WYOMING COUNTY
Temblor causes minor stir in Attica
A minor earthquake that shook the village of Attica in Wyoming County Friday morning didn’t appear to cause any damage, but it certainly took residents by surprise.
“We felt it,” said Julie Cook, the village’s deputy clerk. “There were four other people in the office, and I said ‘Oh my God, I just felt an earthquake.’ They told me I was nuts.”
The 11:07 a. m. quake registered a magnitude of 2.9 on the Richter Scale, according to the U. S. Geological Survey, which uses instruments in the region to detect seismic activity.
The earthquake’s epicenter was about three miles southeast of the village, between Route 238 and Attica Gulf Road, about 30 miles east of Buffalo.
The quake was no surprise to Robert Jacobi, a professor of geology at the University at Buffalo.
The Attica area is along the Clarendon-Linden fault line, which runs all the way from the north side of Lake Ontario to the middle of Allegany County, Jacobi said.
The fault is capable of a lot larger quakes. The second-largest quake in New York State occurred along the fault system in 1929, registering between 4.9 and 5.2 on the Richter Scale, Jacobi said.
But Jacobi said Friday’s earthquake was “minor,” and typical for this region.
“Earthquakes of that size happen along that fault system maybe every year or two or three,” Jacobi said.
Still, it created some excitement in the village of 2,500 residents.
“My boss said it must have been someone upstairs dropping weights,” Cook said. “Then we started getting calls from residents wondering what happened. People were coming out of the bank across the street wondering what was going on. Some people thought it was a train.”
“We haven’t felt one in a very long time,” Cook said. “I’ve lived here my whole life and I felt one maybe three or four times.”
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