August 11, 2005
By MIKE GARRETT
The Pueblo Chieftain

TRINIDAD - A 4.9 magnitude earthquake - according to authorities the largest recorded in the area - shook Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico on Wednesday afternoon, alarming people but producing few reports of damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center in Golden reported the quake struck around 4:08 p.m. with an epicenter 25 miles west-southwest of Trinidad in New Mexico.

Early indications are that it was the largest recorded earthquake in Colorado this year, according to USGS geophysicist Grant Richardson.

"We haven't seen anything that large in Colorado in quite a while," he said.

Some Pueblo residents reported feeling their homes shake. A Walsenburg woman called police to say her home was shaking pretty badly, but an emergency services dispatcher reported receiving no other calls.

Aguilar resident Mary Vigil said her house shook and windows rattled, but the apparent aftershock she said she felt around 4:45 p.m. caused no structural damage.

"There is no damage, but it shook everything real good," reported Garry Ringo, owner of Ringo's Food Market on Main Street in Aguilar. He said the store experienced a good shaking for more than a minute, but his initial inspection revealed no outside building cracks or fallen food from shelves.

Several other area residents reported being shook up from the quake, but no significant structural damage.

Trinidad police and Las Animas County sheriff's dispatch center reported receiving more than 20 calls within 20 minutes of the quake.

"This was a biggie, the worst I've ever felt here," said Irene Montera, 70, a Trinidad resident her entire life. She said the refrigerator in her home in the 800 block of North Nevada Avenue shook and moved three times. Her husband sitting on the porch also felt his swing shake back and forth.

"I've felt small ones before, but nothing like this. It was pretty scary," Montera said. She couldn't find anything damaged upon inspection.

Montera said her sister living in the Allendale subdivision in southeast Trinidad also reported lots of shaking.

Ludlow resident Richard Lawler said his house shook and rattled from at least two separate temblors within a minute of each other.

"I was in the courthouse and the building (Trinidad's largest) rattled," said County Attorney Jesse Manzanares.

The last significant earthquake activity recorded in Las Animas County was during September and October 2001, with all 39 registered quakes occurring in the Raton Basin 10-20 miles west of Trinidad.

According to USGS, the largest ever previously recorded quake in this area was a 4.6 on the Richter Scale in the early 1970s. Most of the 2001 quakes were in the 3.0-3.4 range.

The natural gas industry, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and USGS performed numerous tests then to determine if all the gas well drilling activity might have triggered the quakes. But their tests concluded that scientifically there was no correlation.

Wednesday's epicenter was near the southern tips of Burro and Sarcillo canyons, where significant well-drilling activity has occurred over the past five years.

But COGCC spokesman Brian Macke reiterated the same conclusion last month when he was again asked about whether all of the gas drilling activity was possibly triggering earthquakes.

"We found no correlation whatsoever and determined that most all the earthquakes had occurred along established or previously unidentified fault lines throughout the Raton Basin," Macke said.

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