VALDEZ, Colo.--The strongest earthquake to hit Colorado in more than four decades startled thousands of residents along the New Mexico border as it toppled chimneys, cracked walls and triggered minor rockslides in the arid, mountainous region. No injuries were reported Tuesday.
Monday night's 5.3-magnitude quake struck just hours before a 5.8-magnitude temblor in Virginia - also rare for that area - shook much of Washington, D.C., and the East Coast.
Small aftershocks rattled the region about 180 miles south of Denver but caused no further damage.
"This was the first time you could see the fear in people's eyes," said Dean Moltrer, 39, who with his brother Ray owns the Big 4 Country Store in Valdez, a former coal mining town of about 100 people in Colorado's Picketwire Valley.
"Your family looks to dad to figure out what to do," chimed in Ray Moltrer. "Dad didn't know what to do. Dad was scared for his life."
The quake hit at 11:46 p.m. local time Monday about nine miles southwest of Trinidad, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. It had an estimated depth of 2.5 miles and was felt in a relatively large area of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
The earthquake was the largest in Colorado since a magnitude-5.3-magnitude temblor was recorded in Denver's northern suburbs in 1967, said Paul Earle of the USGS.
In New Mexico, the town of Raton - already hit this summer by fire and flooding - was abuzz about Monday's quakes, which included a smaller foreshock at about 5:30 p.m.
"It was shaking first, like you were in a vibrating bed. Then there was a rolling effect and then there was shaking again," said Barbara Riley, owner of the Heart's Desire Bed and Breakfast.
Small aftershocks continued in a region that the USGS says is not known for major quakes or active faults.
USGS research seismologist Gavin Hayes said the quake probably was a rare product of interaction between the Eastern Shield - ancient rock east of the Rocky Mountains - and the newer formations of the Rocky Mountain range. Such quakes can be felt at greater distances because the underlying bedrock doesn't absorb energy the way more seismically active areas such as California do, he said
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Wednesday, August 24th 2011 at 1:35PM
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