12/28/2015

Experts have more questions than answers about McCook quarry 'blast' | mySuburbanLife.com

Experts have more questions than

answers about McCook quarry 'blast'
Published: Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 9:35 a.m.CST

McCOOK How could a 3.2 magnitude tremor felt as far as south suburban Milwaukee have
nothing to do with a quarry blast 7 seconds earlier at almost the same location in an area
practically immune to earthquakes?
That was the biggest question after a seismic event Nov. 4 shook buildings throughout the
western suburbs and had some residents thinking they were experiencing an earthquake.
"It's unusual to have that many people feel it," said Paul Caruso, a seismologist at the U.S.
Geological Survey's (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center. "Sometimes people do feel
quarry blasts. It was a large number of people who went to our website and reported this
event."
To be exact, 864 people reported it by far the most received in response to any of the 36 seismic
events the USGS recorded between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6.
Seven seconds before the tremor, at about 12:35 p.m., a blast occurred at the Federal Quarry in
McCook. Hanson Material Service Corporation, one of two companies that operates out of the
quarry, said it had conducted a scheduled blast and that there was no reason to think it was
connected to the seismic event that followed.
"At this point we still cannot find an obvious connection to the [tremor] other than they were 7
seconds apart," said Jeff Sieg, spokesperson for Hanson parent company Lehigh Hanson.
The USGS initially classified the event as a 3.7 magnitude earthquake, but quickly changed it to a
3.2 magnitude quarry blast.
"We know what an explosion looks like on a seismic record, and these look like an explosion,"
Caruso said.
Experts differ on cause of event
Suzan van der Lee, a seismologist and associate professor at Northwestern University, isn't so
sure.
"To me, the seismographs look like they could be an earthquake," said van der Lee, who
examined records of the tremor from a Northwestern-owned seismograph at Ryerson Woods
Forest Preserve in Lake County. "The blast would have had to set off much more than 10 times as
much as explosive as typical [to register at 3.2 on the Richter Scale]. It seems unlikely that setting
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12/28/2015

Experts have more questions than answers about McCook quarry 'blast' | mySuburbanLife.com

off such a large, erroneous amount of explosive would happen by accident, or on purpose."
van der Lee said she trusts the USGS classification, but wants to look at records from the quarry
to test her hypothesis that what happened Nov. 4 might actually have been an earthquake.
"If you had an earthquake at shallow depths, it could look like an explosion at reasonable
distances," said Ken Smith, associate director of the Seismology Lab at the University of Nevada,
Reno.
Earthquake or not, it would seem that the tremor was somehow related to the quarry blast
based on their shared timing and location.
"Given the rarity of earthquakes in Illinois, it is extremely unlikely that an earthquake would
randomly take place in or near a quarry, within seconds from a blast," van der Lee said.
Not the first 'blast' to be felt in area
But a similar event has happened before, and recently. On Aug. 31, 2010, a 2.7 magnitude tremor
felt across the area was traced back to the quarry.
"It was not as intense," said Andrianna Peterson, assistant village manager of La Grange. "But it
was something that was felt on a widespread regional basis as well."
Afterward, Hanson vowed to be a "silent neighbor" to surrounding municipalities and said it
would consider alternative ways to blast in the area active that day.
During the 2010 incident, Hanson was still using its own employees and equipment to conduct
blasting, though almost all quarries outsource blasting to more specialized companies, Sieg said.
About a year or two later, Hanson began outsourcing blasting at its quarries, but Sieg doesn't
know if the change had anything to do with the McCook incident.
State testing holds Hansen blameless
Meanwhile, after a two-day investigation at the quarry, the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources said Nov. 6 that Hanson operated within statutory limits for blasting and quarry
operation. The velocity of the blast reported by Hanson registered at .35 inches per second, well
below the 1 inch-per-second limit set by state regulators. The measurement was taken properly,
according to the DNR investigation.
"Our review of quarry records does show measurement equipment picked up vibrations from a
second and separate event approximately seven seconds after the initial blast," said Mike Falter,
head of the Blasting and Explosives Unit for the DNR Office of Mines and Minerals, in a press
release. "What this secondary event was, or what caused it, is outside our regulatory expertise."
U.S. Rep Dan Lipinski is calling for additional federal testing.
Geologist Donald Mikulic of the Illinois State Geological Survey has worked with quarries in the
Chicago area, including the one in McCook.
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"Quarries in Illinois have been blasting rocks since the 1830s, and I cant say I've come across any
connection between seismic events and blasting," Mikulic said. "Unless it's happening regularly
it's difficult to say the quarry is at fault."
Getting to the bottom of this quandary, therefore, could be as difficult as throwing a rock out of a
quarry.
"Could and were are two different things," said Timothy Larson, senior geophysicist at the
Illinois State Geological Survey, about whether the blast and tremor were connected. "It could
[be], but was it? That'll take some major amount of effort to determine if it was in fact related. I
don't know at the moment, and I think there's going to be a lot of investigation to figure out if in
fact it was. That's a big leap to go from could to even the probability of it being [connected] It's
hard to say."

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