The 1998 Pymatuning earthquake occurred in the U.S. state of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

on September 25 at 19:52 UTC. With a magnitude of 5.2 , it was the largest recorded

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

in Pennsylvania's history.

Earthquake

The earthquake's epicenter was in the

Southern Great Lakes Seismic Zone The Southern Great Lakes Seismic Zone is a zone of low to moderate seismic activity surrounding Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in Canada and the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U. ...

, about southwest of Meadville; its depth was . The earthquake caused minor damage in towns near its epicenter and was felt in the states of

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, Pennsylvania,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

, as well as Southern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

Hydrologic occurrences

After the earthquake many

wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada * Wells, British Columbia England * Wel ...

in the epicentral region began to dry up, while new springs and old wells began to flow. A three-month date range revealed 120 dry household-supply wells on the ridge of Jamestown and Greenville. Declines of up to 100 feet (30 m) were observed on a ridge where at least 80 of these wells resided. The degree of the damage varied. Some of the wells lost all power or could barely hold their yields and some of the water in wells turned black or began to smell of

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formul ...

. The most likely cause of the wells drying was because of the increase in

hydraulic conductivity Hydraulic conductivity, symbolically represented as (unit: m/s), is a property of porous materials, soils and rocks, that describes the ease with which a fluid (usually water) can move through the pore space, or fractures network. It depends on ...

or "hydraulic islands" of shale rock under this area caused by the earthquake. The quake affected the existing faults and created new faults in the shale. This created more permeability for the water to leak down from the hilltops on the ridge down to the valleys following the contours of the Meadville shale down to the 14-18 square km area of the valley.

References

{{coord, 41.49, -80.38, dim:200000_region:US-PA, display=title Pymatuning Pymatuning Pymatuning earthquake Earthquakes in the United States Natural disasters in Pennsylvania Pymatuning earthquake

Earthquake

Hydrologic occurrences

See also

References