Written by John Fleck
Socorro has been jiggling for more than 10 days with a swarm of earthquakes, seismologists said Monday, Aug. 31.
"People are feeling them and hearing them," said Rick Aster, a professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro who is helping track the earthquake swarm.
Tech's instruments have detected about 80 quakes since the first was felt Aug. 19.
No damage has been reported, said Sue Bilek, a New Mexico Tech seismologist who has been monitoring the quakes. All of the quakes had magnitudes less than 3, according to Bilek.
The quakes have been centered in an area several miles north and east of Socorro.
Socorro sits atop a large body of molten magma more than 10 miles below Earth's surface. As a result, the region sees almost half of New Mexico's significant earthquakes.
While quake swarms in the area are common, this is the largest in the past decade, according to Aster.
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