Arizona earthquakes: big or small, be prepared
May 5, 2015, 8:40 PM | Updated: 8:40 pm
PHOENIX, Ariz. — A recent series of earthquakes in Northern Arizona has experts warning residents throughout the state to be prepared.
“There is no reason to panic, but it’s good to be prepared by having emergency gear on hand,” Susan Beck, seismologist and professor at the University of Arizona, said.
Arizona experiences about five to 15 earthquakes a year, but earlier this week there was an earthquake in Sedona and a second temblor in the same area was reported last Sunday.
“That was a magnitude 3.2 earthquake in Sedona,” Beck said. “It was a small earthquake. There were probably some little magnitude of one or one and half aftershocks, too small to get recorded.”
Earthquakes are not very common in Arizona and most of them are small and the aftershocks even smaller. One of the state’s biggest earthquakes happened in 1959 near the Arizona-Utah border with a magnitude 5.60. It only caused minor damage.
“Sedona, Flagstaff and the northern part of the state get most of the earthquakes in Arizona, but many of them are small and we don’t feel them, which is a good thing,” Beck said.
