County experiences first earthquake since 1971

Noah Alcala Bach, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
Updated ·2 min read

Sep. 10—Two earthquakes hit western Bernalillo County Tuesday morning, the United States Geological Survey and National Weather Service Albuquerque confirmed.

The initial earthquake's magnitude was 3.28 and the magnitude of the second was 3.01 according to the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources dashboard.

There have been over 20 other recorded seismic shifts with a magnitude over 2.0 in the state over the past month. The initial shock detected west of Albuquerque on Wednesday was the highest in the past 30 days and the next tremor tied for third highest.

USGS recorded a lower magnitude than reported by the state agency reporting the initial tremor at 2.8 and the following at 2.5.

Both organizations clocked the tremors at 8:11 a.m. and 9:36 a.m.

The pair are the first earthquakes to hit Bernalillo County since Jan. 4, 1971, when a 4.7 magnitude earthquake struck around the intersection of Indian School Road and Carlisle Boulevard, according to the National Weather Service Albuquerque.

Michael Anand, Meteorologist for the National Weather Service Albuquerque said in an interview with the Journal Tuesday that earthquakes are very rare but can happen in New Mexico.

Anand also called the earthquake Tuesday "bottom of the scale for what the USGS measures for any tremors."

"There could be maybe some minor tectonic faults that are very, very minor under parts of New Mexico that might cause something like this. But more of the major fault lines are out towards California," Anand said.

Urbi Basu, seismologist for the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, told the Journal that while a recorded earthquake is rare in this region, the place it occurred is an active tectonic region.

Basu explained that because of the volcanoes in the region and the Rio Grande River, the Rio Grande rift likely caused the earthquake.

The Rio Grande Rift — one of only five active rifts in the world — is a north-south running continental rift.

Basu said residents of the region shouldn't be worried as it is uncommon for earthquakes in that region to cause serious damage. But she did say there is not much monitoring of seismic action in the region.

Basu encouraged residents who did feel the earthquake to fill out a survey on the USGS portal.

Staff Writer Megan Gleason contributed to this report.