The city of Clintonville again experienced loud booming, rattling, and exploding noises on Tuesday, March 27.
The Clintonville Police Department received 60 calls with reports of very loud booming noises and rumbling from 10:35 p.m. to 10:50 p.m. Tuesday. Some callers reported the noise and vibrations to be stronger than those felt last week. About 10 more calls were received at 11:30 p.m.
City Administrator Lisa Kuss said there were no reports of activity on Wednesday, March 28. She gave a brief summary of her conversation with the USGS, noting that her statements are not intended to be proven scientific facts about earthquakes.
“The majority of the callers were from the same vicinity as last week. However, there were more callers just to west of the previous area,” Kuss said. “I immediately contacted the USGS at 11 p.m. last night to have them begin searching for any possible data. At this time, nothing can be confirmed by the USGS of seismic activity at around 10:35 p.m.
“The fact that the USGS cannot confirm another earthquake does not necessarily mean that one may not have occurred,” explained Kuss. “There are numerous reasons why the activity in Clintonville could be difficult to detect. First, the smaller the magnitude, the harder it is to find the activity in the data provided by the monitors. Second, the further the activity is from the monitors, the less likely it is to be picked up as activity in the database. Finally, the more outside noise and interference that exists at the time of the event the more difficult it will be to detect the event. Tuesday night was a very windy night which can cause this type of outside interference.”
Kuss went on to explain that only one of these three factors can be influenced by the USGS-the location of the monitors. For this reason the city sent a formal request to the USGS on Wednesday requesting that additional monitors be installed in the community.
“Local officials believe that we need to continue to assure the public that we are doing everything possible to resolve this situation or attempt to continue to confirm what the activity is,” Kuss stated. “The city will wait to hear back from the USGS on their decision whether the additional devices request will be approved and monitors deployed.”
Kuss asked citizens to continue calling the Clintonville Police Department at 715-823-3117 with reports of activity. In addition to the local phone call, citizens can also report the activity to the USGS at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/
Finally, people can go to the Clintonville website at www.clintonvillewi.org for further information about the past activity. The city will release additional information as it becomes available.