4.4 Eq in West Texas? What's going on here?

Originally posted by muzzleflash
Odd update.

An ATS poster just created this thread

Here is what he posted :

"Strange sounds heard after earthquakes in West texas"

After reading about the recent earthquakes in west texas, I found an article from a city in that area and the residents reported a strange sound after the earthquakes that resembled a "sonic boom". Now please forgive me, as I am not an expert or authority on earthquakes, but is this common? I would suppose as the earth is moving and shifting underneath, there would be a rumbling sound as the tectonic plates rub against each other and such. But the way this is described is that it came from the sky. I thought I would post this to see what others thought, and if there have been other cases like this. Thank you, and have a great day! www.kwes.com...

Before thinking it is a "sonic boom" i would think it would be either one of the massive tanks (or the top of a massive tank) making a bang. Those tank lids float on the contents (usually oil), and if there is an earthquake the lid can bang against the side, making a huge booming sound heard for miles.

As well, there could be a tank battery explode or something.

KWES, the link provided, is my local NBC affiliate. They, honestly, or among the most amateurish TV stations known to man full of completely forgettable reporters that are staffed by what seems to be a lazy susan.

Minor quake gives area jolt
Magnitude 4.4 doesn't cause damage

* By Matthew Waller
* San Angelo Standard Times
* Posted September 12, 2011 at 9:06 p.m., updated September 12, 2011 at 10:12 p.m.


www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/sep/12/minor-quake-gives-area-jolt/

(...)

"I felt the house shake," area resident Bill Nance said.

He was working on his Sunday morning crossword puzzle when he noticed doors trembling. He wasn't sure if it was an earthquake or an explosion or even a sonic boom because of the three-second duration.

"It was very short," Nance said. "I've been in many, many earthquakes."

He said he had been on the West Coast and in Japan where earthquakes came almost daily.

(...)

Earthquake "booms" have been reported for a long time, and they tend to occur more in the Northeastern US and along the East Coast. Of course, most "booms" that people hear or experience are actually some type of cultural noise, such as some type of explosion, a large vehicle going by, or sometimes a sonic boom, but there have been many reports of "booms" that cannot be explained by man-made sources. No one knows for sure, but scientists speculate that these "booms" are probably small shallow earthquakes that are too small to be recorded, but large enough to be felt by people nearby.

As it turns out....there are many factors that contribute to the "sound' that an earthquake makes. To begin to understand these factors we have to understand the different types of waves, the speed they travel through the earth, and the speed that sound travels through the air.

Perhaps the best way to understand earthquake sounds are from an actual experiment that took place back in the 80's in California by David Hill. Dr. Hill's team recorded sounds that came out of the earth (from nearby small earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 3.0) and simultaneously measured the arrival of the P wave on a seismograph. Researchers also reported hearing a sound before the S waves were recorded; this turned out to be the arrival of the P wave.

There is an extremely useful article here from the USGS

A little off topic here but still really interesting and totally bizarre.

EQ In Urban Area Birmingham Alabama!

USGS link

It's 3.0 which is somewhat small, but the people should have felt it.

Also, how often does Birmingham Alabama get earthquakes??

This is just a string of weird events one after the other.

I was totally thinking the same thing. You had mentioned volcano and I actually spent some time last night researching ancient volcanoes in your neighborhood and from there stumbled upon a small swarm of quakes in the New Mexico area, Oklahoma, now Alabama...It truly is starting to look like things are heating up out there. We just had a very small one (actually no surprise as I'm in California) but you see my dog has been acting very strange the last two days. His tail has been tucked and he's sticking to me like velcro. Has me a little spooked but then again all this talk about earthquakes is bound to give anyone the heebiegeebies.