Small earthquakes and “mood noise” are nothing new for CT

By Pat Eaton Robb (Associated Press)

Donna Lindstrom was lying in bed and looking at her phone Wednesday morning when she heard a loud noise that shook her 19th-century home in the central Connecticut town of East Hampton.

The 66-year-old retired delivery driver and dozens of other townspeople were soon appearing on social media, discussing the latest strange explosive, rattling noises known for hundreds of years as “Modus noise.”

“It was like a sonic boom,” Lindstrom said. “It was a very short, loud jolt. It felt deep, deep, deep.”

It was actually a small earthquake with a magnitude of 1.7, according to the USGS.

Peter Martika/Hartford Courant

There is a stone embankment of an old mill along the banks of the Modus River.

Robert Thorson, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Connecticut, said booms, roars and rumbling sounds have been recorded in the East Hampton area, including the nearby village of Modus, for centuries, dating back to before a larger earthquake recorded on May 16. 1791, demolition of stone walls and chimneys.

In fact, Moodus is short for “Machimoodus” or “Mackimoodus,” which means “place of bad noise” in the Algonquian dialects formerly spoken in the area. One local high school even named its teams “The Noises” in honor of that history.

These events were frequent enough that the federal government, concerned about the potential impact of seismic activity on the nearby, now-decommissioned Haddam Neck nuclear power plant, conducted a study of “Modus noise” in the late 1980s, Thorson said.

What they found, he said, was that the noise was the result of small but unusually shallow seismic displacements within an unusually strong and fragile crust, where the sound is amplified by rock fractures and terrain.

“There's something about Modus that's tectonic that creates that noise there,” Thorson said. “Then there's something acoustic that amplifies or modifies the noise, and we don't really have a good answer for why either.”

Thorson said there could be a series of fractures or underground cavities in the area that help amplify sounds produced by pressure on the Earth's crust.

“This will create annoying noises,” he said. “You know what it sounds like when you hear ice cubes breaking.”

He added that this does not mean that the area is at risk of a major earthquake.

“The faults we had here (millions of years ago) are gone,” he said. “We replaced that with piezo pressure.”

This pressure led to occasional explosions and small earthquakes associated with “temper noise,” he said.

“It's just something we all have to live with,” Lindstrom said. “I'm glad I don't live in California.”

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos