing the structure would crumble around them. As far away as Yankton, S.D., and Sioux City, Iowa, similar tremor abruptly ended a church service and sent high school students into panic.

In Omaha, meanwhile, as people scurried into the streets, the quake damaged buildings under construction at the new Creighton University.

Though it lasted only a few seconds in most places, the earthquake was the largest in the state’s recorded history. It shook an estimated 140,000 square miles of Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin.

In the days before seismographs or the Richter scale, quakes were described only by their effects on the surface. They were classified according to the modified Mercalli scale, which described 12 levels of intensity. Intensity I, for example, is hardly felt at all; IV feels like a heavy truck striking a building; VII can break chimney and send everyone running outdoors; X cracks the ground and destroys brick buildings; XII ripples the ground in waves and levels all buildings.

The 1877 Nebraska earthquake rated a VII. On the Richter scale which measures the actual energy of a quake based on seismographic readings, it might have registered 5.1. By comparison, the 1989 San Francisco earthquake that killed 62 people and left 12,000 homeless measured 7.1.

In other words, Nebraskans aren’t rushing to buy earthquake insurance. Even so, the state has a few known fault zones and several other unidentified lines that move occasionally, causing a quake or two each year.

Nebraska quakes are monitored by stations outside the state, up to hundreds of miles away. “Seismic waves are analogous to sound waves,” University of Nebraska geologist Malt Joeckel explained “but they can move much faster through solid material than sound waves can through the air."

“After measuring the time it takes the three different kinds of seismic waves to travel to at least three widely-distributed seismograph stations, computers can accurately calculate where a given quake was centered,” he said. The point where results from the three stations intersect is the epicenter.

Nebraskans who have experienced an earthquake never forget in Last November, a 4.3 quake rocked much of north central Nebraska. The epicenter was just southwest of Butte, near Paul and Jan Hostert’s place.

Spaceweather reporting that a couple of observers saw what they describe as a Meteor across the state just minutes before they felt the Earthquake themselves?

Possible Meteorite ground impactor?, or purely a co-incidence. USGS put this at a 5 mile depth so with it being shallow its a possibility, however thered obviously be a significant crater if that was the case. As of yet nothings been found/seen.

From Spaceweather.com

Summary: The nature of this event is uncertain--indeed, it might be more than one event. Around 9 pm on Dec. 16th, sky watchers in southeast Nebraska saw a brilliant fireball streak across the sky. It was so bright that observers with overcast skies saw it shining through clouds. Telephones in news stations and police departments rang with reports of bright lights, loud sounds, and ground shaking.

Minutes earlier, around 8:53 pm CST, the USGS says there was a magnitude 3.5 earthquake in southeastern Nebraska: Earthquakes in Nebraska are rare, so what are the odds of one happening within minutes of a meteoritic fireball? This might be a cosmic coincidence. Or there could be some yet-to-be-explained linkage between the events.

USGS

Here is an interesting one! There has also been a small-ish swarm near Oklahoma City and a quake on the New Madrid faultline. The Earth has been pretty quiet this month, with only a few 6+ magnitude quakes but these smaller ones are very bizarre!