BUFFALO, N.Y. — Many Western New York residents were awoken Monday morning by a 3.8 magnitude earthquake.
USGS reported that 3.8 magnitude earthquake was detected and was centered about 2 kilometers northeast of West Seneca around 6:15 a.m.
2 On Your Side has heard from viewers from all the way in Wilson to Hamburg, even in Welland, Ontario, who felt the quake.
Seismologist Yaareb Altaweel said it was the region's strongest quake in at least 40 years.
The shaking lasted a few seconds and sent residents first to their windows and then to social media in search of an explanation.
Many WNYers have security cameras in and around their homes that caught the earthquake. Here are just a few of the videos our viewers shared with us.
“It felt like a car hit my house in Buffalo. I jumped out of bed,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted. County emergency services officials confirmed the earthquake was felt in at least a 30-mile radius, including in Niagara Falls, about 20 miles north of Buffalo, he said.
Small earthquakes are not unusual in upstate New York but are rarely felt as strongly. The earthquake comes on the heels of two record-breaking weather events in the region: A snowstorm that dropped as much as 7 feet of snow in November and a blizzard in December that is blamed for 47 deaths.
Monday morning's earthquake hit very quickly and sounded, and felt, like an explosion. That is due to the fact that it occurred at a fairly shallow depth of 3 km. Earthquakes that we are more familiar with in places like California occur at far greater depths and tend to be more long lasting and have more of a slower rolling motion.
Because of Monday's earthquake being more shallow, it had a quicker, more explosive feel, which is why it did not last very long, and did not cause very much damage. There is a small chance of a small aftershock, but it is unlikely to be felt.