CARRIER MILLS, Ill. - While literally dozens of inquiries came in this morning to Disclosure from folks who heard and felt a rumble in the Carrier Mills area of Saline County, the U.S. Geological Survey says nothing happened underground.
Reports seem to indicate that the rattling/rumbling occurred this morning (Thursday, September 28) at about 7:40 a.m.
We've received reports from not only Carrier Mills, but also the Ledford area, and even right here in Harrisburg (the folks at Sloan Street Market said the whole building shook). Folks said that buildings rattled, and a loud, somewhat distance rumble could be heard and felt.
However, there's nothing at the USGS, which is the go-to place for seismic activity if it happened.
Illinois Mines and Minerals have thus far have nothing to report, but sometimes it takes a while for them to get back to us. There has been blasting activity reported lately at Eagle River Mine on 145. However, many those experiencing the shaking said they don't believe it was anything mining-related, as many in Saline and surrounding counties are familiar with what some mine operations "feel" like, and this, they say, wasn't it.
We've had unexplained activity like this in Saline County in the past; please hit this link from 2013, when we went through some weird sounds and feels back then, in roughly the same area, with simply no explanations from anyone, and we tried EVERYTHING, as you can see in the post, to get one.
But for now...no. There's been no seismic activity reported by USGS for our area. So now would be a good time to do a little bit of earthquake mitigation. Any tall objects in your home, like bookcases, china cabinets and the like...? secure them so they don't topple over. Do you have heavy pictures or objects on the wall above your bed? Get that happycrappy down; it could fall on you or your kids. When you sleep, do you have shoes under the bed? You might want to start keeping some there in case there's a big rattler and you experience broken windows or other glass objects that you don't want to walk barefoot on. And always know where the shutoff valves are for gas or propane; practice getting to it and shutting it off. Keep your stuff charged up, never let your car run lower than a half-tank of gas, have a few bottles of water in storage just in case...and clean out the tank on your toilet. You can drink that, you know. We might not've had a quake; we might be dealing with some mining bumps and rattles...but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.
U.S. Geological Survey map as of this afternoon showing all earthquakes of magnitude 1.0 or greater in North America