At 1:24:57 a.m. Saturday morning, another earthquake struck the Youngstown-Girard area.
The United States Geological Survey plots the epicenter of the magnitude 2.4 quake less than .75 miles from the D & L Energy Inc. brine injection well that is being studied as the possible culprit to the cluster of minor earthquakes that have plagued the area since last March.
This epicenter plots to be slightly north of the intersection of Beck St. and Temple St, just off route 422 near the border between Youngstown and Girard.
This latest tremor is the 10th in an area that before March of 2011 never recorded a locally originated seismic event.
Posters to the station's Facebook pages reported hearing a big bang, and feeling their homes and apartments shaking. Those that felt the tremor were in the Girard area, and on the west side of Youngstown.
A 2.4 magnitude is still considered a minor quake, but is in the upper ranges of the lowest category of quake measurements.
It is expected that the operators of the D & L Energy Inc. injection well will be required to plug the bottom 250 feet of the well with cement to insure that the brine liquid is not migrating into deeper layers of rock and causing the quakes.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which regulates brine injection wells, maintains that no definite proof yet exists linking the well to the quakes, but is eying the plugging procedure as a precaution.
A 2.4 magnitude earthquake is not expected to cause significant or widespread damage however past quakes of similar intensity resulted in claims of cracked walls and chimneys.
There are no reports yet of damage or injuries from this latest event.
You can read the USGS data from this quake
here.And if the tremors have you wondering whether you're insured for earthquake damage, the answer is probably no.
In Ohio, land subsidence coverage is part of most homeowners policies, but that does not typically include earthquakes.
One local agent said she only sells two or three earthquake policies a month in this area.
A local policy recently written cost a little less than $200 a year, for $200,000 of coverage, with a deductible equal to 10 percent of the value of the home.
