ENOCH, Utah, April 25, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — Folks in Iron County got off to a bit of shaky start early Sunday morning when a magnitude 3.0 earthquake hit the region at 6:29 a.m.
Dozens of Iron County residents reported feeling the quake, which seismologists at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations said was centered 2.1 miles north of Enoch at about 1.9 miles below the surface.
Temblors which are magnitude 3.0 and higher are considered “felt quakes” and may generate the same “vibration of a passing truck” and “hanging objects may swing appreciably,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
While there were no reports of damage or injuries, the early morning quake rattled nerves — if not windows — as there has been an uptick in seismic activity in the area over the last few weeks, according to the U.U.S.S.
Seismologists say there has been a swarm of earthquake activity recently just 40 miles away from Enoch near Milford in the Escalante Valley. One-hundred six quakes have recorded between March 19 to April 3, ranging in magnitude from an imperceptible 0.8 to a slightly eyebrow-arching 3.2. Utahns, after all, have remained jumpy since the magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck outside Magna the morning of March 18, 2020. The quake was felt by 2.3 million people statewide and caused $629 million in damage, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Between March 25 to April 7, of this year, the U.U.S.S. has reported 117 quakes, ranging in magnitude from 0.1 to a 3.5 shaker centered below the Great Salt Lake in Box Elder County. On April 8, a magnitude 3.0 quake hit hundreds of miles to the south near the unincorporated town of Summit, Utah and was felt 10 miles away in Brian Head and Cedar City.
There have been an additional 46 quakes reported across Utah since then.
According to U.U.S.S. records, the region is no stranger to seismic activity, with a total of 28 earthquakes magnitude 3.0 or greater happening within 16 miles of the epicenter of Sunday’s event near Enoch since 1962.
