A small earthquake jostled the Wasatch Front around 1 p.m. Thursday, originating in Saratoga Springs.
Residents reported feeling the tremor throughout the valley from Payson to Ogden with a handful of reports from the Wasatch Back.
It is the second shake Utahns felt in two weeks after a 4.7 magnitude earthquake 25 miles south of Evanston, Wyoming, rattled some windows Jan. 22.
The Utah Geological Survey monitors earthquake threats across the state, and recently remapped fault zones in central Utah.
Project geologist Adam Hiscock said the Uinta Mountain tremor wasn’t along a major fault line.
“All of Utah is earthquake country,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.” “It doesn't really matter where you live. You could feel an earthquake pretty much anywhere in the state. There are faults everywhere.”
He said, while there aren’t many major fault lines in the Wasatch Back, hazards remain in mountainous areas, including landslides.
Hiscock said the hazards team is working to better understand fault line locations in rapidly growing areas.
“What we do is, there's a newer technology we use. It's called ‘lidar,’” he said. “It's basically high resolution topographic data that's collected from an airplane using a laser scanner that flies over the earth and scans. And this technology allows us to see through vegetation, so we can actually see what the bare surface of the Earth looks like.”
The geologic survey publishes maps online for the public to use. From there, county and city officials and planners can use the data when creating geologic hazard ordinances.
“That's our ultimate goal, is to hopefully inform communities where the hazards are, not just faults, but also landslides, flooding areas, all geologic-related hazards,” he said.
Hiscock reminds all Utahns to have an exit plan and an earthquake kit ready for emergencies.
