By: Carter Williams

On the morning of Monday, August 22, 2011, an earthquake hit southern Colorado in the Trinidad area. Beds shook, and a plate or two may have fallen off the counter, but no serious injuries or damages were reported. The damages did not exceed $10 thousand.

The earthquake hit shortly after midnight that morning, and woke many residents in the Trinidad area, and northern New Mexico, and even as far north as Colorado Springs. The magnitude of the earthquake was 5.9, which is the strongest Colorado has seen in over four decades. It is not uncommon for Colorado to have earthquakes, but quakes of this magnitude are very uncommon.

Eaton High School’s own Gino Maio was born and raised in the Trinidad area, and has family living in Trinidad now. “My aunt, who is 90 years old, said her bed shook for a while,” said Maio, “When I talked to her, she said she thought she was going to heaven.”

Maio also said that the quake surprised everyone who lived in the area because they aren’t used to seriously feeling the quakes. He said that the residents think it may have something to do with the mining in the area. The Trinidad area has been doing a lot of coal mining in the past few months.

The New York Times said that the last event to occur of that size was in 1982, in Rocky Mountain National Park. Julie Dutton, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, said, “That quake, based on historical reports, was about a magnitude 6.5,” the Times Reported.